Sony’s legal fight with George Hotz has taken another turn that is making PlayStation 3 owners uneasy. Reports circulating online this weekend summarize Sony’s latest arguments in the case as suggesting that people who used the console’s OtherOS feature to run Linux were part of the wider hacking effort the company is pursuing. We have not been able to review the exact filing language behind those reports, so that characterization should be treated with caution until the court documents themselves can be checked. Sony has not publicly expanded on its position beyond what it has put before the court.
OtherOS Was An Advertised PS3 Feature
The reason the claim strikes a nerve is that OtherOS was an official feature. Early PS3 models shipped with the ability to install a second operating system, and Sony advertised it as a selling point. The company dropped support on the slimmer model in 2009 and then removed the option from older consoles with firmware 3.21 on April 1 last year, citing security concerns. Owners who wanted to keep Linux had to stop updating, which locked them out of the PlayStation Network and newer games.
That decision already landed Sony in court. A class action filed in California last April argued that removing an advertised feature was unfair to buyers, but in February a federal judge dismissed most of those claims while giving the plaintiffs a chance to amend their complaint.
How OtherOS Ties Into The Hotz Case
OtherOS also sits at the root of the Hotz story. Hotz, best known for unlocking the iPhone, said in 2010 that he had built custom firmware that brought the feature back, before announcing in July that he would not release it. In January, Sony filed suit against Hotz and members of the fail0verflow group, along with up to 100 unnamed defendants, after the publication of PS3 signing keys and tools. Sony alleges violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, among other claims, and argues the material makes circumvention and piracy easier. Hotz denies wrongdoing and has vowed to fight the case in court.
The case has escalated steadily since then. A federal court in San Francisco granted Sony a temporary restraining order in late January barring Hotz from distributing the jailbreak and requiring him to hand over computer equipment. In March, the court allowed Sony’s lawyers to obtain records including the IP addresses of visitors to Hotz’s website, with Sony arguing that many downloads came from Northern California and that the case therefore belongs in that court. Critics have argued those steps cast a very wide net over ordinary users.
What Sony Has Argued Versus What Courts Decided
That context explains why any suggestion that OtherOS users are lumped in with hackers would cause alarm. Many of those owners were hobbyists, students, and researchers who used Linux on the PS3 exactly as Sony once encouraged, and some are the same people pressing the class action over its removal.
For now, the important distinction is between what Sony has argued and what a court has decided. Sony’s claims against Hotz remain allegations, and no ruling has found that using OtherOS amounted to taking part in any conspiracy. We will update as the filings become clearer.