Sony raids German PS3 hacker’s home, seizes computer equipment

George Hotz was compelled by a judge to turn over his computer equipment to Sony as part of the company’s approved Temporary Restraining Order. If you thought the PS3 jailbreaker had it rough, German hacker graf_chokolo didn’t even receive the “courtesy” of a legal notice. The known PS3 tinkerer – whose work dealt with reverse engineering the console’s hypervisor – had his house raided by police on Wednesday.

PS3Crunch (formerly Dukio) originally reported on the incident which was today confirmed by Kotaku, who reached out to SCEE on the matter. The raid took place, resulting in the seizure of computer equipment and a PlayStation 3 console, but further details are sparse.

According to forum PSX-Scene, graf_chokolo blogged early Wednesday morning, “Guys, SONY was today at my home with police and got all my stuff and accounts.” He went on to offer the following warning: “So be careful from now on.”

Unfortunately for Sony, the raid wasn’t enough; his work was uploaded anyway.

Sony faces mounting criticism from the hacker community for its continued legal attacks. Though the company purports it’s acting to protect its customers and profits, police raids and litigation may only embolden hackers.

Certainly, the company faces an uphill battle either way. Some speculate that last year’s DMCA adjustment, which legalized jailbreaking cell phones, set a precedent that may end up being applied to video game consoles. Even if the PS3 is deemed ‘unhackable’ by the courts, when has that stopped hackers before? A final ruling has yet to be made.