And the PSN Outage’s First Class-Action Lawsuit is Already Filed - 4/28/2011

All I can say is... wow. Great job Sony.

From; Kotaku

If the Great PlayStation Network Blackout is going to cost Sony $24 billion, as some estimate, you bet some hunk of that is going to be paid to lawyers, and already they are lining up. A California law firm today filed a lawsuit that seeks class action status, alleging Sony didn't follow industry practices to protect its 77 million PSN customers, who were harmed by "one of the largest data breaches in the history of the Internet."

The Novato, Calif.-based Rothken law firm brought the suit on behalf of plaintiff Kristopher Johns. The 22-page complaint (read it here, .pdf). It alleges Sony violated the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard, which is meant to protect credit card data, and didn't follow legal requirements to protect customer records.

Sony's early public statements concerning the outage, followed by the revelation of the security breach five days later, also constitute a failure to appropriately warn customers they were at risk.

No dollar figure is cited in the complaint, but it seeks the full range of damages - compensatory, statutory, and punitive. And lawyers' fees, too.

Class Action Lawsuit Brought Against Sony Over PSN Data Breach [Gamasutra]

George "Geohot" Hotz and Sony settle out of court

Remember the battle between George Hotz and Sony over the whole hacking of his PlayStation 3? Well it has finally come to a conclusion.

From Destructoid

The notorious battle between Sony and PS3 hacker George "Geohot" Hotz has ended today, with the two parties settling out of court.

Hotz has agreed to a permanent injunction imposed by Sony's legal team, which is being taken to mean that he's not going to post source codes, hacking tips, or anything else that will help circumvent the PS3's security. Any further agreements remain confidential knowledge of the parties involved.

"Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us," said SCEA general counsel Riley Russell. "Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal."

Hotz also made a statement, seeming similarly glad to be done with the battle: "It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier. I’m happy to have the litigation behind me."

Whether this will satisfy Anonymous, and whether SCEE will continue its fight with Graf_Chokolo, remains to be seen.

Settlement in George Hotz Case [PS Blog]