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Sony [SCEA] Asks to Go Deep-Water Fishing; Hotz Asks to Toss TRO, Narrow Impoundment Order

By Pamela Jones et al.

George Hotz has filed a response [PDF] to the court's temporary restraining order, trying to persuade the judge in Sony Computer Entertainment America v. Hotz that her preliminary injunction should not issue:

As is shown below, a preliminary injunction here restrains legal acts of circumvention, is both overbroad and impermissibly vague, is impossible to perform, does not preserve the status quo, and amounts to prior restraint on speech, and the Order of Impoundment therein is likewise overbroad, unwarranted, and impounds confidential and privileged material. Accordingly, Mr. Hotz asks the Court to deny Plaintiff's motion for a preliminary injunction....

The DMCA prohibits circumvention of "a technological measure that effectively controls access to a [copyright protected] work". 17 U.S.C. 1201(a)(1)(A). Circumvention is legal when the circumvented technology does not control access to a copyrighted work....

"Unauthorized access" is not "illegal access." Circumvention of technology, even when unauthorized, is not illegal when it does not regard copyrighted works. Information not protected by copyright is not protected merely because it is behind an anti-circumvention barrier. Thus, the Injunction is overbroad because Mr. Hotz is restrained from "publishing . . . any information . . . or other material" without regard to whether that information is protected by copyright, a prerequisite to anti-circumvention protection.

And Sony, meaning throughout Sony Computer Entertainment America or SCEA, is asking the court [PDF] to let it do expedited discovery on George Hotz's alleged contacts with California, in order to respond to his motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction/improper venue. They also ask the court [PDF] to speed up the hearing schedule, in light of the harm Sony feels it is suffering, asking that the hearing be held on February 9th, not in March.

They very much want to find out the "identity of the Fail0verflow Defendants and third parties who are illegally distributing the circumvention devices" and try to connect them with Hotz. But I think I see some serious privacy issues associated with Sony's requests, as I'll show you.

Full post as published by Groklaw on February 05, 2011 (boomark / email).