A California court this week gave Sony permission to subpoena PayPal for records relating to George Hotz and his PS3 hacking activities.
Hotz, meanwhile, continued to challenge Sony's jurisdictional authority, and demanded that Sony encrypt his hard drive.
Sony Computer Entertainment America (SCEA) is allowed to serve PayPal with a subpoena to identify the source of funds in California that were deposited into Hotz's PayPal account between January 2009 and February 2011, according to a Tuesday ruling.
The order comes about a week after the court approved another Sony subpoena request, which will require Twitter, Google, YouTube, and content server Bluehost to hand over information pertaining to Hotz. Tuesday's order also requires Hotz to sign a consent for SCEA to obtain his Twitter posts from January 2009 until now.
Hotz and Sony are currently battling in court after Hotz hacked the Sony PS3 and posted his circumvention technique on his Web site, as well as links for others to do the same. Sony claimed that Hotz violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by doing so, and that Sony will suffer irreparable harm if Hotz's actions are not curtailed.
Hotz, a New Jersey resident, has argued that the court does not have jurisdiction over him, but the court said earlier this year that Hotz has "purposefully directed his activities" at those in California, where SCEA is based. Sony said the subpoenas are necessary to establish that Hotz's actions had an impact on the people of California.
In a Thursday motion for protective order, Hotz argued that Sony's requests are "overbroad" and intended "for the purpose of annoyance, embarrassment, [and] oppression" and are an undue burden on Hotz.
In January, Sony won a temporary restraining order against Hotz, which bans him from posting or distributing links or information about his hacking techniques. He was also required to turn over computers, hard drives, CD-roms, DVDs, USB sticks, or any other storage devices on which the circumvention devices are stored.
Hotz argued Thursday that if Sony mishandles the data pulled from his devices, it could cause him irreperable harm, and therefore requests that Sony encrypt it.
Hotz's hard drive contains sensitive data, including "other individuals' personal information and data, clients' proprietary data, and confidential business information, which includes high value breakthrough innovations in the field of technology," Hotz's lawyers said. "The information on [Hotz's] hard drive is highly confidential, is not available to the public, and the emergence of any of that information would cause [him] irreparable harm."
Though Hotz argued that he is not trying to withhold information from Sony, he said that his personal information, confidential business information, and clients' proprietary information is "irrelevant to the jurisdictional issue and is overbroad, burdensome, and harrassing."
Hotz pointed to work he is doing on a SHA-1 crytographic hash function as well as other work "that is of extreme commercial value." Hotz maintained that he has "been offered significant amounts of money for the sale of his applications," which, if released, "would be disastrous for Mr. Hotz, both financially and to his reputation."
Hotz also requested that an upcoming deposition be conducted in writing rather than in person. "Hotz is currently out of the country, and to [haul] him into California for a deposition is unduly burdensome and disruptive in the clearest sense of the phrase," his lawywers said.