A court has granted Sony's request for a temporary restraining order against George Hotz, an individual accused of illegally hacking the Sony PlayStation 3.
Sony "has submitted substantial evidence" showing that Hotz violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and that it will suffer irreperable harm if Hotz's actions are not curtailed, according to a California district court. The court also found that an injunction is in the public interest.
Hotz hacked the Sony PS3 and posted his circumvention technique on his Web site, as well as links for others to do the same. Under the order, he is banned from posting or distributing those links or information about his hacking techniques. He must also turn over computers, hard drives, CD-roms, DVDs, USB sticks, or any other storage devices on which the circumvention devices are stored.
"Hotz encourages and enables users to download the illegal circumvention devices from his website," Sony said in its request for the restraining order.
Hotz has argued that the court does not have jurisdiction over him, but the court said that Hotz has "purposefully directed his activities" at those in California, where Sony Computer Entertainment America is based.
Hotz apparently intends to file a motion to dismiss based on his jurisdictional challenge; the court said he is within his rights to do so provided he presents a "fuller factual record."
Earlier this month, lawyers representing Hotz argued that he hacked the PS3 to add back a feature that Sony had removed. Hotz, the lawyers claimed, "re-enabled" OtherOS functionality, or the ability to dual-boot the PlayStation 3 using some other OS, such as Linux.