GeoHot on Sony PS3 hacking lawsuit: "beating them in court is just a start"

[Emil]

PlayStation 3 jailbreaker George Hotz, also known as GeoHot, was recently on The Alyona Show. When asked about whether he thinks the whole issue will blow over and whether he has a chance to beat Sony in court, GeoHot responded with the following:

"Oh without a doubt. I think I will beat them. I think the reason they brought this suit is just to harass me and 'this is what happens to you if you hack Sony products.' Beating them in court is just a start."

In short, GeoHot not only thinks that he will win the lawsuit, but it's just one of his many goals, which include jailbreaking the Xperia Play and the iPhone 5. Still, he did ask for financial help just last week, after releasing a rap video to poke fun at the whole situation. He has reportedly covered his legal costs and then some in just two days of donations.

GeoHot still insists that Sony is suing the wrong guy since he is against mass piracy and does not distribute anyone's copyrighted work but his own. His goal for the PS3 is to provide users a legitimate path to homebrew, which should be legal according to previous non-console court cases.

Sony's legal attacks against the hackers that released the PS3 root key and custom firmware began last month. The group known as fail0verflow is accused of posting a rudimentary hack in December 2010 after finding security codes for the PS3. It was refined by GeoHot weeks later when he independently found and published the PS3 root key. The resulting hacks allow homebrew apps and pirated software to run on unmodified consoles. Sony is still threatening to sue anybody posting or distributing PS3 jailbreak code, despite the fact that the company accidentally tweeted the PlayStation 3 security key. Sony's official stance is if you crack your PS3, you'll get banned.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/42569-geohot-on-sony-ps3-hacking-lawsuit-beating-them-in-court-is-just-a-start.html

 

[andreasf93]

Self-confidence.

 

[gwailo247]

"He has reportedly covered his legal costs and then some in just two days of donations."

then some = pot and pizza.

 

[GunsAblazin]

I have a feeling this won't blow over any time soon after his rants get out. There must be a lot of hackers out there that want to keep him out of jail. That money will dry up soon though because Sony has bottomless pockets and he would be the perfect example for Sony.

 

[treetops]

I still think hes a fool for not doing it anonymously.

 

[ramonsterns]

Hope he wins.

Teach the bigger corporations not to prod the little men who buy their stuff.

 

[foreverzero89]

treetops said:
I still think hes a fool for not doing it anonymously.

it's not like he did anything illegal OR immoral. sony is just pissed and is now looking for something to take their anger out on.

 

[mattfrompa]

We need more intelligent people willing to stand up for consumers like GeoHot. I really hope he wins.

 

[IvanAwfulitch]

I think that what Sony and other corporations don't understand is that by trying to ensure they get their fill of our money they're violating their customers.

Our personal freedoms wouldn't be at risk if consoles didn't need to be hacked.
Consoles wouldn't necessarily be hacked if pirated games had never existed.
Pirated games would never have existed if they weren't so ****ing expensive.
Games wouldn't be so expensive if they didn't try to grease their pockets so much.

There are a couple of other factors that enter the picture with wanting to jailbreak a device, but for the most part, this is how I view it. I can understand wanting to have a decent profit margin. Money to cover development costs, manufacturing, paying their employees, whatever. But raising prices to extortionist levels is criminal. Sony is no better in that respect than any other major company. They are like M$. If M$ had their way, nobody would use anything but Windows OSes, nobody would be able to hack it, nobody would be able to use it in any way except how they specified, etc etc. It's the same with Sony.

I hope this guy wins too.

 

[krayzie]

why do we use the term jail break on on apple products??

 

[foreverzero89]

because apple has their **** on such a tight lock down, like a jail.

 

[bugejakurt]

GeoHot indirectly told sony to employ him....

 

[andy06shake]

F**K Sony! Support GeoHot. Death 2 NWO and all supporting corporations!!!

 

[example1013]

treetops said:
I still think hes a fool for not doing it anonymously.

Maybe he wanted all the attention? I mean, this guy's now famous and has the support of masses of "free console usage" drones, who were more than willing to send him money for "legal fees".

Think about it. The root key hack has no 100% fix, because Sony can't change the root key, and thus can only attack the software, rather than the source. So GeoHot already got what he wanted, because Sony can't stop homebrewers from running custom code.

So why release the code immediately and publicly, before Sony has a chance to secure PSN and make sure hackers can't screw up online gaming? Really, I'd like to know what possible reason there could be for not waiting until Sony has a workaround to keep online play stable and fair, that doesn't involve garnering lots of attention and allowing pirates and hackers to wreak havoc on PSN.

 

[Guest]

I wanna know what's the main tactic to getting everybody's ip addresses. Are they looking to file suit with everyone or ban them from the playstation network.

 

[Guest]

Sony has every right to sue Hotz, and has the right to obtain the IP addresses of those who visited Hortz’s website.

To see why I am right:
http://besttechtoday.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-sony-is-right-to-sue.html

 

[yRaz]

Sony has every right to sue Hotz, and has the right to obtain the IP addresses of those who visited Hortz’s website.

To see why I am right:
http://besttechtoday.blogspot.com/2011/03/why-sony-is-right-to-sue.html

The DMCA is unconstitutional in and of itself. People shouldn't be treated like this, it's appalling that anyone can take sony's side. I shouldn't be too surprised at how dumb people are, we did vote for bush twice... I would also like to see other sources. I can find anyone saying anything on the internet, doesn't mean it's true. Find me a vetted source, not a blog.

 

[Guest]

I agree with geohotz because now "if he wins" sony consumers will boycott sony products and sony will cry like babys

 

[Guest]

when u think something is unconstitutional u have to take the right steps in taking the law off the books. if u brake that law to show how its unconstitiutional ur still breaking the law.

i think pot should be legal, but if i get caught smoking i still go to jail.

and besides distributing copyrighted material is illegal, the rootkeys are copyrighted, so he committed a crime, doesnt matter if the DCMA is unconstitutional or not.

 

[Guest]

it is an open question as to whether a few digit number is considered 'copyrightable'. it would make all sorts of things 'copyright' that are not, like say, a 7 colored flag that happens to have the same color codes (when used on an Red-Green-Blue digital representation) as the number.

And then, every multiple of those colors would also be illegal, and then the reverse version, also illegal, and various arrangements such as patterns or bubble graphs, also illegal. It is a very controversial precedent.

 

[Guest]

Pretty hard to copyright a number with no deliberate structure other than the fact that it's _random_...

 

[Lokalaskurar]

Even though I think GeoHot is right, I still claim he's more of a cracker and not a hacker. He's a bit of a disgrace to the hacker-community regarding the so-called "hacker-code" and whatnot. Still, he's totally wonderful regarding his self-confidence and his position against lager corporations. Freedom will win, and that's why he will prevail. If not in the courtroom, then at least in the hacker community members' hearts and minds.