GeoHot and Sony Settle PS3 Jailbreak Case
- Thread starter John Funk
- Start date
Recommended Videos
Pointless fear. Sony and every other company like them already uses EULAs to do as they please. Hotz losing the case would change nothing. Sony likely settled because they knew precedent from the case could either hurt them or have absolutely no effect. That's not the safest of bets.Sprntr_Zomby said:
I'm incredibly disappointed after reading the terms of the settlement. I guess GeoHot did what was best for him. It's just too bad it sucks for us.
That's...boring. You're boring, Escapist article.
Joke, joke, but seriously -- is this a victory or not? Disregarding the malicious spectator in me that wanted to see at least one side get screwed over, I guess it's positive that neither party were significantly harmed by the whole thing, but on the other hand, wasn't it in a previous article that Hotz trying to prove a point about the PS3 being HIS software and HE could do what he wanted with it, because he paid for it and it's his property, etc. etc.? Did he forget about that...?
So, ultimately, this case got nobody nowhere. All I can say is 1. It's been fun, and 2. I've never mentioned it before, but I've absolutely loved to no end the fact that the exact same picture of GeoHotz looking kinda stupid has been used in every Escapist article about him. Seriously, that isn't sarcasm. I've smiled every time.
Joke, joke, but seriously -- is this a victory or not? Disregarding the malicious spectator in me that wanted to see at least one side get screwed over, I guess it's positive that neither party were significantly harmed by the whole thing, but on the other hand, wasn't it in a previous article that Hotz trying to prove a point about the PS3 being HIS software and HE could do what he wanted with it, because he paid for it and it's his property, etc. etc.? Did he forget about that...?
So, ultimately, this case got nobody nowhere. All I can say is 1. It's been fun, and 2. I've never mentioned it before, but I've absolutely loved to no end the fact that the exact same picture of GeoHotz looking kinda stupid has been used in every Escapist article about him. Seriously, that isn't sarcasm. I've smiled every time.
I've been lurking in the forums for a while, trying to figure out where both sides stand on this particular issue. Personally, I've been on Sony's side since the beginning. I couldn't exactly place my finger on the issue I had with George Hotz, but I knew it was there. The main reason I quoted this post is because, after reading this post, I see the fallacy the "pro-geohot" side has been committing the entire time.RT-Medic-with-shotgun said:
"I wanted sony to lose the lawsuit and treat us like we are human beings & we own the chunk of hardware we had." The key word in that sentence is the word "hardware." The fallacy, of course, being that this case had absolutely nothing to do with "hardware." If you want to strip the guts out of a PS3, and put those guts into a gutted X-Box 360 case, nobody will be upset with you. Why? Because that is modifying hardware. If you want to put those guts into a toaster, go ahead. It's your hardware.
Sony has never, at any point, claimed ownership of hardware. The only thing that Sony has said about altering hardware, to my knowledge, is that doing so voids your warranty on that particular piece of hardware.
Sony's issue, from minute one, has been solely about people altering software. Software is the key. And, if you look throught gaming history, people have maintained ownership of their proprietary software, from the beginning. Nintendo v. Tengen comes to mind, off the top of my head. By the way, thanks to this case, precident had already been set, and it was on Sony's side. The courts ruled that reverse engineering a root code, in order to circumvent said root code was a violation of the rights of the company that owned the root code in question. Granted, the lawsuit was settled out of court prior to the final litigation, but that precident is in the books.
If people want to remove the original OS from a Playstation 3, and use that as a cheap PC, there's no issue with that, since that doesn't alter the software in question. That certainly counts as modifying one's hardware. But, that's not what geohot did. He altered the operating system, and then published the information required to allow a number of people to do the same that, to be honest, can't truely be counted.
And, whether it was Hotz's intent or not, his hack does allow people who use it to pirate games. It circumvents the PS3's lockouts against pirated games, which, again, is the exact precident that was set in Nintendo v. Tengen. The law is on Sony's side.
I know. I know. "But, Sony's being dickish. Why are they being so mean?" In Sony's eyes, George Hotz stole Sony's debit card, and could make a trip to the ATM whenever he wanted. The fact that he hadn't, as of yet, made that trip is immaterial to the case. Let's take the debit card example to its real life, small scale comparison. If one of your friends brought a friend of his to your home, and that person stole your bank card from your wallet, would you pat him gently on the head, while says "I didn't like that. Don't do that anymore, okay?" There really is a reason the phrase "beat him like he stole something" exists.
But, what about the licensing of the software? Simply put, Sony has granted, to anyone who has possession of PS3 hardware the ability to use their software, for as long as the hardware is in that person's possession. Note that I used the word "ability," as opposed to the word "right." The use of the PS3 operating system is a service, provided free of charge, by Sony. However, regardless of what the Democratic Party would like you to believe, no-one has the "right" to a good or service from someone else.
????Actual said:
Wow you just made my head hurt
Ok
1)Yes sony did take back otherOS(a feature that bragged about in press releases), but to be honest how many people that isn't a techie was going to use it? The only people I know who were pissed it was gone was me and my computer science buds, and I know people used it for a cheap super computer in clusters but that's big organizations. I was pissed really bad from when they removed it from the phats and didn't include it in the slims. But besides that it still functioned as advertised, and you could still use it as a decent media server (which is what I got mine for mostly). But they removed it in response to the Geohot thing when he was on the news about how he used OtherOS. And to top on that I have not heard news YET about a Custom Firmware that brought otherOS back(and one hacker that comes to mind pretty much said since you guys are asses I'm not sharing what I did). But I did hear some emulation stories but that was not intended by Sony now was it. And Sony does have a right to protect their crap if they so chose to, I wonder how many of you would be happy is someone cracked your code to all your goodies?
2)If freedom is bad that would mean Geohot giving out the keys to give freedom to homebrews is bad. With said keys a homebrew is free to do what ever and sony is screwed about it. Unless you screwing with me that is which it's hard to tell sarcasm online
Mmmmmmmmm, that's good post!GiantRaven said:
No matter who would "win" in the end, the consumer would have lost regardless.
I doubt GeoHotz would have won, specifically because he released Sony's security root key. He may (or may not) be able to legally mod his devices, but he had absolutely no right to release secured information that can easily be misused in the wrong hands.
I'm surprised (and a little disappointed
) that this hasn't gone on longer. Whoever went to the table first is irrelevant, the fact is that this battle has been fought, but the war is far from over.War...war never changes...
