GOING LOCO: Hacker Hotz feels heat, hides in South America

According to Sony, Geohot, the hacker currently being sued by the firm for publishing PS3's root key earlier this year, has fled the US as an "excuse" for not turning over hard drives as per a court order.

A document filed by Sony in the case has claimed that Hotz is now in South America, and is now presumably smoking some kind of giant blunt in a parrot-filled, jungle castle.

"After Magistrate Judge Spero ordered an inspection of Hotz’s devices and ordered Hotz to appear at a deposition in California, SCEA learned that Hotz had deliberately removed integral components of his impounded hard drives prior to delivering them to a third party neutral and that Hotz is now in South America, an excuse for why he will not immediately provide the components of his hard drives as requested by the neutral.

"Hotz’s attempts to dodge this Court’s authority raise very serious questions."

Sony, to employ British colloquial vernacular, appears to be "right up George's ass". The company is also claiming Hotz lied to the court about owning a PSN account.

"On January 12, 2011, Hotz submitted a declaration to the Court (Docket No. 19-1) in which he made unequivocal statements on a number of topics. However, when it came to discussing the PSN account, Hotz equivocated, stating: 'To the best of my knowledge and belief, I do not have a PlayStation Network account.'

"Hotz also provided interrogatory responses that he has refused to verify, stating that he has not accessed the PSN.

"Hotz identified four PS3 Systems in his possession. He explained that he had purchased one of these consoles new in February 2010 and provided the serial number for that console. SCEA used that serial number to determine that on February 25, 2010, Hotz purchased the PS3 System at a Gamestop store just miles from his home.

"SCEA’s records show that the same PS3 System was used on March 10, 2010 to create a PSN account under the user name 'blickmanic.' The IP address associated with the registration is located in Glen Rock, New Jersey, where Hotz lives."

Lawyers for Hotz, who is now apparently venturing into the mythical realm of actual anti-corporate renegade super-ninja, recently accused Sony of “material misrepresentations” related to claims over whether it's SCE or SCEJ that owns the rights to PS3's SDK.

This isn't looking good for George. As well as access to GeoHot's drives, Sony has been granted the details of his PayPal account and the IP addresses of visitors to his website.

Hotz has claimed the drives must not be searched, because they contain commercial material which could prove financially disastrous.

Get a backpack, a GPS phone and a machete, get into the rainforest and work on your defence from there, George. Don't let them take you alive.

Thanks ShogunDarius and VGHQ.