Sony's legal attacks against the hackers that released the PlayStation 3 root key and custom firmware have hit a snag. San Francisco District Court Judge Susan Illston does not agree with Sony's argument that California courts have jurisdiction due to the use of a Paypal account and George Hotz, also known as GeoHot, agreeing to the Terms of Service on the PlayStation Network. As a result, the ruling on where the case should be tried has been pushed back, and there is no time frame for a decision.
"If having a PayPal account were enough [for California to have jurisdiction], then there would be personal jurisdiction in this court over everybody, and that just can't be right," Illston said, according to GamesIndustry. "That would mean the entire universe is subject to my jurisdiction, and that's a really hard concept for me to accept." She suggested that the case might need to be tried in New Jersey, Hotz's home state and where he actually committed the hack.
Delays this soon are not good news for Sony, especially given that the company has asked for a temporary restraining order to keep the hacks off the Internet. The entertainment giant also wants the computer equipment used to crack the system and create the firmware, as well as monetary damages.
The above video is an episode of AOTS (Attack of the Show) where Geohot appeared live and talked about the Sony lawsuit. He made it very clear that his jailbreak doesn't enable piracy; all that it does is allow anyone to run unsigned homebrew apps for the first time on their PS3s. When asked "what exactly the issue is, what are you being sued for here?" he replied "for making Sony mad."