GeoHot's Lawyer Responds to Sony's Claims

[Fensfield]

Very simple good chap, it stalled SONY. He had time to fuck off to south America, have some fun, stall SONY for a stock part, and now that SONY decided to try and mislead, he actually does look a bit better.

This is a possibility, not necessarily the truth

I don't know, it might well be so, but I wonder about the part where he looks a bit better - maybe to the people who already supported him that balked for a second when Sony piped up about him tampering with evidence and fleeing the country (which, by the by, holiday or no, one would think he'd have forewarned the courts of .. but whatever), but, everyone else?

Besides, I don't think public opinion matters much, in the end, legal funding aside. The courts would be fairly irresponsible if they did bow to public opinion after all, so .. from a judicial perspective at best I can only see this as irresponsibly waylaying the legal process when one would think the innocent would simply want to facilitate things as best possible.

Oh well, like the article says, these reports are needing more salt by the day.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

I feel very uncomfortable with the lawyer bashing going on.
Maybe I should excuse myself.

 

[ramboondiea]

too be perfectly honest, im in support of sony, but not because i want to be, i think there is nothing wrong with what he did, but this cause will have a massive impact on media and law pertaining to to the internet, which is desperately needs

 

[RA92]

snip

I get the feeling this will come across as one of those 'my mum's dead' kind of comebacks but... I'm a lawyer.

Didn't we have that exact conversation yesterday?

You know what, we have too many lawyers around these days...

As a training company lawyer I take offence to this.

I really hope the bucks you earn are worth the horrendous stereotyping

 

[ZombieGenesis]

snip

I get the feeling this will come across as one of those 'my mum's dead' kind of comebacks but... I'm a lawyer.

Didn't we have that exact conversation yesterday?

You know what, we have too many lawyers around these days...

As a training company lawyer I take offence to this.

I really hope the bucks you earn are worth the horrendous stereotyping

You know what's sad? It's true, people always seem to be blaming the lawyers!
Not that I blame them for it in the least, frankly what upsets me is that these kinds of situations really do show the absolute worst side of my profession, and so people always say "ugh, typical lawyers" and how horrible and mean they are...

And then I sit here. And cry.

 

[Celtic_Kerr]

SO I'd say the evidence isn't out yet, but it's a possibility

Alright. So possibility that's what i was wondering. 90% of my law comes from common sense and TV dramas so...

But since that part held no case sensitive evidence and that piece could be bought/replaced with a part they had in backup storage it was just sony crying wolf to make the case look better by comparison.

In any case i hope sony gets whats coming to them for allowing the lawyers to pull that shit.

Eh... When a lawyer cries wolf most courts ignore it anyways. Notice how this allegedly took place a week ago and the courts waited for the other side? They wouldn't just decide, or worst case scenario, they'd send a letter to Geo saying "Oi, SONY says this, what's going on?"

It's lawyer play, SONY knew it wouldn't get them anywhere, but look at the forum yesterday, it got people talking. Everyone knew this wouldn't affect the case in the least. It's too weak a piece of news. It's just the elitists and those with little/no understanding of law and those with a high opinion that get worked up

That's the point of crying wolf in court. Unless the judge is biased for you it will only get you anywhere with the people and could be viewed as attempt to pollute the jury pool. That is its only purpose as you said a judge would just(in a perfect world) itch slap them and tell them to sit down.

For the most part I don't see this fooling a jury either. I mean, I'm the sure juries are already picked, and you'd be surprised how neutral those fuckers can be. I guess nothing can really be done till the next update

Yeah. I think i will read up on how they pick. I hope to god they have some screen process to weed out bias & rampant stupidity.

To THE WIKIPEDIA-MOBILE!

You pick OUTSIDE the the industry, people that would have no semblance of bias or idea before stepping into the court room. You pick people who don't hack, don't play video games, and you pick from a WIDE demographic. Very diverse

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

You people do realize the control cards for the HDD are not necessary for them to work, they are after market parts that are not even part of the HDD at all. You can still pull the information off the drives easily without them its just sony being dramatic.

 

[ZombieGenesis]

You people do realize the control cards for the HDD are not necessary for them to work, they are after market parts that are not even part of the HDD at all. You can still pull the information off the drives easily without them its just sony being dramatic.

I did wonder about this myself. I built my PC myself and I've never even seen a control card.

 

[Rex Fallout]

If their is the one reason why I don't support him and its slightly due to how ppl view it.

OMG Sony is a big bad corporation! How dare they look out for themselves? I mean shouldn't all companies look out for everyone elses need?

Yes this is exactly how I feel! Everyone immediately jumps up and says- "Sony is a big corporation and they are suing this guy? What an awful thing to do! He didnt even have the money to defend himself he- ... what do you mean he did something wrong? Well I dont care, this is a david vs. goliath kind of situation here, and we must support david!"

I hope Sony goes to town on this guy.

 

[PettingZOOPONY]

I used one one time years ago for controlling a raid setup in XP but other than that one machine I have never even bothered to look at them again.

 

[RA92]

You know what's sad? It's true, people always seem to be blaming the lawyers!
Not that I blame them for it in the least, frankly what upsets me is that these kinds of situations really do show the absolute worst side of my profession, and so people always say "ugh, typical lawyers" and how horrible and mean they are...

And then I sit here. And cry.

To be fair, lawyers are the kind of people who would look for the slightest opportunity to get an edge over the competition and grab as much bottle caps dough as humanly possible...

But then again it begs the question, who isn't?

 

[ZombieGenesis]

Thus, clearly the claim of 'tampering' was nowhere near what people expected. Frankly I assumed he'd shoved it in a microwave or something to begin with.

And to those claiming this is a 'rage against the machine' situation, I'd just like the say that most people accept that what GeoHot did was wrong, but it's the legal issue implied by what the case is doing that is causing the stir against Sony. Not to mention the fact they could well be lying in a court of law, but we'll see on that point.

 

[Nachtmahr]

This whole lawsuit is such a drama. I like how it wasn't mentioned that GeoHot still ignored a court summons and did not inform the judge that he would be out of the country. I believe that isn't quite how it works during a lawsuit.

 

[Worgen]

But why did he feel it was necessary to remove the controller cards at all..?

And, that aside, whether the part was easily replaced or no, isn't tampering with evidence still tampering with evidence, even if the bit you tampered with was still just a stock part?

I admit, I don't like this jerk .. but still something seems screwy about messing with the parts at all, at the very least as if he were being spiteful to a neutral third party by trying to inconvenience them, or indeed, to hang-up the legal process somehow.

It makes no sense but, still.. why?

well its a cheap way to fix a broken hard drive since allot of the time when an hd goes back its the controller card so if you swap that out then you can use it again, its totally possible that he did that before to save that hd from being just scrap or to save data on it when the controller burned out

 

[MrSnugglesworth]

"She said what? Oh no she didn't!"
"Oh yes I did girlfriend, you don't even want to mess with this hotness!"
"Pfft whatever sister!"

As interesting as this whole situation has been, I am starting to run out of popcorn, I'll have to go buy some more

*digs into his pocket and gives you $20*

I gotta be honest, I have to help a fellow spectator. Too many people taking extreme sides and not looking for a common solution like I introduced in one thread

I'm interested in this common solution.

Care to elaborate in quote or message?

 

[MationMac]

Why did he post the root key online?

 

[joshthor]

sony needs to just straight up fire their entire PR department. what the hell are they even doing!?

on topic: i hope sony is losing an assload of money off of this. I hope people are boycotting them, i would say i hope thier NGP is a complete flop - but at the price range it will have to be it already is going to be a flop.

I have been boycotting them ever since they removed the other OS option from the PS3. i was inches from getting one. they have fantastic exclusives and with thier other OS it was gonna be great for my 3d modeling stuff.

instead. they piss off thier consumers. all of thier decisions lately have been terrible. who the hell is running that place??



im not saying i fully support geohot, i dont know what the story is in the legal battle, he may be in the wrong for all i know. but so is sony.

 

[Calderon0311]

I don't get the problem. He modded/tampered with the console, that breaks the user agreement, he has opened the console to piracy. In what way is he not guilty?

A number of problems with this line of reasoning, starting from and ending at being guilty for doing something "different". This same line of reasoning can be used to imply that any bedding manufacturer can bring you to court for having sex on a bed they've sold you since it can be used in a rape, or that adding/removing compartments to a car you own is illegal due to the possibility of drugs and weapons being stored in them.

These statements are a bit hyperbole, but that's the slippery slope we're looking at for a consumer getting brought to court over items they've purchase.

Now, yes. Any console you buy does contain propitiatory chips in them, and those chips have information on that that are protected as "trade secrets" (like the auth key), but where does the rights of the company end and the rights of the consumer begin? That's the question the court is going to decide when the trial starts.

To make matters more complicated, where should the trial be held? Sony is claiming that the trial needs to be held in California and subject Geo to CA's laws, but Geo has never stepped foot in that state on what the civil suit brings up. Civil lawsuits are very large tug-of-war matches that can span out on years on end, and Sony is looking for a home court advantage on this one, even though the information is on a global scale, they're trying to prove that Geo needs to be brought to trial in CA first.

TL;DR: Law is messy, civil law especially so.