Sony v. Hotz: The Parties Agree and Disagree on Jurisdictional Discovery Issues

“The parties in SCEA v. Hotz have conferred and now have sent a
17-page joint letter to the Magistrate Judge Joseph C. Spero,
informing him that certain disputes about jurisdictional discovery
have been resolved but others need his intervention.

“I’ll show you the letter, as text, and provide some details,
but the bottom line is that Sony, technically Sony Computer
Entertainment America or SCEA, is pursuing discovery more in the
manner that large corporations do. They want as much as they can
get, like wanting George Hotz to fly to California for a
deposition, and they are even willing to pay Hotz’s travel
expenses. But Hotz is an individual, not a corporation, and he
doesn’t have endless money from international commerce, so he’d
like SCEA to send interrogatories and other written methods of
doing discovery. They aren’t offering, he points out, to pay for a
court recorder at the deposition.

“And I’d have to say Hotz would like it if Sony didn’t treat him
like he is inclined to be dishonest. His lawyers say he has been
above-board and forthcoming to date. But on Sony’s side, they feel
they’d like definite confirmation about the facts of Hotz’s
dealings with California, so Sony still wants things like the right
to subpoena PayPal.”

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