PS3 Hacker Raised All the Legal Funds Needed to Beat Sony in a Weekend

[Greg Tito]

PS3 Hacker Raised All the Legal Funds Needed to Beat Sony in a Weekend

Famed rapper [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/107733-Sued-PS3-Hacker-GeoHot-Responds-With-Rap] and PS3 hacker Geohot asked for donations on Friday to fund his defense against Sony and got all he needed by Monday.

Geohot, aka George Hotz, firmly believes that he has done nothing wrong. When he and the hacker group known as fail0verflow On his website Geohot claims [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/106609-Notorious-iPhone-Hacker-Posts-PS3-Master-Key-Online] that Sony is trying to use his case as a warning and has a team of five lawyers ready to rake him in court to send a message to other hackers. He also points out that other hackers have lost court battle not because they were wrong but because they lacked the money to mount a defense. When pressed with legal fees beyond his means, but a large amount of internet celebrity, Hotz's only recourse was to ask the masses to donate to his cause. Geohot may have underestimated the number of people who support his fight against Sony, as he received enough money for the first phase of defense in about 18 hours. He didn't specify exactly how much he raised, but he did say that he would donate any money left over to the Electronic Frontier Foundation.

"Sony doesn't care if what you did was legal, if they don't like it, they sue. Sony tried to sue a guy for getting his AIBO to do non Sony approved tricks, making it apparent that they don't really care about piracy, they care about control," wrote Geohot on his website. "I would hate to lose this case due to resource starvation, and with the support of the masses, I won't. Lets turn the bully back on itself."

For his part, Geohot reiterated that he is against piracy and distributing copyrighted work, but he believes that it is his right to hack any consumer product once it is in his legal possession. "Sony does not even try to allege piracy or copyright infringement in this case, they allege I did things like play "Super Mario World, an unauthorized game" on my PS3. And access my PS3 in an unauthorized way. Who are they to authorize what I do with my taxed and paid for property?" he asked rhetorically.

"For example, I believe Apple has every right to lock down their iPhone in the factory as much as they want, but once it's paid for and mine, I have the right to unlock it, smash it, jailbreak it, look at it, and hack on it." Geohot is, of course, referring to his previous exploits in jailbreaking the iPhone.

It seems that more than a few parties support Geohot's fight against Sony. The Electronic Frontier Foundation offered legal help, and he closed donations early this morning stating that he raised enough to fund the first stages of defense. "Thank you so so much for all of your help, things are looking up money wise. Expect to see a few more lawyers on my responses!" he wrote.

I believe that Geohot has a strong case, and if he actually defeats Sony it will have repercussions that will be felt throughout the industry. Console manufacturers have long tried to control the actions that consumers can perform with their hardware, but Geohot's case may demolish any such controls. For my part, like all of the hacks derived from the Kinect, I think that open systems foster development of new ideas and Sony's attempts to curtail such creativity is averse to the 21st century idea of innovation. So yeah, go Geohot!

And for the record, Geohot firmly denies that he has anything to do with cheaters on Modern Warfare. [http://ps3mfw.com/?p=134]

Source: Geohot got sued [http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/2011/02/first-round-of-donations-is-closed.html]

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[Korten12]

Like I said in another topic:

If they win they will say "Its just for homebrewing!"

5 days later PSN shuts down due too many hackers and pirates because its 'legal'.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I hope he wins, it is our right to do what we want to the PS3 after we buy it, I remember one time when I was delivering Pizza, the people were playing Super Mario All stars on their PS3. They looked like they were having lots of fun, now they can't cause Sony are asshoes

 

[Casual Shinji]

No matter how legal it apparently is, I know I won't be playing any online games on my PS3 anymore for the rest of its existence.

 

[Irridium]

Hopefully this case will be enough to show people that EULA's are complete bullshit and need to be removed/changed to something more consumer friendly.

 

[NezumiiroKitsune]

Good for him, glad it won't come down to who has the most money. Unless they have him killed. They could do that. If he dies soon I'm going to reconsider my purchase of the NGP / PS4. I won't take it out on my PS3 though, it isn't a nefarious Orwellian thought control machine, or at least I don't think it is, but wouldn't that be the point? How worrying, I'll take solace in the fact I still would like to buy a 360 and don't much like Sony (or Microsoft) right now.

Albeit they're both less morally bankrupt than the British Government.

tl;dr I support what GeoHot stands for and this pleases me.

 

[Korten12]

I hope he wins, it is our right to do what we want to the PS3 after we buy it, I remember one time when I was delivering Pizza, the people were playing Super Mario All stars on their PS3. They looked like they were having lots of fun, now they can't cause Sony are asshoes

Uh, no they have no right to be playing SMAS on their PS3. No matter if the game is fun, they pirated the game and hacked the console? Thats like double the offense.

If someone pirates a game and says they're having "fun" doesn't suddenly pardon them.

 

[Yawwy]

I hope he wins, it is our right to do what we want to the PS3 after we buy it, I remember one time when I was delivering Pizza, the people were playing Super Mario All stars on their PS3. They looked like they were having lots of fun, now they can't cause Sony are asshoes

Uh, no they have no right to be playing SMAS on their PS3. No matter if the game is fun, they pirated the game and hacked the console? Thats like double the offense.

If someone pirates a game and says they're having "fun" doesn't suddenly pardon them.

I'm pretty sure there are ways to make back ups of your own games,regardless of what system they are on,which would mean they didn't have to pirate it.

 

[gibboss28]

Good luck to him

 

[Cherry Cola]

Hopefully this case will be enough to show people that EULA's are complete bullshit and need to be removed/changed to something more consumer friendly.

Right on, right on, right on, right on, right on, ri-How many times must I write this before it stops being low content?

(Hurr hurr, off-topic ridiculing of rules)

I am with George Hotz. His logic is sound and his purpose is true. Or I just like him because he tries to stick it to the man.

Either way I'm a rebel

 

[DVS Storm]

This is not cool even though many will be like "Yay now I can hax with mah PS3". Has anyone thought of the consequences? Infinity Ward has stated(not sure about Treyarch) that they will close MW servers for PS3 if there are too many hackers there. No-one can control what someone does with their PS3 anymore because apparently PS network doesn't regognize a pirated game from a real one. It is really going to harm Sony and the gaming industry. Even though I'm a Xbox gamer I'm still worried because well who wants to invest to a big game when the gamers are just going to pirate it. And it could also mean DRM for PS3...Who knows(this whole post is just hypothetical but it's plausible.) But I think it is good that someone showed Sony that their system is not perfect.

 

[Quiet Stranger]

I hope he wins, it is our right to do what we want to the PS3 after we buy it, I remember one time when I was delivering Pizza, the people were playing Super Mario All stars on their PS3. They looked like they were having lots of fun, now they can't cause Sony are asshoes

Uh, no they have no right to be playing SMAS on their PS3. No matter if the game is fun, they pirated the game and hacked the console? Thats like double the offense.

If someone pirates a game and says they're having "fun" doesn't suddenly pardon them.

The game is so old now though, if you bought it at a pawn shop the only one getting money would be the pawn store owner, the companies would no longer be getting the money 9I mean, that's the problem isn't it? With piracy for new things, the creators, like apple or microsoft, or Gearbox or whoever don't get their money?) and they bought it so I think they have every right to hack their PS3, also Hack is such a strong word, like rats, or ****

 

[Kakashi on crack]

Sony has kinda ticked me off in recent years. the PS2 was great, but the PS3 has so many dumb updates and such aimed at preventing people from installing/using what they want that it isn't worth it.

Legally, Sony can say he broke the terms of agreement and they won't let him update his hardware/software, and if he breaks it he's S.O.L. but they really don't have a legal case to sue here other than maybe in a very distant and stupid way, cyber terrorism.

 

[Zipa]

Im going to laugh my arse off when sony shuts down PSN or most games stop MP support with the PS3 due to the rampart amount of hacking that will be occuring if this guy wins.
makes me glad Im a PC/xbox gamer.

 

[Korten12]

I hope he wins, it is our right to do what we want to the PS3 after we buy it, I remember one time when I was delivering Pizza, the people were playing Super Mario All stars on their PS3. They looked like they were having lots of fun, now they can't cause Sony are asshoes

Uh, no they have no right to be playing SMAS on their PS3. No matter if the game is fun, they pirated the game and hacked the console? Thats like double the offense.

If someone pirates a game and says they're having "fun" doesn't suddenly pardon them.

The game is so old now though, if you bought it at a pawn shop the only one getting money would be the pawn store owner, the companies would no longer be getting the money 9I mean, that's the problem isn't it? With piracy for new things, the creators, like apple or microsoft, or Gearbox or whoever don't get their money?) and they bought it so I think they have every right to hack their PS3, also Hack is such a strong word, like rats, or ****

Alright, well I guess it will suck once they close down PSN due to too many pirates and hackers. But hey, they're having fun and they bought their ps3 so it should be perfectly fine...

 

[Cherry Cola]

For all similar arguments:

Who gives a fuck about the consequences? The argument is that a company should not be able to enforce their own rules on something you legally own. There is nothing ethical about what companies like Sony and Apple are doing, and so we shouldn't stand for it.

Piracy is something different, and while I agree that piracy can very well be considered morally wrong, it doesn't make it right for companies to do something morally wrong to prevent it.

Point is, they need to find different ways for fighting piracy other than trying to remove our rights