Google fights off Sony subpoenas
Image via WikipediaI think Google and Sony will need to be close allies.
In many ways they are already. At one point all PlayStation 3s were lined up to become Google TV devices although you’ve got to wonder whether that’ll still happen given the bashing the US networks gave GTV. Sony Ericsson’s Xperia Play (or the PlayStation phone, as I call it) is Android powered.
Sony and Google help each other out in the key area of device convergence and the “battle for the living room”.
Apple has its own agenda in this battle; having its own devices such as the iPhone, iPad and Apple TV while expanding in the direction of iAds.
Microsoft, the other player, has the Xbox, Xbox Live and especially popular at the minute is the Kinect which really does help transform the living room’s TV into an internet enabled device.
However, Sony and Google are not connected at the hip. They’re different companies with different agendas. One of Sony’s key agendas is to ensure that the PlayStation 3 platform remains sacrosanct. In recent months that’s been a challenge. There’s been a surge of hacking.
Eager to learn more about hackers like fail0verflow and GeoHot actually are, Sony issued subpoenas to a number of sites; Twitter, PayPal and also Google. The US Judge in the action, Honorable Susan Illston, has ruled against Sony though, denying their request for ‘expedited discovery’ and so Google and the others do not need to rush to meet Sony’s demands. I imagine Google will, as usual, continue to battle against any subpoena that asks for an information reveal.
