GeoHot to challenge Sony's TRO in PS3 hacking lawsuit

[Guest]

Reading all of this reminds me too much of the opening to "Hackers". The government invaiding someones freedom and taking their personal belongings because they were hacking. It's sad here in America when every day it is becoming more of a police state and more freedoms are being taken away.

 

[Guest]

Er, only half right. He may not condone piracy, but he has enabled it by releaseing the keys. So any PS3 piracy is his fault.

 

[Sarcasm]

Guest said:
The main point here is this: Do you really own your Playstation 3? If Sony can use the law to force you not to modify your own hardware which you have obtained legally, then no, you do not own your Playstation 3. Sony owns your Playstation 3, and you have effectively rented it off them. Sony explicitly states that you are not allowed to do so under their terms and conditions, but they are effectively the terms under which you are allowed to access and use PSN and the terms under which you are entitled to have your console serviced under warranty.

You do own your PS3, but making a business lose millions of dollars due to stealing is the issue. People always bundle corporations as evil heartless money hungry entities, but you know these companies employ thousands of people with jobs?

 

[Guest]

You do own your PS3, but making a business lose millions of dollars due to stealing is the issue. People always bundle corporations as evil heartless money hungry entities, but you know these companies employ thousands of people with jobs?

OP here. Yes I understand this, and no I don't agree with piracy. But I also believe that people should have the freedom to do what they want with their own property. There are ways of dealing with hackers and there are ways of dealing with pirates:

This is why the OtherOS feature worked so well. It granted developers some freedom on the PS3. Rather than try to really strictly control exactly how their system was used, they threw interested developers a bone by allowing them to develop for the PS3 in Linux. They didn't allow the users to program for the RSX, however, so hacks were attempted to bypass this. All it would really allow was hardware accelerated homebrew, but for some reason Sony didn't like this much, so they removed the OtherOS feature completely and the hackers wanted it back. The way to do that? Either downgrade the firmware (which starts to get old after a few updates) OR completely open the system. My main point here is that the easiest way to control something can be to encourage or allow it in small amounts, rather than using brute force to repress, because ultimately that can backfire.

Ways of dealing with pirates? Find the distributors, sue THEM instead. Simples.

Microsoft has recently been taking an interesting approach to jailbreakers by embracing their ability to do what they do and attempting to understand why they do it. There seems to be some kind of mutual respect developing between Microsoft and the jailbreaking community, and I think this is a good approach. If you allow certain things to a degree, it makes them easy to control. If you put up a brick wall and refuse to deal with the people without using a lawyer and some legal threats, it forces the efforts underground making it harder to control and difficult to predict.

I understand why Sony is annoyed about this as it could be pretty damaging to them. But they are taking the wrong approach and seem to be digging themselves into deeper and deeper holes.

 

[Guest]

Georgie played with fire and now hes getting burned.......

 

[Guest]

Eh, I just googled for the GeoHot Homebrew Code..

Found about...900+ Websites that have it, are distributing it and making apps for it.

900 Turns to 1800... 1800 turns to 3600. Then When sony wins and GeoHot Losses. 3600 Turns into 360,000.

In two years, Another GeoHot Will Emerge, And If a PS4 is released by then, that will be Homebrewed as well.

I'm pretty sure a law is about to emerge stating that you're legally entitled to jailbreak your console. We just need more cases like this to pop up.

GeoHot's Not the example, he's the Solution. How to mass market the GeoHot Homebrew code?
Sue him.

Now sony is going to have to sue 360,000 People, Just to get the code. but they better do it soon, Because it'll reach a million before the end of the week.

Just sayin'

 

[grvalderrama]

this guy is a freakin genius

 

[Guest]

So your suggesting the District Judge has changed her mind because she has been paid off by Sony? Because I fail to see how a multi-billion dollar corporation can financially encourage any legal system in the USA.

They're called lobbyists. People who are given (not paid) ridiculous amounts of money for the **purpose** of "influencing" politicians on behalf of a business or corporation.

 

[Guest]

Hay I could tell you all I think your cool and do not condone fawl langauge. Would you beleive that too? Na did not think so

 

[Tanstar]

Leeky said:

Why did she change from "no jurisdiction"? - Money talks...

So your suggesting the District Judge has changed her mind because she has been paid off by Sony? Because I fail to see how a multi-billion dollar corporation can financially encourage any legal system in the USA. If they're anything like UK Judges they won't need money anyway, they earn stack loads of it!

Isn't that comment an offence under U.S. Law in itself??

Is suggesting that a judge might have been bribed illegal under U.S. law? No. We're allowed to badmouth and question our government. In the U.S. some judges make good money and some don't make much. This judge probably makes very good money, but plenty of people making good money are greedy and always want more, so that doesn't mean she didn't take a bribe. More than likely, Sony used it's influence to pressure her into making a ruling in their favor.

She either had enough jurisdiction to rule in the first case or she has no jurisdiction now. Can't have it both ways.

 

[Leeky]

I would have thought that those comments bordered on slander, without proof.

I do agree though, either she did to begin with, or doesn't at all.

 

[Guest]

big ups to geohot
the man is a champion.
I bought my ps3
it's MINE
if i brick it it's still mine
if i mod it and make it better why does it give sony the right to take it back?

to the people calling for geohots head i hope the recording companies come and takes all your stuff away for all the pirated songs you have on your ipod

so continue to live in fear of someone breaking into your sacred gaming account and downgrading you from a level 5 elf lord to a maggot
hahaha
keep living in your virtual world

 

[Guest]

If you want to figure out the root code and design your own homebrew for your own system thats fine. Posting it on the internet is not fine. Its that simple. I hope he gets the book.

 

[Guest]

If I made a key that opened the front door to your house, then gave a copy of that key to everyone on your street, would you be ok wid dat?

At least say it right..... If I purchased a locked door that several other people have as well, and if by examining the lock I can fabricate a key that helps all these other people get their doors open then wouldn't that be okay? You leave out the important factor of who paid for and owns the locked door. Perhaps sony should be renting these devices like cable boxes if they want total control. Also you are making a copy of someones key George/F0 fabricated one from a faulty lock, not by copying someone elses work.

 

[Guest]

Sony marketing department are really stupid. They have just to wait and see how are their sales going up because thanks to geohot PS3 is a new system now on. I own xbox360 and now i am thinking of buying a PS3 thanks to GeoHot. Wake up Sony.

 

[Guest]

"GeoHot listed that he does not condone using the serial keys for piracy or unlocking of games for use on Sony's PS3" .... then what exactly would he have people use them for?? the ONLY things those keys are good for are piracy or unlocking of games and thats it. everyone who is anyone is the IT world knows this. i am not agreeing with any side here. however, i will say that if you bought the system it is yours to do what you like. if you want to hack the SYSTEM then go for it, install homebrew and play the freeware until your eyes bleed. if you want to root your phone...go for it, etc. its when that info is used to steal the games and software it becomes an issue. many people never think how it really is no different from walking into a department store and shoving an item in your pocket. the same people who make and sell those items and rely on it for their income are no different from the employees who write and code the games. sony, like any other company, basically HAS to prosecute these people, otherwise, everyone would simply download everything, if there were no consequences to pirating the games, no one would ever pay for them! its simple economic policy. i'm sure i will get "nerd flamed" for this one but o well...will he get what he would deserve had he been a simple shoplifter or common thief that he actually is?? probably not...he will probably get off....do i feel sorry for him if he doesn't? nah

 

[Guest]

im sorry ricky, but i see you as very wrong. if i work for my money. and i buy something i own it to do with what i will. unless im using it to intentionally cause harm to someone else its none of their business. just like what i do with my body is my own business unless i use my fist to break someones nose. just putting that into perspective. its RELATIVELY (not completely) easy to fix this problem. add some kind of registry into the firmware so that every ps3 is scanned upon connection to the psn. that way there are no hackers in psn, but they can do whatever they want to the system as long as it is only affecting them. if they cant go online from it then they cant harm anyone with it.. unless of course they throw it through a window and hit someone.

Jake

 

[Guest]

This hotz guy is a criminal! Burn his *** and get rid of him!

 

[Guest]

the ONLY things those keys are good for are piracy or unlocking of games and thats it. everyone who is anyone is the IT world knows this.

Actually, the keys allow you to pretty much anything provided you know what to do with them, they're not directly related to piracy but can be exploited to enable it.

Geohot's hack did not enable piracy, he used the keys to allow his custom firmware to boot custom code. Homebrew can be absolutely fantastic once a community is big enough. I had a hacked Xbox and it was a brilliant media player.

Ever heard of XBMC? How do you think that came about?

 

[Guest]

Is it me or is Sony getting people to *astroturf* here?

Or is everyone commenting against Geohot really *that* uninformed?

You may know that kitchen knives can be used to kill people (and I REALLY hope it's not by experience). So does that mean that the kitchen knife manufacturer is a criminal? No.

"the ONLY things those keys are good for are piracy or unlocking of games and thats it." NO. BIG NO. A half truth is a whole lie. I strongly believe that this was NOT Geohot's intention. Ever heard of PSL1GHT? I admit that I only just found out about that today.

Some people like myself are programmers, and while I do not own a PS3, I do like to program stuff. If there is some artificial restriction, I get somewhat titchy, because I like to see how far I can push a system.

Not all games (or programs full stop) people make must be paid for. A lot are released by their authors free of charge, and a lot of these are released with the full source code (seriously, look up what "source code" is), almost always permitting you to modify it (usually requiring you to release your modified source code if you want to redistribute your modifications, something called a "copyleft").

Some software is even in the public domain, which means there is no restriction on what you can do with it (within the boundaries of the law, of course) - some of my software is PD'd, one such program is it2vgm, which can be and has been (my LudumDare 19 entry, "Cardiac Arrest", for instance) used for making music for the Sega Master System.

Sony's best move is to back off. Attempting to restrict homebrew development is just going to do serious damage to their image, and now that the files are out there due to a Streissand Effect (and I just downloaded them a short while ago), they actually can't stop it -- the best they can do is a bunch of FUD.

Pirates will pirate, and if they can't get it to run on the PS3, they might manage to port it to the PC instead (yes I *know* that's tricky but there's "bootlegs" of the *Mega Drive* version of Sonic the Hedgehog ported to the NES), so flaming Geohot is not going to stop piracy.

Nobody needs to burn here, but a few of you need buckets of icy cold water thrown over your heads.

 

[Guest]

Nintendo was also the big bad suer in 2 generations prior. They still are btw jsut search nintendo and sues.

 

[Guest]

i buy sony products legally. yet, still sony owned my sony products. unfair to me. why not sony give their products for free. i buy, still they own it. i buy, still they own it. bad sony...

i dont buy sony.

 

[Guest]

sony no good programmers. if they dont want ps3 to be hacked, improved your programming. hire good programmers better than geohot. ha ha ha. sony programmers are just getting fat from salary taken from sony.. sony programmers forgot digital security.... sony fired your programmers...

sony you lose.

 

[Guest]

sony forgot their origins... they begin as homebrew sort of... sony pls look back at your beginnings...
sony greedy... homebrew evolved. sony suppressed free thinking. sony pls put hard lock on your products to avoid hacking... your hard lock be free... or else i buy sony products plus hard lock... hahaha... down with sony.

 

[Guest]

to richy2k9:

you one sided guy... i buy a car, i modify.. you think what? you share your modification to your peers. you think what? will the car company sue me too...

geohot buys ps3, modified it. shared it. you think what?

you know what is wrong? sony not good in digital security. better tell sony to hire geohot or better than geohot.

i buy a product, i own it. its my decision to broke the code inside the product to improve it further.