UPDATE: PS3 Hacker GeoHot Claims He's on Vacation

[MationMac]

I never liked the guy anyway.
It is ok that he hacks the Playstation 3 and asks for a job at Sony, but he posted the hack online, and that means alot of people can play pirated games.

 

[Jonabob87]

He left his home and family to escape legal proscecution?
I would actually agree with him if the punishment included imprisonment, though I'm not aware about the specifics of this case.
In the end, he did what he thought was right and I think that is commendable.
I will not be the judge of morality.

People generally do what they think is right, that doesn't make them moral giants. If I was a professional thief I'd think it was all fair and dandy to steal. RIGHT, even. That doesn't make doing it commendable.

OT: Way to prove himself guilty. I'm all for restoring linux functionality, given that Sony advertised it as a feature before removing it, but this guy is clearly just a glorified pirate.

 

[Iwata]

I respect his move. He was fucked. What he did was illegal... and awesome. I am glad that I contibuted to his "flee the country" fund, and I hope he manages to make a life for himself in his new home.

Your avatar perfectly illustrates what I felt when I read your post.

 

[Double A]

Hahaha, told you he would just flame the HD and run. Yes you can recover data from an HD, but if you no how, you can completely destroy any data on one, beyond recovery. Just that the average computer user doesn't know.

Anyway, dumb move. Ah well.

Magnets?


Anyway, this idiot wasted a great opportunity to shove it to Sony. Instead of using the substantial donations he got to hire a lawyer and own Sony in court, he did a bunch of illegal stuff and fled. Way to stick up for your beliefs and not give Sony more ammo for later.

 

[Madara XIII]

It was the one armed man. He did it.

Kappa Mikey? LOL

 

[Madara XIII]

It was the one armed man. He did it.

Kappa Mikey? LOL

 

[insanelich]

If after all this you're still sticking up to the guy, let me know how the weather's like in your planet.

Cold, rainy, but overall fairly pleasant.

So we're supposed to trust Sony - that is, the company who are attacking him in court - in regards to his whereabouts and actions?

So basically, any accusations you can throw at someone else are suddenly evidence?

 

[Belated]

Ok, GeoHot had every right to modify his PS3. So what if he had a PSN account? It doesn't matter. He can do whatever he wants to do with his own property he paid for. He wasn't killing people with it. He wasn't blowing things up with it. There's no evidence that he was pirating anything with it. He can modify it if he wants to. All his PSN account means is that Sony had a right to ban him. That's it. They didn't have a right to sue him. They can void his warranty. They can ban him from the network. That is the full extent of their rights in this case.

Piracy is a crime, whether you like it or not. By posting the root key, he could possibly be charged with aiding and abetting for every piracy case from here forward. In short, no, banning him from their networks is NOT the full extent of their rights.

Yes it is. Just because the rootkey COULD be used for piracy, that doesn't mean that's its only use. They have no way of knowing WHAT people were using it for.

By your logic, it's illegal to give me a pencil. Because I COULD kill a man with a pencil. So giving somebody a pencil is automatically aiding murder. Even if there's no proof that anybody used the pencil to kill with. Yeah, that totally makes sense.

If I lent somebody an Xbox game to try out, and they decided to burn a copy of it, does that make me responsible for their act of piracy? No, of course not. The crime is the sole responsibility of the perpetrator.

 

[Jumplion]

I have to wonder if he just took all the money he was donated for legal funds with him to South America.

That would put him on the "Total Douchebag" list.

[sup]And I've probably been ninja'd by this statement a dozen times[/sup]

 

[MonkeyPunch]

Hmm... he's in South American on holiday btw. He posted a picture of himself in South America on his own blog and now he's apparently "running away". You'd hardly escape a country and then post pictures of yourself in said country to let authorities know where you are...
No reason to flee the country in the first place seeing as this is a civil case and not a criminal one.

 

[Jumplion]

Last i checked spreading information was not illegal... Under certain contexts it is but i don't feel this is one.

The security root key is just that, a security key. It's akin to posting nuclear launch information on the internet. Or, to use a less extreme example, it's like posting the password to your e-mail on the internet.

 

[newfoundsky]

Why can't we win one?

 

[Aris Khandr]

Ok, GeoHot had every right to modify his PS3. So what if he had a PSN account? It doesn't matter. He can do whatever he wants to do with his own property he paid for. He wasn't killing people with it. He wasn't blowing things up with it. There's no evidence that he was pirating anything with it. He can modify it if he wants to. All his PSN account means is that Sony had a right to ban him. That's it. They didn't have a right to sue him. They can void his warranty. They can ban him from the network. That is the full extent of their rights in this case.

Piracy is a crime, whether you like it or not. By posting the root key, he could possibly be charged with aiding and abetting for every piracy case from here forward. In short, no, banning him from their networks is NOT the full extent of their rights.

Yes it is. Just because the rootkey COULD be used for piracy, that doesn't mean that's its only use. They have no way of knowing WHAT people were using it for.

By your logic, it's illegal to give me a pencil. Because I COULD kill a man with a pencil. So giving somebody a pencil is automatically aiding murder. Even if there's no proof that anybody used the pencil to kill with. Yeah, that totally makes sense.

If I lent somebody an Xbox game to try out, and they decided to burn a copy of it, does that make me responsible for their act of piracy? No, of course not. The crime is the sole responsibility of the perpetrator.

Which is why, shock of shocks, Sony asked for the IP addresses and information about people who donated to him or looked at his website. Because then they can find the people who DID commit piracy with his information.

 

[frans909]

I thought the Escapist would support the rights of gamers.
Yeah he fled, but that's not the point. Sony is still in the wrong.

"Sony has proof that Hotz created a PlayStation Network account and therefore agreed to the PSN User Agreement"
So what? The PSN UA is BS!

Well, then you shouldn't agree to it, shouldn't you? Maybe you find the IRS pricks too, but that doesn't give you the right to break into their building and break their shit.

 

[SteewpidZombie]

Whelp! That's the last we'll see or hear from GeoHotz ever again.

Evidently a new inconspicuously named brand of weed is being exported from Columbia in a few months, it's called GeoPotz and the maker is apparently rich after having bought the original land and crop with money he had 'received' from friends.

 

[Saucycarpdog]

Well, there goes our only hope for better software rights on consoles.

Who will be our next challenger?