Sony-enemy number one, modder George “GeoHot” Hotz, is requesting donations from fans and supporters of the mod-scene to fund his defence against the Japanese electronic giant’s legal action against him. Already tallying up the prodigious sum of $10,000*, George wants “to have Sony facing some of the hardest hitting lawyers in the business.”
Within hours, Hotz announced that the “first round” of funding had ended.
Hotz goes on to explain why he is doing what he’s doing, claiming Sony are “bullies” and should focus on fixing the problem and not suing him. An advocate against mass piracy, the hacker claims mod team and Custom Firmware authors fail0verflow’s goal was “even nobler than mine,” as they wanted to give back to consumers something (OtherOS) that Sony illegally “stole” from their customers.
Would Hotz be content to settle with SCEA? Apparently he would consider it, though we doubt Sony would comply with his demands to “include OtherOS on all PS3s and [issue] an apology on the PlayStation blog for ever removing it.”
Finally, Hotz admits that his recent rap (inserted below just one more time because, well, it’s amazing), was an attempt at humour but that he does take these legal wranglings “very seriously,” and is hence asking for people’s support. Claiming he was close to quitting the hack scene last June, he says how such a retreat would set a dangerous precedent in the hacking community that all big companies have to do to stop them is issue a writ. Ominously, the renown security circumvention expert went on to state:
I will be the first person in line on the launch date of the Xperia Play, and itching to get my hands on the Next GEOHOT Project.
*That’ll get a couple of hours with some of the “hardest hitting lawyers in the business” and maybe a nice lunch.
Source: Geohot
monkeyspoon
Wasnt other OS removed because stupid hackers found a way to use it to break the system. If there were no hackers we would all have other OS. Although I can’t understand why you’d want to.
Klart
Why don’t you just hack some bankaccounts? After all you’re doing it for the good of all people, no? You modern day Robin Hood!
yogh_wayne
Wow, this guy really seems to think he’s the victim here. I know it’s not nice, but I hope he will be very broke after this!
The Solid one
He has enable people to hack the PS3 which could lead to the online experience becoming a nightmare. he “noble goal” is a load of BS. if there were no risk of it getting hacked then it wouldn’t have been removed. When he released the code, he must have known that it would be used for pirating purposes. the worst part is that some people actually think he is right.:(
if you don’t want to get sued, then don’t hack. i hope Geohot gets banned from using any computers or anything that can be used to hack things.
cc_star
Just to change the point from ‘ya boo, you suck Geohot’
I have made a thread in our forum
RedStarGlow
I am not saying he is right. If you have not, you should go to his site and read the scanned copies of the court papers and all the motions. His primary defense was that the court did not even have jurisdiction over him. He lives in New Jersey (East coast of the US) and the case was filed in California (West coast). Song argued that he was subject to the California court because he used tweeter and Youtube, which reach into California.
I don’t believe there is any doubt what he was doing was in violation. I just found the actual arguments and mincing of words interesting.
eddie explosion
It is truely depressing to read some of the comments on this thread. Jesus, has someone been feeding subliminal messages telling you all hacking is bad? It seems some of you have no appreciation of where gaming came from or what these guys are doing. It’s probably been said many times before on similar threads but can we please distinguish between hacking and piracy. Hacking is not responsible for piracy. In your world perhaps we should shut down the internet so that people can’t file share. I mean, any means necesarry to shut down the pirates, eh…
Tuffcub
If he had kept HOW he had hacked the PS3 to himself, I’d agree with you. He didnt. He needs a good slap.
HandBanana
You try spending lots of money and working really hard to make a games console, then we’ll let some dweeb like this geohot looser break into it and let others steal the games you made, costing you money you should have earned from them. Then we’ll see how you like it ;)
Awayze
Most of the people who complain about piracy have probably downloaded videos or music illegally.
Just because Sony’s PS3 is compromised they should sue?
Apple never sued Geohot and I don’t think MS sued hackers who had hacked Xbox 360. iPhones and Xbox have more people pirating the apps and games. Who’s want to download a 10-40gb game anyway.
It’s Sonys fault they can’t resecure the PS3 but instead of suing Geohot they should ban pirates and PSN hackers.
Kreisash
To say whether he is right or wrong can be contested from both sides, however, while not as severe, I like to compare his giving the key to every would be pirate online, the same as say, someone giving any would be robber a magic key to your homes.
Can you really then say that the person who provided the means is not responsible in any way for the consequences?
fattyuk
Superb!
it’s gonna be mighty entertaining see this intelligent person who has got his head stuck up his own arse, crash and burn!!
$10,000 to get lawyers to take on Sony, hahahahahaha good luck you nonce! Sony will probalay be spending that on just 1 lawyer for an hour of a team of lawyers!!