Geohot Claims He's Never Heard of Sony Computer Entertainment of America

[PurplePlatypus]

It?s a pretty important point in terms of figuring out where the jurisdiction of this case should be.

I wonder what the deal is with California, does it have certain twists in the law that would give Sony a better chance than anywhere else?

 

[Vrach]

Fuck yeah. I love this guy. About time he started fucking with Sonys lawyers just for giggles.

Actually this is not just for giggles. If they can't prove he's under the jurisdiction of an American court (which he's not if he didn't agree to buying a product from a company that's based in America from what I can tell), they're pretty much fucked. They're gonna have to get Japan to sue him and I don't think America would extradite a citizen just like that. So if he pulls this off, as long as he stays out of Japan and the areas where they have jurisdiction, he's actually scot-free

 

[AmrasCalmacil]

That picture is so perfect given what the article's about.

 

[ultratog1028]

So? he was still doing something illegal. Hacking in Japan is illegal.

 

[Wicky_42]

Fuck yeah. I love this guy. About time he started fucking with Sonys lawyers just for giggles.

Yeah, I'm actually quite enjoying this ^_^

One question, does this not fall within 'ignorance of the law is no defence'? Or is it some sort of way of not recognising the jurisdiction/existence of the plaintiff or something? Just confused on why that's even allowed to stand as an issue lol.

He is probably going for the mens rea [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mens_rea] defence. If he was not aware what he was doing was illegal (and why would he? Jailbreaking of the iphone was already declared legal) then he may be able to force Sony to back off a little. Or at least it will delay it going to the courts for a little bit longer.
Honestly I just hope he throws every single trick in the book at them just to be an asshole.
Even if he loses, I hope he costs them so much in legal fees and bad press that it is still worth it. He can declare bankruptcy avoiding most of the costs and wander off smiling.

Scanning over that wiki page makes me think his chances with that line are slim, but I'm pretty damn far from a lawyer Maybe it'd be enough to bluff Sony off, because from all the dirty tricks they've been pulling it's seeming more and more like they've not got much of a case and are looking to beat him though defamation of character or bankrupting him through legal costs, both of which are just full of bullshit.

The only thing Sony'll get out of it even if they did win would be the satisfaction from having made an example out of one guy. As you say, they'll never see the money out of him, they'll never re-coupe their legal fees, they'll never get back theoretical pirated revenue, and they'll never clear their name from having a scuffle with some student hacked who wanted to put linux back on his console.

Lol.

 

[Zechnophobe]

Bullshit.

He must have played a PS1 game at some point and MUST have noticed the "Sony Computer Entertainment of America" below the PS1 logo.

This argument doesn't hold water.

Yeah, but how do you prove any of that? I've played games a long time, and I've never heard of SCEA (I do not own a playstation). If I decided, tomorrow, to try and get into the PS hacking biz, It is possible I wouldn't find out about them.

Point is though, that they can't just wave their hands and go "That is crazy, how could you not know?" They have to prove that he knows about them, or they have to find another reason to maintain the California Jurisdiction.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Ignorance of the law isn't an excuse. How is this different again?

"I didn't look up that light to see it was red, I never knew it was a red light. How could I be running a red light if I didn't look at it?"

 

[WanderingFool]

What? [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/FlatWhat]

Seriously... what?

 

[Rayne870]

The problem is they can argue that willful ignorance is not a proper defense. It is part of what keeps people from simply saying "I didn't know speeding was illegal". If this is all he has for his defense I hope he loses because it could really screw up things in the future by letting people skirt patent laws or something by simply saying they didn't know it was patented because they didn't read the label. Geo needs to do more than this to win, otherwise he is just buying time and eventually the courts will get sick of that.

 

[Frostbite3789]

Sony screwed their customers, and then Sony got screwed right back. They deserve no sympathy.

Having been a PS3 owner for sometime around release, I haven't ever felt screwed. You only feel screwed if you're trying to cheat the system and do things with your console you aren't supposed to.

 

[YouBecame]

How many lines of defense do you think he has? I'm not sure. I hope that he has more in his locker besides "Oh I never knew it could have jurisdiction in America". As said before by someone much more eloquent than I: The defense would likely fail because ignorance does not excuse you from the law.

 

[martin's a madman]

How in god's name does he think he can get away with playing stupid? The guy clearly is not that much of an idiot to not know that SCEA exists, he was smart enough to crack the PS3 so I'm 100% positive he is smart enough to know SCEA exists. Heck I knew it existed more than ten years ago!

Also thank you for using the rap video picture of him in any news related to this, it always makes me laugh.

I didn't know it existed until just now; and I'm not an idiot.

Granted, I don't own any Sony products that I can recall and haven't hacked any of their systems, but still.

The problem is they can argue that willful ignorance is not a proper defense. It is part of what keeps people from simply saying "I didn't know speeding was illegal". If this is all he has for his defense I hope he loses because it could really screw up things in the future by letting people skirt patent laws or something by simply saying they didn't know it was patented because they didn't read the label. Geo needs to do more than this to win, otherwise he is just buying time and eventually the courts will get sick of that.

Nah, it means they'll have to start specifically referencing the American company on their hard/software. It wasn't on the labels (from the story), or in the software, it was in a manual that came alongside the system. In that case, it's pretty reasonable that he might not read it.

After this I bet it'll be on the box haha.

 

[Wicky_42]

a guy whose quest to restore functionality to his consoles also happened to open the machine up to piracy.

That is a damned lie, allowing the signing of homebrew software doesn't open up anything to piracy. Piracy was already possible, this doesn't make it any easier.

Yeah? Do you have a source? I thought the entire issue was that he'd cracked the authentication code, thus allowing any software to be digitally signed, thus making it easy to sign pirated copies. Was that possible before? As easily? Why else is Sony trying to sue him?

Also, 'damned lie'? Chiiiill, dude!

 

[Wapox]

Heck I didn't know there was a SCEA. I just thought there was Sony. And then Sony Online Entertainment, which is diff.

Then again, I stopped at PS2 well before I started f*ing reading English...

 

[sleeky01]

Bullshit.

He must have played a PS1 game at some point and MUST have noticed the "Sony Computer Entertainment of America" below the PS1 logo.

Why would you say that? I own a PS3 but have not touched a PS1.

 

[Beeple]

Sony screwed their customers, and then Sony got screwed right back. They deserve no sympathy.

Having been a PS3 owner for sometime around release, I haven't ever felt screwed. You only feel screwed if you're trying to cheat the system and do things with your console you aren't supposed to.

Like installing lin... oh wait.
If you wanted to have Linux on your console you would have felt screwed. If you didn't (like me) then you (and me) are not the part of the group of people (nor am I) who were screwed by Sony and therefore rightly have no reason to feel hard done by. However some people were, and that is a fact.

a guy whose quest to restore functionality to his consoles also happened to open the machine up to piracy.

That is a damned lie, allowing the signing of homebrew software doesn't open up anything to piracy. Piracy was already possible, this doesn't make it any easier.

Err to be fair the use of homebrew software effectively opens the gates to piracy which is one of the main reasons why PS3 piracy was basically non-existent until recently. (Though I believe it's still very small, at least compared to other consoles/handhelds and the PC)