Sony wins Geohot restraining order

Sony has won a temporary restraining order against the hackers responsible for the widely-publicised PlayStation 3 security breach earlier this month.

According to documents published by PSX Scene, Sony was granted the order so as to prevent "immediate and irreparable damage to SCEA" before court proceedings proper begin.

The ruling explained that Sony "has shown a likelihood of success on the merits of its claims for violation of the DMCA and CFAA, and that it will suffer irreparable harm unless Defendant Hotz's violations are enjoined."

Duly, the restraining order prevents Hotz and his team from attempting the following:

1. Offering to the public, creating, posting online, marketing, advertising, promoting, installing, distributing, providing, or otherwise trafficking in any circumvention technology, products, services, methods, codes, software tools, devices, component or part thereof, including but not limited to the Elliptic Curve Digital Signature Algorithm ("ECDSA") Keys, encryption and/or decryption keys, dePKG firmware decrypter program, Signing Tools, 3.55 Firmware Jailbreak, root keys, and/or any other technologies that enable unauthorised access to and/or copying of PS3 Systems and other copyrighted works (hereinafter, "Circumvention Devices").
2. Providing links from any website to any other website selling, offering for sale, marketing, advertising, promoting, installing, importing, exporting, offering to the public, distributing, providing, posting, or otherwise trafficking in any Circumvention Devices.
3. Engaging in acts of circumvention of TPMs in the PS3 System to access, obtain, remove, or traffic in copyrighted works.
4. Engaging in unauthorised access to the PS3 System or the PlayStation Network in order to obtain, access, or transmit any program, code, information or command therein.
5. Publishing, posting, or distributing any information, code, program, instructions, video, or other mateiral obtained by circumventing TPMs in the PS3 System or by engaging in unauthorised access to the PS3 Sysytem or the PSN.
6. Assisting, facilitating or encouraging others to engage in the conduct set forth above in Nos. 1-5.

The court also gave Hotz 10 days to hand over any "computers, hard drives, CD-roms, DVDs, USB stick, and any other storage devices on which the Circumvention Devices are stored."

Sony began legal action against Hotz and his co-defendants earlier this month, claiming that their PlayStation 3 hack infringed on the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFFA), in doing so directly enabling piracy on the platform.

Hotz then dismissed the allegations, claiming he was only being pursued in court for "making Sony mad".

"The way piracy was previously done doesn't work in my Jailbreak," he explained. "I made a specific effort while I was working on this to try to enable homebrew without enabling things I do not support, like piracy."