PS3 hacker George “Geohot” Hotz’s legal battle with Sony Computer Entertainment America has come to a close, with Hotz agreeing to settle under terms of a permanent injunction. The ruling is quite broad in scope, effectively barring Hotz from hacking or collaborating with efforts to hack any “Sony product” going forward. What exactly does this entail? Here’s a snip from the filing:

IT IS HEREBY ORDERED AND ADJUDGED by consent of the Parties that Hotz, whether as an individual or as a principal, officer, director or employee of any business entity, and his agents, servants, employees, distributors, suppliers, representatives and all other persons or entities acting in concert or participation with Hotz who receive notice of this Judgment, shall be and hereby are permanently enjoined and restrained from:

A. Engaging in any unauthorized access to any SONY PRODUCT under the

law;

B. Engaging in any unauthorized access to any SONY PRODUCT under the

terms of any SCEA or SCEA AFFILIATES’ license agreement or terms of use

applicable to that SONY PRODUCT, whether or not Hotz has accepted such

agreement or terms of use, including without limitation:

(i) reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembling any portion of the

Sony Product;

(ii) using any tools to bypass, disable, or circumvent any encryption,

security, or authentication mechanism in the Sony Product;

(iii) using any hardware or softare to cause the Sony Product to accept

or use unauthorized, illegal or pirated softare or hardware; and

(iv) exploiting any Sony Product to design, develop, update or distribute

unauthorized softare or hardware for use with the Sony Product.

It’s a win for Sony, no doubt, but also for Geohot – who can finally put this long-winded court saga to rest. It’s hard to fault the man for giving in. “It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,” said Hotz, “I’m happy to have the litigation behind me.”

That’s not to say Hotz’s crusade is over. He still plans on fighting for consumer rights, just not through code and disclosure of security vulnerabilities. In a post on his official blog, he announced that he’s “joining the SONY boycott” and “will never purchase another SONY product.”

“I am fighting your fight, in the best way I know how. You’ll just have to trust me,” he noted in response to a reader comment.

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