Well it cant come as much of a surprise, to see a class action lawsuit being filled, yet again, against SCEA, for something they did, or didn’t do.

With all the problems with the hacking of PSN and various other Websites, we knew it wouldn’t belong before someone complained, whilst there was a few cases brought up during the PSN outage, this is the first since PSN has been restored.

On the 20th of June 2011 Felix Cortorreal, Jacques Daoud jr. and Jimmy Cortorreal, filled a class action complaint, against Sony Corporation of America, Sony Computer Entertainment of America, Sony Picture Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment International, here is a small quote from the court document:

To read the full document, download here.

On the 29th of April, a United States House Of Representatives Sub Committee, sent SCEA Chairman Kazuo Hirai a letter asking questions regarding the PSN outage, Kazuo responded to that letter, but it seems that those answers weren’t enough, Mary Bono Mack, Chairman of that Sub Committee has sent yet more questions to Kazuo, here is the letter:

May 17, 2011

Mr. Kazuo Hirai
Chairman
Sony Computer Entertainment America
919 East Hillsdale Blvd.
Foster City, CA  99404
Dear Mr. Hirai:

We write today to follow up on requests we submitted in our letter to you on April 29, 2011.  In that letter, we made several queries regarding the data breach experienced by Sony Corporation’s Playstation Network last month.  We thank you for providing a written response and for making Sony representatives available to speak with us in person on May 3, 2011.

At the time you sent the above referenced response and at the time of the briefing, Sony was unable to answer several of the queries we posed in our April 29, 2011, letter.  Now that more time has passed, enabling further investigation of the incident, and particularly in light of the news that Sony restarted its Playstation Network on May 14, 2011, we submit these questions to you again, as well as questions regarding the discovery of a breach impacting Sony Online Entertainment customers.  We request answers no later than May 25, 2011.

1. Has your investigation revealed any additional information on what customer information was specifically obtained, and whether the information was obtained from all accounts or a portion of the accounts?

2. When Sony representatives briefed our staff on May 3, 2011, they indicated that personal information from all 77 million accounts had been breached in some form.  In your May 3, 2011, response to our letter you indicated not every piece of information in each account had been stolen, but that some personal information on all 77 million had been stolen.  Has your investigation revealed what information was taken from each individual account?  Do you have any additional information that would call for revising the number of affected accounts?

3. Has your investigation revealed how the breach occurred?

4. Your initial reply to us on May 3 indicated the attack may have been coordinated and directed by the group of cyber criminals named “Anonymous”.  Have you identified those who are responsible for the breach, including any individual(s)?

5. When our staffs met on May 3, 2011, your representatives indicated Sony could not confirm whether credit card information had been breached but, at the time, there was no evidence to indicate that such information had been breached.  Has your investigation revealed any additional information regarding whether credit card information was indeed taken?

6. Sony discovered on May 1 that an additional breach of its network occurred.  This breach reportedly involved approximately 25 million user accounts at Sony Online Entertainment.

a. Was this breach the same as, related to, or unrelated to the Sony Playstation Network breach?  Have you identified the responsible party?

b. When did the breach occur?  If there was a delay in the discovery of the Sony Online Entertainment breach, what was the reason for the delay?

c. How many user accounts were impacted?

d. What information was taken?

e. When did Sony notify its Sony Online Entertainment users that their accounts had been breached?

7. What steps has Sony taken or does Sony plan to take to mitigate the effects of these breaches on its customers?

8. Regarding both the Sony Playstation Network and the Sony Online Entertainment servers, you indicated in your May 3 response steps Sony is implementing to prevent future such breaches. Do you believe these additional security measures will prevent future breaches or illegal intrusions?  Why did you not have these measures in place prior to the breach(es)?

9. Did Sony have a policy in place at the time of either breach addressing data security and data retention practices?  If not, why not?  If so, what are those practices and does Sony plan any changes in its policies as a result of this breach?

10. In today’s Wall Street Journal, Chief Executive Howard Stringer said Sony “can’t guarantee the security of its videogame network…in the ‘bad new world’ of cyber crime”.  Please explain what he meant, as well as the potential impact on consumers.

Thank you for your attention to and assistance in this matter.

Sincerely,

Mary Bono Mack
Chairman

G. K. Butterfield
Ranking Member

Source

If everyone can remember, Sony were in the process of suing a company named “Zoomba” who were supposedly responsible for the original Jailbreak Dongle, well after 6 months of nothing. The Giant Crab has filed new papers to the court according to psx-scene.

Source PSX Scene

Geohot is very busy with his BLOG lately. Here is another update:

Source

For me I can say I would rather have the money donated to Graf. He can use it way better to fight Sony and the SCEx maffia.

PSX Scene, well know for getting SCEA vs GeoHot court papers, has done it again, this time, the papers are the response from GeoHots lawyers to SCEA’s allegations that GeoHot has a PSN account, they reference a hardware hacker by the name of Bob Blick and even have a screen capture of a post on this very forum, from a user claiming to be the owner of the PSN account activated in the area where GeoHot resides, here is a quote from 113-main.pdf:

12. Attached hereto as Exhibit K is a copy of the website at http://www.ps3hax.net/2011/03/rumourgeorge-hotz-runs-away-to-south-america-lies-about-having-psn-account/#ixzz1HU0XDw3S, accessed on March 25, 2011. Fo-rum post 78 is from a person named eppog who states that she created the PSN account in question. Irrelevant portions of the 32 page document have been omitted.

The PDF’s also have images of GeoHots PS3

Source PSX Scene

Download court case files from source, or from here.

On April 1st 2011 (seriously, all the days in the world THIS day?), Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC (“SCEA“) will become known as Sony Network Entertainment America Inc. (“SNEA“). All current PSN users will be asked to accept a new TOS, failure to accept will result in immediate account closure and refund of PSN funds. There has been no set date of when you need to actually accept the agreement, but at the moment is safe to ASSUME that if you do not accept the new TOS you will remain open.

To quote (snippet of original email):

On April 1, 2011, Sony Computer
Entertainment America LLC (“SCEA”)
will transfer its online services
operations, including your wallet
and the funds in it, to Sony Network
Entertainment America Inc. (“SNEA”).
The first time you sign in to your
Sony Online Services account on or
after April 1, you will be asked to
enter into a new Terms of Service and
User Agreement with SNEA. If you do
not wish to enter into a contract with
SNEA, you may decline the terms of
service and we will close your account(s)
and return your funds. You can preview
the new Terms of Service and User
Agreement with SNEA at:

http://www.qriocity.com/psnlegal/us/privacy.html

The battle continues between SCEA and GeoHot, with George Hotz petitioning the court for a protective order and accusing SCEA of false representations, here is a quote from the motion for protective order:

GEORGE HOTZ’S MOTION FOR PROTECTIVE ORDER
Now Comes Defendant George Hotz, by and through counsel, and moves this Court for Protective Order pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure Rule 26(c) and FRCP 26(b)(2)(c), seeking to protect Defendant George Hotz from Plaintiff Sony Computer Entertainment LLC‟s (“SCEA”) overbroad jurisdictional discovery requests, which are for the purpose of annoyance, embarrassment, oppression, and are an undue burden and undue expense on Defendant. Please note that this Motion is in addition to the Joint Protective Order, which is currently being drafted with Plaintiff’s counsel.

PRELIMINARY STATEMENT
Mr. Hotz is a 21-year-old individual, who resides in New Jersey and who has not consented to the jurisdiction of this Court. Despite the fact that SCEA has filed this action and represented that this matter belongs in the Northern District of California, SCEA now attempts to engage in a jurisdictional fishing expedition as a means to utilize jurisdictional discovery to achieve other ends. Although the Court has limited discovery to jurisdictional issues, SCEA has demanded overly burdensome and expensive discovery from Plaintiffs that bears little, if any, relevance to the issues at hand.
The Defendant has shown good cause for the protective order sought herein, as the discovery SCEA seeks is harassing, irrelevant, burdensome, expensive, and intrusive. In addition, the confidential information sought to be protected could cause Defendant irreparable harm if mishandled or exposed.
Mr. Hotz is not seeking to withhold information from Plaintiff. Instead, Mr. Hotz seeks only to (1) protect the information he is willingly providing by directing that the copy of his hard drive be created as-is and unaltered, and (2) relieve the undue burden and expense of appearing in this forum for a deposition where Mr. Hotz will gladly offer the same information through written deposition. Mr. Hotzhas been extremely accommodating to SCEA’s demanding requests– being responsive to questions and inquiries at all hours of the day and night, providing his personal hard drive with commercial, confidential, and valuable information so that SCEA can determine that nothing pertaining to jurisdiction resides on such drive, turning over his Playstation Computer, and remaining accessible despite the fact that he is not in the forum.
Mr. Hotz files this Motion for a Protective Order to limit the issues at hand to the matters of jurisdiction, and to limit such discovery to less burdensome means. The protection Defendant seeks would prevent irreparable harm and undue burden on Defendant, while still granting SCEA the information it seeks to discover, without any burden.

At the same time SoftLayer Technologies, the host’s of PSX-Scene have filed for motion to quash the subpoena, here is a quote from the court document:

Source Groklaw

Download Court Files(Thanks to Groklaw)

Expected? Maybe, it seems that the court case that was supposed to happen ended up going in Sony’s favor, simply because the “PSJailbreakers” including PS3KEY, PS3BREAK, PSJAILBREAK did not show up to court.

The following preliminary injunction was granted:

On October 5, 2010, the court granted a temporary restraining order against defendants and ordered them to show cause why a preliminary injunction should not issue and why the court should not issue an order of impoundment pursuant to 17 USC §1203(b)(2). Doc #33.

The court held a hearing on the order to show cause on October 12, 2010, and no defendant appeared.

For the reasons explained below, plaintiff Sony Computer Entertainment America’s (“SCEA”) motion for a preliminary injunction and order of impoundment is GRANTED. SCEA and defendants Tom Nooker, Bin Le Zhong, Alex Esquivel and Fai King Fong entered into stipulated preliminary injunctions. Doc ##38, 42, 45, 47. SCEA has not moved for injunctive relief against defendants Vlad Gazoune and HuanRan Lee. The defendants bound by the this preliminary injunction are: Thahn Nguyen, individually and doing business as USATechCity, Ltd (“USATechCity”) and Arthur Bates II, individually and doing business as PSP Pit Stop (“PSP Pit Stop”).

Having considered all the papers and arguments, the court finds that SCEA has established that it is likely to succeed on the merits of its claims for violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and federal trademark law and that it will suffer irreparable harm unless defendants’ violations are enjoined. The court additionally finds that the balance of equity and interests of justice support granting such relief. Furthermore, defendants failed to appear or otherwise show cause why a preliminary injunction and order of impoundment should not issue.

Accordingly, the court orders as follows:

1. Defendants and their officers, employees, attorneys and representatives, and all other persons or entities in privity or acting in concert or participation with defendants, are enjoined from selling, offering for sale, marketing, advertising, promoting, installing, distributing or otherwise trafficking in circumvention devices, including but not limited to any or all of the PS3 Jailbreak devices, any copies or versions of backup manager or any other hardware or software that bypasses technological copyright protection measures in SCEA’s PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system;

2. Defendants shall preserve all communications, including email communications, and other documents relating to their purchase, sale, receipt or distribution of circumvention devices, including but not limited to the PS3 Jailbreak devices, the backup manager or any other hardware or software that bypasses technological copyright protection measures in SCEA’s PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and defendants shall not delete, remove, transfer or in any way dispose of such communications and documents;

3. Pursuant to 17 USC § 1203(b)(2), all circumvention devices in defendants’ possession, custody or control are ordered impounded, including any or all of the PS3 Jailbreak devices, any copies or versions of backup manager or any other hardware or software which bypasses technological copyright protection measures in SCEA’s PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system. Defendants shall immediately deliver the devices to SCEA’s attorneys at Townsend and Townsend and Crew LLP, Two Embarcadero Center, Eighth Floor, San Francisco, CA 94111 Attn: Timothy R Kahn, Esq;

4. The $5000 security posted to secure the temporary restraining order, Doc #36, shall suffice as security for this preliminary injunction;

5. Plaintiff shall serve defendants, defendants’ resident agents or counsel with a copy of this order;

6. This order shall remain in effect until further order of the court.

[VIA PSX-Scene]

garyopa from PSX-Scene has reported, that SCEA has been granted a temporary restraining order against companies, selling PS3 Jailbreak Devices, here is a quote from his thread:

In our on-going exclusive in-depth coverage of SCEA’s court-room battle with the PSJAILBREAK’ers, we have got another new court document, this one is signed order by Judge WILLIAM H ALSUP granting SCEA a Temporary Restraining Order against the named Defendants along with of course the currently un-named John Does #10 thru 100!

The order basically states the following:

Quote:
1. Defendants and their officers, employees, attorneys and representatives, and all other persons or entities in privity or acting in concert or participation with defendants, are immediately temporarily restrained from selling, offering for sale, marketing, advertising, promoting, installing, distributing or otherwise trafficking in circumvention devices, including but not limited to any or all of the PS3 Jailbreak devices, any copies or versions of backup manager or any other hardware or software that bypasses technological copyright protection measures in SCEA’s PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system;

2. Defendants shall preserve all communications, including email communications, and other documents relating to their purchase, sale, receipt or distribution of circumvention devices, including but not limited to the PS3 Jailbreak devices, the backup manager or any other hardware or software that bypasses technological copyright protection measures in SCEA’s PlayStation®3 computer entertainment system, and that defendants shall not delete, remove, transfer or in any way dispose of such communications and documents;

3. This order shall be binding upon the parties to this action and all other persons or entities who receive actual notice of this order by personal service or otherwise;

4. This order will be effective upon plaintiff’s posting of $5000 security with the court pursuant to FRCP 65(c);

5. Plaintiff shall serve defendants, defendants’ resident agents or counsel with a copy of this order;

6. This order shall remain in effect until the date the hearing on the order to show cause set forth below or until such further dates as set by the court or stipulated to by the parties.
This order covers the currently named defendants:

Quote:
VLAD GAZOUNE doing business as ZOOMBA LDC; SHOPPSJAILBREAK.COM
THAHN NGUYGEN doing business as USATECHCITY, LTD
ARTHUR BATES II doing business as PSP PIT STOP
TOM NOOKER doing business as BUYPS3JAILBREAK.WEBS.COM
ALEX ESQUIVEL doing business as NDSGAMER
BIN LE ZHONG aka BEN LEE doing business as PS3BREAKONLINE.COM
FAI KING FONG doing business as PS3BREAKONLINE.COM
HUANRAN LEE doing business as GETPS3BREAK.COM
and currently unnamed JOHN DOES #10 through #100!
The above people have until October 8, 2010 at 12 PM PDT to file a written reply to this court order in defense, and then SCEA has until October 12, 2010 at 9 AM PDT to file an update to their defense.

The big showdown starts in front of Judge Vaughn R Walker for a hearing on the order to show cause on October 12, 2010 at 10 AM in Courtroom 6, 17th Floor, 450 Golden Gate Avenue, San Francisco CA 94102.

For the full history to this story see our previous in-depth PS3 Wikileaks threads on this complete showdown between SCEA vs. PSJailbreak Hackers!

Wikileaks – Part 2: http://psx-scene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67646
Wikileaks – Part 1: http://psx-scene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=67178
The Original Start: http://psx-scene.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65284

SOURCE

Last week garyopa from PSX Scene reported that Sony was busy searching for those that sold PS Jailbreak and they were also looking at PSGroove, PSFreedom and OpenPSJailbreak, you can find this thread here.

Well it seems that garyopa is creating his own “PS3 Wikileaks” as he has posted a lot more legal documents on his site, this is what he said(take a note of the line i highlighted in red):

Well another week has passed-by, and time for another PSX-SCENE Wikileaks special!

Again we are uncovering the ongoing battle of SCEA to stop the outright sale of PSJailbreak devices.

Last week we showcased a ton of court documents, which showed SCEA was very upset at the fact the original PSJailbreak had spread like wildfire and turned into various open free ports, like PSGroove and PSFreedom.

We left you with them pushing the courts to find out the true people behind various websites, that have been promoting the various Jailbreak devices.

SCEA has previously just listed in their court files, “John Does #1 thru 100″, this now has been changed, with the following people NAMED:

Thanh Nguyen
USA Tech City
7861 13th St., Unit D
Westminster, California 92683
Email: contact@usatechcity.com

Arthur Bates, II
www.psppitstop.com
6307 Sol Duc Dr.
Bremerton, Washington 98311
Email: art.bates@mac.com

Alex Esquivel
www.ndsgamer.com
530 Buckingham Rd., Apt. #521
Richardson, Texas 75081
Email: alexesquivel2004@yahoo.com

Tom Nooker

http://buyps3jailbreak.webs.com

1115 E. Cedar Ave.
Manitowoc, Wisconsin 54220
Email: ttnooker@yahoo.com

Bin Li Zhong aka Ben Lee
www.ps3breakonline.com
2746 Durfee Ave.
El Monte, California 91732
Email: sales@ps3breakonline.com

Fai King Fong
www.ps3breakonline.com
2746 Durfee Ave.
El Monte, California 91732
Email: sales@ps3breakonline.com

The main one that SCEA wanted last week, “Vlad Gazoune” the owner of “Zoomba LDC” and “shoppsjailbreak.com” turns out from Yahoo information, that he is living in Russia, so now Sony will have to set down their MIB team (lawyers) over there to track him down with help from local police.

Another bad-apple that SCEA is after now, is “HuanRan Lee” of “getps3break.com” as he seems they been selling 250gb HDD’s loaded with over 75 games on it, I hope they burn in hell for crossing the line on this!

Also one ebay’er that been selling devices online, before Ebay banned all sales of these devices is named:

Quote:
ten87510 / ttnooker0yahoo. com
Tom Nooker
1115 E. Cedar Ave., Manitowoc, WI, 54220
In this round of court documents filed by SCEA, they are showing the courts they own the rights to the names “Playstation, PSP, PS, PS3″ so they are pushing the courts for speedy discovery for any website that uses this trademarked “letters / names” in their domain names.

One website that is mentioned a few times is “PS3HAX” for their in-depth reviews and tutorials on using the “backup manager” and of course “PS3ISO” for their daily updates for grabbing various games directly from the ‘net!

And finally, we end tonight’s Wikileaks special with thanks to SCEA for printing out a whole thread from our very own website PSX-SCENE to produce “Exhibit X” it is of course the now famous “PS Jailbreak Compatibility List”, Sony is using this as PROOF that over 300 games work using the PSJailbreak and PS3Break devices. Hey, guys, don’t kill the messenger!

Here is all the new court documents, there is a few that are listed as “submitted under seal”, so they are of course “blank”, and the information contained will not be visible until cough the full “Jury Trial” which SCEA is also asking the courts for in the so-far named people which have now been served with a TBA court date.

You can view garyopa’s thread and legal documents on his site, here

Exhibit A Mentions PS3HaX

garyopa over at PSX-Scene has posted an interesting article today, releasing many possible recent court documents.

To quote:

In this boring legal filings by Sony, it now covers not just PSJailbreak, but also names PSGroove, PSFreedom, OpenPSJailbreak, and they have filed printouts from various blogs, forums, with comments and tutorials people have been writing up on how to use these various programs. They even mention of course the phone ports & TI84 calc. hacks.

Sony is using this information, to get the courts to order up faster service, to force the various ISP’, Domain Register’s, and Web Hosting Services to give up the personal info on their clients so that can serve more court papers on those people, and issue DMCA takedown notices to shut down various sites.

So for the Judge has only granted one order so far, this one is directed to YAHOO! to within 5 business days to turn over all the information they have on a “vladgazoune@yahoo.com”, all IP’s he used to access his mail, his personal info stored by Yahoo, his email of course, and other logs.

This E-Mail address is the one that was used to rent the mail-drop box in Texas used by http://shoppsjailbreak.com as their virtual office for orders, shipments, registering the domain name, etc.

Recently, that above name site which also goes under the company name of Zoomba stop using the “.com” domain and now is operating under a http://shoppsjailbreak.net domain. — Plus also the http://psjailbreakcanada.com site which seems to point IP wise to the older site, has suddenly been changed to DOJ/IPR/ICE notice that has been used in the past for “Torrent/Movie” site take-downs!

Anyhow, here is all the public court documents you can read thru them now, and see just what SCEA has been printing out about yourself online, they are asking the court they need to findout the true identify of everyone that sells, makes, offers for sale, or even has just knowledge of the real people behind any project called PSJailbreak, PSGroove, OpenPSJailbreak, PSFreedom.

Don’t be surprized if the next few days, you see less sites online, or you find yourself answering the door to a person serving you a Summons to Appear! — The good reading stuff is the PDF’s called Exhibit or Exhibits!

You can see all the documents at the source below:
[VIA]

MaxConsole reports of yet another Lawsuit filed against Sony for the removal of the Other OS feature, making it the sixth known case.

It has been two long months for those that want to keep their Other OS function, even with all these lawsuits, Sony doesn’t seem to be bending, nor do they seem to care, GeoHot seems to have vanished into thin air and the rest of the scene is quiet, so i guess those of us that refuse to bow down and accept Sony’s downgrading of the PS3, will have a very long wait.

Anyhow, here is the lawsuit in question:

Jonathan Huber, on behalf of himself and all others similarly situated.
V
Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC, formerly Sony Computer Entertainment America INC, a Delaware corporation.

Plaintiff Johnathan Huber (“Plaintiff”), on behalf himself and all others similarly situated, alleges the following.

INTRODUCTION

1. Defendant Sony Computer Entertainment America LLC, formerly Sony Computer Entertainment America INC (“SCEA”) is one of the worlds leading manufacturers of advanced video and computer entertainment systems. Its Sony PlayStation 3 video game console (hereinafter referred to as the “PS3″) has been purchased by approximately 35.7 million consumers across the globe.
2. When it first introduced the PS3 in 2006, SCEA advertised, promoted, warranted and sold the system as more than just a video games console. It specifically advertised the PS3′s “Other OS” feature as an essential and important characteristic, which enabled users to install the Linux operating system in the PS3 and use the PS3 as a personal computer. SCEA used the PS3′s ability to serve as a personal computer, in addition to its other advanced features such as the capability of playing Blu Ray DVD’s. to distinguish the PS3 from its competitors, such as Microsoft’s X-box 360 and Nintendo’s Wii.
3. On April 1, 2010, SCEA released a Firmware version 3.21 software update (hereinafter referred to as the “Firmware update 3.21″) for the PS3, intentionally disabling the “Other OS” feature that enabled the PS3 to be operated as a personal computer for purported “security reasons”. This action directly contravened one of the PS3′s primary purposes, ie, its use as a personal computer and constituted breaches of express and implied warranties, conversion and violations of numerous California and consumer protection laws.

For full lawsuit, read this PDF

sonicps posted a link, containing a PDF of a Class Action Lawsuit filed against SCEA, on the 27 of April 2010 by one Anthony Ventura.
The important bits are as follows:

Anthony Ventura, on behalf of himself and others similarly situated Vs Sony Computer Entertainment America

Nature Of Case

1. This class action to redress Sony Computer Entertainment America Inc’s (“Sony”) intentional disablement of the valuable functionalities originally advertised as available with the Sony Playstation 3 console (the “PS3″). This disablement is not only a breach of the sales contract between Sony and its customers and a breach of the covenant of good faith and fair dealing, but is also an unfair and deceptive business practice perpetrated on millions of unsuspecting consumers.
2. This suit is brought on behalf of a nationwide class of all persons who purchased a PS3 during the period November 17, 2006 to march 27, 2010 and who did not resell their PS3 before march 27, 2010 (the “Class”) It seeks, inter alia, damages for plaintiff and each class member, including but not limited to compensatory damages; restitution; injunctive relief; attorney’s fees; and costs of this suit.

Click For Full PDF

I wish Anthony Ventura all the best of luck with this case, as it will be hard and would like to thank him on behalf of all HaXNetwork members affected.