Sony threw everything at them: DMCA, CFAA, copyright, California Computer Crime Law, even violating the PSN TOS.
If you break my system, thanks for letting us know. It'd be great if we could pay you to help fix our system and make it more difficult to break in the future.
I'd not take them to court. I'd try to hire them. Hell, I'd give them reward money - even if they didn't want to be hired.
Not everyone wants to give their work for free, dress in coloured cothles, sing about peace and love and grow tomatos in a community.