Michael Jackson trial won't show unreleased footage

Jurors in the Michael Jackson manslaughter trial will not see unreleased footage from This Is It, the documentary-concert film that documents the rehearsals for the tour of the same name that would have kicked off in July of 2009, reports the Associated Press. Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor ruled

Monday that the more than 100 hours of unreleased footage do not show the singer in poor health, and should be left out of the trial as they would offer no assistance to the defense. Attorneys for Dr. Conrad Murray, who has pleaded not guilty to involuntary manslaughter, wanted to show four hours of the film, while prosecutors wished to show up to 12 hours.

Pastor reviewed several hours of the footage, then canceled his plans to visit Sony Pictures Studios for the rest. Sony filed a motion Friday citing comments by defense attorney J. Michael Flanagan, who called a review of the footage a “big waste of time.” Pastor agreed that the footage, which could be used for extended versions of This Is It, have significant value to Sony and should not be shown publicly without good reason. Jury selection is slated to begin on Sept. 8.

Sony to upgrade e-readers, hoping to catch Kindle, Nook

Sony plans to introduce a line of upgraded digital book readers in the U.S. as early as next month to challenge Kindle maker Amazon.com.
The current Sony Reader, now priced from $180 to $300, will probably be offered with hardware and

software improvements in August, Phil Lubell, vice president of digital reading at Sony Electronics, said Wednesday.
The new products will be introduced to U.S. consumers before Sony's first tablet-computer models, which are scheduled to go on sale later this year. The Tokyo-based company, whose readers trail behind the Kindle and Barnes & Noble's Nook, plans to continue its push to sell dedicated digital readers because they are cheaper than tablets, Lubell said.
"Sony appears to be struggling to expand its e-reader business as fast as it had originally planned," said Nobuo Kurahashi, an analyst at Mizuho Financial Group in Tokyo.
The number of Americans who own an electronic reader such as Kindle doubled in the six months to May as college graduates and adults in the highest income category choose the devices over tablet computers, according to a survey by the Pew Research Center.
Twelve percent of those surveyed owned an e-reader in May, up from 6 percent in November 2010, while 8 percent owned tablets in May, up from 5 percent six months earlier.
The reason for the faster adoption of e-readers may be that they are often less expensive than tablets, with the Kindle starting at $114, compared with the iPad 2's $499.
"We think there will still be a market for dedicated readers as long as tablets remain in the $500 price range," Lubell said.
Sony also plans to incorporate its online book store and e-book technology into its two tablet-computer models later this year as part of a group of Sony multimedia applications, Lubell said.

Michael Jackson doctor's court hearing postponed

A hearing in the criminal case of Michael Jackson's doctor has been postponed because lawyers are bogged down viewing hundreds of hours of rehearsal footage from the singer's This Is It concert.
In a conference with lawyers on Wednesday, Superior Court Judge Michael Pastor accepted the requests to

delay a July 12 hearing to July 20. He said he wants to know then when the involuntary manslaughter trial of Dr Conrad Murray can go forward. It is now set for September 8.
Prosecutors want to show jurors clips from the posthumous feature film This Is It to prove Jackson was healthy in the days before his death. The defence wants to show he was ill.
Murray, a Houston cardiologist with an office in Las Vegas, is accused of giving the superstar an overdose of the anaesthetic propofol and other sedatives when he could not sleep. Jackson died on June 15, 2009, in his rented Beverly Hills mansion where Murray had been attending him.
Murray has pleaded not guilty. The transcript of the conference with the judge and lawyers was released on Thursday.
Lawyers indicated it will take weeks for them to view all of the relevant video recordings of Jackson. They said they have been working every day since June 28 and have gotten through only one of 21 boxes of materials.
"So far, we have found a lot of important stuff," said defence lawyer Nareg Gourjian.
Lawyers have been barred from discussing publicly any evidence they find in the videos.
Prosecutor Deborah Brazil said she has been working along with Gourjian, defence lawyer Ed Chernoff, Sony lawyer Kevin Vick and a technician going through material on computer hard drives.
Gourjian, who originally estimated there were 100 hours of footage from rehearsals, said he now believes there is much more.
"There are about eight to ten different cameras that were recording the rehearsals and each one has different views and different footage," he said. "So it is critical that we review the footage from each camera."

Hackers steal customer data from Sega

Hackers have stolen the personal data of some 1.29 million customers of the Japanese game maker Sega, the company said Sunday, in a theft via a website of its European unit. The Sega Pass website, operated by London-based Sega Europe, did not contain credit card information, the Japanese firm said. But names, dates of birth, e-mail addresses and encrypted passwords were stolen by intruders to the site, Sega said in a Japanese-language statement, adding the theft had been confirmed on Friday.

Spain nabs 3 suspected of global cyber attacks

The Spanish police said on Friday that they had apprehended three men suspected of computer hacking in connection with recent attacks on Sony’s PlayStation Network as well as corporate and government Web sites around the world. The National Police identified the three as the local leadership of the shadowy international network of computer hackers known as Anonymous, which has claimed responsibility for a wide variety of attacks. Anonymous is composed of people from various countries organized into cells that

share common goals, the police said, with activists operating anonymously in a coordinated fashion. One of the three suspects, a 31-year-old Spaniard, was detained in the southern Spanish city of Almería sometime after May 18, the police said. He had a computer server in his apartment in the northern Spanish port city of Gijón, where the group is believed to have attacked the Web sites of the Sony PlayStation online gaming store. The same computer server was also believed to have been used in coordinated attacks against two Spanish banks, BBVA and Bankia; the Italian energy company Enel; and government sites in Algeria, Chile, Colombia, Egypt, Libya, Iran, Spain and New Zealand, the police said. The two other men, both also Spaniards in their early 30s, were picked up in Barcelona and Valencia. The police statement did not make clear the timing of those detentions, but a police spokeswoman said all had occurred recently. The spokeswoman, who did not want to be identified in accordance with department policy, said all three were subsequently released, without bail, pending formal charges. They were expected to be charged with forming an illegal association to attack public and corporate Web sites, a charge that carries a potential sentence of up to three years in prison. The police opened their investigation last October, after hackers overwhelmed the Spanish Ministry of Culture’s Web site to protest legislation increasing punishments for illegal downloads. It was not immediately clear how much of a role the group may have played in the recent attacks on Sony. About a dozen Sony Web sites and services around the world have been hacked; the biggest breaches forced the company, which is based in Tokyo, to shut down its popular PlayStation Network for a month beginning in April. The Japanese company has acknowledged that hackers compromised the personal data of tens of millions of user accounts. Earlier this month, a separate hacker collective called Lulz Security, or LulzSec, said it had breached a Sony Pictures site and released vital source code. Sony has estimated that the hacker attacks will cost it at least 14 billion yen ($175 million), in damages, including spending on information technology, legal costs, lower sales and free offers to lure back customers. Mami Imada, a Sony spokeswoman in Tokyo, said she had no information on the detentions and declined to comment. The police said that they had analyzed more than two million lines of chat logs since October, as well as Web pages used by the group to identify the leadership in Spain “with the capacity to make decisions and direct attacks.” Members of Anonymous used a computer program called L.O.I.C. to crash Web sites with denial-of-service attacks, the police said. Among recent attacks, the hackers also brought down the site of the Spanish National Electoral Commission last month before regional and municipal elections. It was that attack, on May 18, that led to the detention of the suspect in Almería. The movement against the antipiracy law has been closely linked to the broader youth-led political movements that have occurred in Puerta del Sol, the central square in Madrid, and in other city squares since May 15. These protests have called for a complete overhaul of Spain’s political system and laws aimed at stopping illegal downloading.

Sony Earnings Forecast Misses Estimates

The company that invented the Walkman was preparing to launch the new PlayStation Portable player and its first tablet computers in time for Christmas, the money-losing games division finally turned profitable and Stringer had picked the front- runner to eventually succeed him in Kazuo Hirai. That was less than three months ago.

Then Japan’s strongest earthquake on record hit and hackers invaded the company’s Internet entertainment services in the second-largest online data breach in U.S. history. The result: Sony yesterday posted its widest annual net loss in 16 years and forecast the earthquake and the attack will erode $2 billion from operating profit this fiscal year to keep earnings from meeting analysts’ estimates.

“Sony said it was going to be its year but it looks like it then got a smack in the eye,” said Shiro Mikoshiba, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Tokyo. “In terms of earnings, we’re probably going to have to wait for six months or so before we can hope to see impressive results.”

Sony, Japan’s biggest exporter of electronics, rose 1.8 percent to 2,251 yen at 9:21 a.m. in Tokyo. Disclosing the estimated financial toll of the earthquake and cyber attacks removes a “major negative catalyst,” Jay Defibaugh, an analyst at MF Global FXA Securities Ltd.

Operating income in the 12 months to March 2012 will be similar to the 200 billion yen ($2.5 billion) last fiscal year, the Tokyo-based company said in a preliminary earnings statement yesterday. The forecast missed the 254.7 billion-yen average of nine analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg.

Earthquake, Hackers

Sony estimated the March 11 earthquake will erode operating profit by 150 billion yen this fiscal year as the maker of Bravia televisions struggles to improve earnings even after restarting the plants that were disrupted by the disaster. Last month’s unauthorized intrusion into the PlayStation network may cost the company 14 billion yen, it said.

Chief Financial Officer Masaru Kato said yesterday the lowered profit outlook forced Sony to write down the value of the deferred tax assets by 360 billion yen last quarter, resulting in a net loss of 260 billion yen. It was also the first time Sony posted three consecutive full-year losses since its listing in 1958.

Harsh Environment

“This may be a conservative forecast, but the operating profit level still looks much lower than expected even if you take the earthquake impact into account,” said Kazuharu Miura, a senior analyst at SMBC Nikko Securities Inc. “Sony continues to face a harsh business environment.”

Still, Sony yesterday forecast its net loss will turn positive this fiscal year and revenue will likely increase after a 0.5 percent drop.

Growth was on Stringer’s mind March 10, when he spoke to reporters in Tokyo about the promotion of Hirai, his games chief, as the frontrunner to carry out the vision to integrate Sony’s TVs and computers with content from the entertainment businesses.

“It’s a very exciting year,” Stringer said then. “We have a tablet coming out, we have the PlayStation network for the video and music services growing in strength,”

The following day, the earthquake hit, crippling scores of factories including those of Sony. Nine of the company’s electronics factories in northeastern Japan that had been disrupted by the disaster had resumed operations as of April 28, according to the company. Other plants had to curtail production because of material and component shortages.

About a month later, the maker of PlayStation game consoles was attacked by hackers who may have gained information on more than 100 million user accounts of Sony’s online services for games, music and films.

The PlayStation Network and Qriocity entertainment services went back online in the U.S. and other regions excluding Asia on May 15, more than three weeks after it suspended services. The company plans to fully resume the services by the end of this month.

Sony's "Welcome Back Package" for PlayStation Network outage is worth barely over $100

Now that the PlayStation Network is mostly back online around the world (exception in Japan), Sony has unveiled its “Welcome Back Package” to try to make amends with customers who have been locked out of their games and movies for over three weeks (since April 20). But will dangling a couple of free games and online services as detailed in the Official PlayStation Blog (and on ZDNet here and here) be enough to win back users who are beyond fed up with the company?

Kotaku found a way to put the package into terms both gamers and non-gamers can understand: money. Likewise, I checked current market value for the titles being offered for free download on the PS3 to see what PSN loyalty is worth to Sony.

PS3 owners can download any of the two games to keep:

Dead Nation ($14.99, GameStop.com)

inFAMOUS ($19.39, Amazon.com)

LittleBigPlanet ($13.99, Amazon.com)

Super Stardust HD ($9.99, Amazon.com)

Wipeout HD ($19.99, Amazon.com without the “Fury” expansion pack)

Although some prices have changed since Kotaku’s post, the conclusion is still the same. For the best bang for your PS3 buck, download inFAMOUS and Wipeout HD + Fury, which is worth about $40.

PSP owners also face a similar conundrum: which two titles to download to maximize this offer from Sony?

Market value for these titles are as follows:

LittleBigPlanet ($19.54, Amazon.com)

ModNation Racers ($19.81, Amazon.com)

Pursuit Force ($8.97, Amazon.com)

Killzone Liberation ($10.37, Buy.com)

Clearly, download LittleBigPlanet and ModNation Racers to the PSP for best value, because they are worth a combined total of $39.35.

For those who already these classic titles, then this really isn’t much of a gift from Sony. You will only benefit from the free PlayStation Plus trial membership ($6) or 2-months of free service ($12), a free month of trial Music Unlimited subscription ($9.99), free movies (exact titles to be announced) available over a weekend and 100 free virtual items, whatever they are.

At the most, a single customer could receive $101.34 worth of freebies from Sony (assuming that person owns both the PS3 and PSP so download four of the most expensive games, qualify for 2-month Plus membership and try a Music Unlimited subscription).

That said, I believe no amount of free stuff can help Sony win back customers. Customers will either forget about this involuntary lockout from their entertainment over time, or will feel slighted no matter what olive branch Sony tries to extend to them right now. Hopefully, Sony will focus on getting users online (people are still reporting random login problems) rather than placating users with lame gifts.

How do you feel about the “Welcome Back Package”?

PlayStation Network back online: Sony says sorry with gifts

Yesterday SCEE finally confirmed that PSN services have started coming back online in Europe after over three weeks of online gaming blackout on PS3.

It's been pretty inconvenient for single-system owners; big online games including Portal 2, Brink and Mortal Kombat haven't seen a single online PSN match until now - and Sony's set to say sorry with a number of online gifts and service bonuses.

In case you missed the previous announcement, to get back on PSN you'll need to download a mandatory system update and change your password. This can only be done on the same PS3 on which your account was originally activated.

The initial phase of the rollout will include, but is not limited to, the following:

Restoration of Online game-play across the PlayStation3 (PS3) and PSP (PlayStationPortable) systems

This includes titles requiring online verification and downloaded games

Access to Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity for PS3/PSP for existing subscribers

Access to account management and password reset

Access to download un-expired Movie Rentals on PS3, PSP and MediaGo

PlayStationHome

Friends List

Chat Functionality

For PS3 users' troubles, Sony promises to roll out free "PlayStation entertainment content" and give PSN customers free PS Plus membership for 30 days.

Furthermore, Sony Europe has said that PSN members will be offered a choice of two from five free PS 3 games as an apology for the down time, whilst PSP users will be offered two from a choice of four titles. More details on this are expected later this week.

Here's what you can expect:

Each territory will be offering selected PlayStation entertainment content for free download. Specific details of this content will be announced in each region soon.

All existing PlayStation Network customers will be provided with 30 days free membership in the PlayStation Plus premium service. Current members of

PlayStation Plus will receive 30 days free service.

Music Unlimited powered by Qriocity subscribers (in countries where the service is available) will receive 30 days free service.

Sony has revealed that it will give US PlayStation Network subscribers $1 million-worth of identity insurance when the PSN down time ends - and that it is working hard to bring European customers "something similar".

Sony Begins Phased Restoration of PlayStation Network

Sony Corp. began a limited and phased restoration of its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment videogame services Saturday, bringing the company a step closer to normalcy following an attack on its systems that compromised personal information for more than 100 million user accounts last month.

The Japanese electronics giant said that following the release of a mandatory software upgrade for all PlayStation 3 videogame console units, it would begin bringing its PlayStation Network back online in the Americas, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and the Middle East. The network will be limited at first, the company said, restoring Internet-based game play, movie rentals, music services and online video streaming through companies like Netflix Inc.

Sony said some customers will be able to regain access on Saturday. Full service should be restored by the end of the month, the company added.

In Japan and seven other Asian locations -- South Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia and Malaysia -- Sony is not restarting the PlayStation Network yet. The company doesn't yet know when customers in Asia will regain access, but it aims to restore full service in the region by the end of the month, just like the rest of the world.

"We know even the most loyal customers have been frustrated by this process and are anxious to use their Sony products and services again," Kazuo Hirai, head of Sony's game division, said in a statement. "We are taking aggressive action at all levels to address the concerns that were raised by this incident, and are making consumer data protection a full-time, company wide commitment."

The intrusion, which occurred last month, led to the theft of names, addresses, passwords and possibly credit card numbers from its PlayStation Network and Sony Online Entertainment gaming services. Sony shut down both services as it investigated the attack, which the company said was highly sophisticated.

The events led to multiple inquiries from Congress and several lawsuits against the game maker, which has been producing videogame consoles for nearly two decades. Sony's brand image also took a hit, according to surveys by YouGov's BrandIndex, dropping significantly following the shutdown and subsequent revelations of the data breach.

Sony has said it will provide its customers with free identity-theft services for a year, including a $1 million insurance policy.

As part of the phased restoration, Sony said all PlayStation 3 customers will need to download a security patch before regaining access to the online gaming services. As a precaution, Sony said customers will be required to change their passwords when they first log back into the systems.

Sony will also be offering "welcome back" packages, including access to otherwise limited content and other freebies in attempts to appease frustrated users.

PlayStation Network has about 77 million user accounts around the world, and about 31 million are in the U.S.

The restart this time doesn't include Asia because Tokyo-based Sony is still in talks with Japan's industry ministry, which is asking for more detailed explanation on how Sony's online service works and what security measures the company is implementing, according to a person familiar with the situation. Because Japan doesn't have a local equivalent of Debix, which has services that cover thefts and misuses of not only credit cards but also other personal information, Sony and the ministry are still figuring out the best way to protect Japanese customers, the person said.

As the vast majority of PlayStation Network users in Asia are in Japan, the service in the region won't resume until the Japanese service is ready to relaunch. And Sony can't restart the service in Japan unless the Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry gives the green light.

Sony Says Parts of Playstation Network Will Be Back Online This Week

Sony said Sunday that parts of its PlayStation network will be back online “this week” after hackers infiltrated the service, made off with detailed personal information and forced a catastrophic system shutdown.

But it could take until the end of the month for a full reboot of the PlayStation Network, which links 77 million gamers worldwide, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company announced at a press conference in Tokyo.

“I am deeply sorry for worrying, and inconveniencing, our users,” said Kazuo Hirai, Sony’s executive deputy president, bowing deeply.

The security debacle has dealt a serious blow to Sony’s bid to build an online network that brings gaming and music content to its universe of gadgets. Sony has lagged behind in building an online presence behind the likes of Apple and its popular online iTunes and App Store services.

The Japanese electronics and entertainment company has also faced questions about whether it moved quickly enough to inform its users of the breach. The PlayStation network went down on April 20, but Sony did not disclose that personal data had been stolen until a full week later.

A subcommittee of the United States House of Representatives has sent a letter to Sony asking for information about the attack, including when the intrusion occurred, if Sony knew who was responsible for the attack and when the company notified law enforcement.

According to Sony, an “unauthorized person” hacked into Sony servers last month and obtained personal information on PlayStation and Qriocity account holders, including their names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and user names and passwords for the PlayStation Network.

The company said that other confidential information, including credit card numbers, could have been compromised, warning customers to “remain vigilant” by monitoring identity theft or other financial loss.

The hacker attack targeted Sony severs over three days in mid-April, Mr. Hirai said. The company first became aware of the unauthorized access on April 19, and shut down its servers the following day.

Sony said usernames and passwords to the network were not encrypted, but the credit card information it had for about 10 million users had been encrypted and that there was yet no evidence that this data was taken.

The company was working with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, as well as legal enforcement agencies in other countries, in investigating the attack, it said.

Mr. Hirai acknowledged that Sony had been slow in providing information on the network breach to its users. It had taken the company time to gather accurate data on the breach, he explained.

“Inspecting and analyzing a vast amount of data unfortunately took a lot of time,” he said. “We wanted to make sure that the information we provided was accurate as possible.”

Mr. Hirai said that Sony’s online networks would remain central to the company’s business. Sony’s new Qriocity service, which is used to stream audio and video to high-end Sony televisions, Sony Blu-ray players and other Web-enabled Sony devices, was also knocked offline in the attack.

Once the network is up and running, Sony users will be forced to change their passwords before they can connect. Sony will offer free content and other freebies as part of an “appreciation program,” the company said.

Many features will be back up this week, but its PlayStation Store, where users buy games, movies and other downloadable content, will not be available until later this month, Sony said.

“Sony continues to place utmost priority on its network strategy,” Mr. Hirai said. “We intend to continue our global expansion.”

Sony: Credit card data at risk in PlayStation hack

Hackers who broke into Sony's PlayStation Network online service might have stolen members' credit card information, Sony said Tuesday.

The intrusion, which happened between April 17 and 19, has resulted in a week-long system outage that could last as long as another week. As many as 75 million users globally use the network to play online games together and download movies, TV episodes and game demos.

Sony says it will send an e-mail to all account holders advising those who gave their credit card information to either PSN or Sony's new Qriocity music system that hackers may have gotten their credit card number and expiration date but not the card's security code. "While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility," Patrick Seybold, senior director of corporate communications and social media, said in a statement on Sony's official PlayStation blog.

"An unauthorized person" did get users' personal information including birth date and e-mail addresses, he said. In the wake of the security breach, PSN members should be alert for e-mail, telephone and postal mail scams that ask for personal or sensitive information, Seybold said.

Users should change the passwords on other services and accounts that might use the same user name or password as their PSN account. "We encourage you to remain vigilant, to review your account statements and to monitor your credit reports," he said.

Consumers should heed Sony's advice, says Tim Rohrbaugh, vice president of information security for Intersections, an ID theft protection and risk management firm in Chantilly, Va. "On something like a PlayStation or (Internet-connected) TV, you can't use the same password that you use on your bank account or the accounts where a lot of damage can happen," he says.

Some users criticized Sony on social networks and forums for not coming forward with information about the breach sooner. But Rohrbaugh applauded Sony for a quick response. "The average amount of time it takes for a company to find an unauthorized access is six months-plus," he says.

The Sony breach and another earlier this month at Epsilon, which provides e-mail marketing for 2,500 companies, is "a wake-up call" to pay attention to what is going on with your data, he says.

The outage comes at a bad time for Sony. Hot titles such as Valve Software's Portal 2, Warner Bros. brawler Mortal Kombat and PlayStation 3 exclusive Socom 4 all hit stores last week.

Will Sony Supply the iPhone 5 With an 8MP Camera?

Will the iPhone 5 have an 8-megapixel camera? Reports say that Sony CEO Howard Stringer let the cat out of the bag during an interview with Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal.

"It always puzzles me," Stringer said. "Why would I make Apple the best camera?"

Both the 5-megapixel camera on the iPhone 4 and the 3.2-megapixel device on the iPhone 3GS have been supplied by OmniVision. Electronista first revealed in February that Sony could replace OmniVision as the camera provider for Apple's smartphone, creating a beefed-up 8-megapixel sensor for the device. Electronista said Sony would take over for OmniVision because the latter wouldn't be able to produce the camera in time for the launch of the iPhone 5.

Stringer's statements have given additional fuel to this report. He also reveled that 15 Sony factories in Japan, including a camera sensor plant, were damaged by the earthquake in the beginning of March, thus delaying part shipments.

According to another report, there could be some truth to these rumors. A report surfaced earlier this week that said the iPhone 5 won't make its debut until October or later. The report, which originally appeared on Macotakara and was translated by AppleInsider, also said that Apple hasn't even ordered components for the next-generation iPhone. So even if Sony is slated to provide the iPhone 5's camera, those plans might not be set in stone.

Macotakara predicted an iPhone 5 launch in the first half of fiscal 2012, it isn't likely that Apple would miss the opportunity for holiday season sales, and AppleInsider predicted an October or November launch.

The iPhone 5 rumors have been floating around for several months now. The most recent reports contend that the phone will have an edge-to-edge screen. Other rumors claim that the design of the back of the phone could be different, ditching glass for aluminum and moving the antenna from the external frame.

Sony wins subpoena for PS3 hacker's PayPal records

A federal judge in San Francisco has given Sony permission to subpoena the PayPal records of George Hotz, the hacker being sued for jailbreaking the company's PlayStation 3 game console.

Tuesday's order by US Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero said the information subject to Sony's subpoena “shall be provided on an Attorneys' Eyes Only basis” and is limited to information relating to whether Hotz has enough ties to Northern California to be sued in federal court in that district. Hotz, who goes by the hacking moniker GeoHot, is a resident of New Jersey, and has argued that the court lacks the authority to try him.

The ruling comes in a copyright case Sony brought in January against Hotz and 100 other hackers believed to have also devised a way to run unauthorized games and apps on the PS3. Earlier this month, Sony got approval for a subpoena allowing it to obtain the IP addresses of everyone who visited Hotz's personal website for the past 26 months.

At the same time, Sony also received permission to subpoena Twitter, Google and another service for information related to accounts held by the 21-year-old Hotz.

In Tuesday's order, Spero went on to order Hotz to sign a consent form permitting Sony to obtain his Twitter posts from January 2009 to the present and to “appear in California for a deposition relating solely to the question of personal jurisdiction.”

Sony's lawsuit alleges that Hotz violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by posting videos and blog posts showing how to bypass technical measures Sony put into the PS3 so it would run only games and apps permitted by the console maker.

The PayPal subpoena covers “documents sufficient to identify the source of funds in California that went into any PayPal account associated with geohot@gmail.com for the period of January 1, 2009 to February 1, 2011.”

Sony has argued that such information will prove that he has ties to Northern California and therefore can be sued in San Francisco, which is about a half-hour's drive from headquarters for Sony Computer Entertainment America, the division that's suing the hacker.

Hacker discovers PS3 3.56 exploit, will not release

On Saturday night, the well-known hacker Mathieu Hervais posted on his Twitter that he had found a way to exploit Sony PlayStation 3 firmware 3.56 although he refuses to release the details, as not to anger Sony.

The hacker will not unveil the exploit, but says "this wasn't about getting attention at all, or fame, this was just done so the right people know this bug is there for the finding."

Hervais' decision comes after Sony has taken custom firmware creator Geohot to court, as well as subpoenaed IP addresses of other hackers and even casual visitors of Geohot's site and YouTube account.