Joining the SONY Boycott
I encourage you to do the same. And if you bought something SONY recently, return it.
Why would you not boycott a company who feels this way about you?
There is much more to come on this blog.
The lawsuit initiated by Sony against hackers is now over, as “The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011.” As part of the agreement, Geohot “consented to a permanent injunction.”, which basically means, as far as I understand, that he agreed to stop distributing his files used for the PS3 jailbreak (which, although I’m not a lawyer, means that we still don’t know if distributing those is legal or not, just that one guy on Earth is not allowed to distribute them).
Legally, Geohot is not allowed to talk about the case, the settlement, or even his opinion on the subject. This makes many people *** at him, as they believe he simply gave up… The fact that the settlement contents cannot be disclosed doesn’t help him, as it makes imagination the limit, and some people now accuse him of stealing their money (from donations), giving up the fight, or even accepting a huge pile of cash from Sony.
Although he can’t directly talk about it, George Hotz has posted a few comments on his blog that are still convincing me that something good might be coming, or maybe something “more important” than a fight between a Hacker and a corporation. Am I the only one dreaming of having Sony lobbying in favor of interoperability in the future?
The settlement surely is a bad surprise, but George Hotz’s history with the iPhone makes me believe he (or at least his lawyers) knows what he’s doing.
Below are the quotes from Geohot, taken from his blog:
Regarding why he doesn’t talk about it
The terms of the settlement agreement are “confidential” and the matter requires that they be “confidential”.
[…]
By contract, I cannot discuss the Action or my views regarding the Action.
[…]
I will attempt to clarify this further in upcoming posts. But if it isn’t already clarified by the work I’ve done on the iPhone, I’m not sure how much more I can convince you.
[…]
I do not like confidentiality
Regarding people thinking he stole their money by accepting donations
I will address the donations in a forthcoming post, and I think people will be happy.
[…]
I am fighting your fight, in the best way I know how. You’ll just have to trust me.
[…]
I promise you none of your money will end up in my pocket. And I haven’t set anything back at all, hilarious how you can claim I set the jailbreak movement back. I was there when it was invented. The original iPhone hackers, me included, invented the word usage.
To people who said he gave up, making the fight pointless:
It definitely was not a waste, I assure you.
Allow me to quote The Social Network:
Sean Parker: I brought down the record companies with Napster.
Eduardo Saverin: Uh, sorry. You didn’t bring down the record companies. They won.
Sean Parker: In court?
Eduardo Saverin: Yeah.
Sean Parker: Do you want to buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?[…]
To people who think he sold his soul
As of 4/11/11, I am joining the SONY boycott. I will never purchase another SONY product.
I encourage you to do the same. And if you bought something SONY recently, return it.
Why would you not boycott a company who feels this way about you?
There is much more to come on this blog.
[…]
I think Apple actually likes their customers.
Unlike certain other companies
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sony_bullshit[…]
Hilarious that anyone would even consider the idea that I would consider working for Sony. I wouldn’t work for someone I hated, no matter how much they paid me.
@XXX I believe there is a war coming that extends much much further than “is jailbreaking fair use?” and Sony.
[…]
That’s one way to look at it. Another way is that they are saving their strength for games where the refs aren’t biased and that actually have much more importance to the rest of the season. [Note from wololo: in reference to soccer players giving up in the middle of a game]
Last but not least, this one I Quote for Truth
What I’ve found in all PS3 related matters is no matter what you do, you make tons of people *** off. You release something, people are ***. You don’t release something, people are ***. Sony removes OtherOS, people are *** at YOU. You settle, people are ***. You fight, people are ***. You talk, people are ***. You stay quiet, people are ***.
The conclusion I have drawn is that PS3 fanboys are just *** off.
And no one except me has lost any rights today.
So, well, I still have hope that something bigger is coming, although I swear I initially thought this was a joke when I read about it today…
Geohot also announced that he would be boycotting Sony’s products from now on. This happens as a protest is being organized in Sony outlets all over the world, Saturday this week. The demonstration is organized by Anonymous, and is one way to protest against Sony’s attitude towards their customers, while not disrupting the PSN, are you planning to go?
SCEA vs Hotz
I encourage you to do the same. And if you bought something SONY recently, return it.
Why would you not boycott a company who feels this way about you?
There is much more to come on this blog.
“What if SCEA tries to settle?
Lets just say, I want the settlement terms to include OtherOS on all PS3s and an apology on the PlayStation blog for ever removing it. It’d be good PR for Sony too, lord knows they could use it. I’m also willing to accept a trade, a legit path to homebrew for knowledge of how to stop new firmwares from being decrypted.”
Doesn’t sound like it.
F you, Sony.
Please tell me all’s well, and we’re getting back our OtherOS?
@BricksLamp The terms of the settlement agreement are “confidential” and the matter requires that they be “confidential”.
The DAY the PS4 comes out, I’m picking one up JUST to attempt what you started with the PS3. Freedom. I stood idly by for this one, because I’m not the best at hacking consoles, but now Sony has garnered my attention with this. I’ll make it a personal goal for PS4 w/CFW if I can.
Of course, you can’t talk about it, so we will never know.
Sure, it’s nice that it’s over and people can move on with their lives… but I just think people expected a bit more of a fight than this.
Hopefully you lived up to your aggressive postings on geohot.com.
Best wishes
Allow me to quote The Social Network:
Sean Parker: I brought down the record companies with Napster.
Eduardo Saverin: Uh, sorry. You didn’t bring down the record companies. They won.
Sean Parker: In court?
Eduardo Saverin: Yeah.
Sean Parker: Do you want to buy a Tower Records, Eduardo?
I hope your satisfied, I’m looking forward to hearing an announcement of you refunding every single person’s donation because you obviously didn’t keep up to your end of the bargain.
That makes me feel a lot better… and those repercussions have already been seen to a small degree…
It just dawned on me… I think I may have an idea on the settlement… >.>
Please tell me your bloody trolling. You went from diehard anti Sony who is the freedom protector to a swiveling *** which bows down? JESUS CHRIST. Way to sell out.
@CheeseBiscuit I am fighting your fight, in the best way I know how. You’ll just have to trust me.
Ya’ll stop flaming him… if I’m right, there’s a lot more than the surface shows…
I risked the most… but I feel better than most… why is that? I’m not rich, there’s just more return than what’s showing at this time…
Am I right, Geo? 🙂
Give things time to settle down and wait and see what happens before we form an angry mob. 😉
“I believe in Karma. If the good is sown, the good is collected. When positive things are made, that returns well.” ~ Yannick Noah
The seeds of victory have been sown; wait for them to grow and blossom.
Why is Apple not going after hackers in the same way? Isn’t this a similar issue?
Unlike certain other companies
http://www.thebestpageintheuniverse.net/c.cgi?u=sony_bullshit
Your nothing but a fraud and you have done nothing for the PS3 but cost us our other OS feature.
I hope annoymous attacts your sites.
Go on Geo. Good job.
Please change your mind!
I hope he is claiming the money for the donations on his tax return for 2011.
That’s considered earned moeny even if people give it too you. IRS will be sure to make him pay it on his taxes. We might see him fighting the IRS next year.
If not, will there be another announcement of any kind that will show people in any way that they were right to trust you to fight their fight?
I will attempt to clarify this further in upcoming posts. But if it isn’t already clarified by the work I’ve done on the iPhone, I’m not sure how much more I can convince you.
They aren’t the type to settle if they can win all the way.
He is most likely joining the sony boycott because he’s already been enjoined from possessing sony hardware.
I suspect the answer will be apparent with the next firmware update.
I bet you they paid him off in the settlement. Things just got settled like that so quick. Geohot is fraud and all you geohot supporters are a bunch of losers like him.
What has he done for the Scene? Tell me? He caused the loss of the other os? If thats a victory your all a bunch of fools.
One good thing about the settlement is we won’t have to hear about geohots sorry *** again. RIP Geohot.
Let’s see how far a get with my laptop, a soldering iron, and the internet…
Obviously I recognise what you’ve done within the iOS scene giving users the means to acquire this right in a practical sense themselves. Good to know we haven’t seen the last of you in that scene.
As for the Sony boycott, most definately, I’ll join up. I got a PS3 and a PSP at the request of a friend and I’ve never seen so much… I don’t even know the right word for it… insanity? lies? deceit? I’m sure there’s a better term for it, but there’s just so much to cover in that one word…
Already joined the boycott when this whole thing started. I’ll get stuff second-hand when it can run homebrew.
I don’t know who’s worse GH or Sony…..
Fraud that is all he is or should I say a scammer. Contact Paypal and tell them you want to dispute the money sent and do charge backs if you paid by credit card to paypal. Teach this fool a lesson.
Boy you *** me off. Don’t shoot the mouth off if your not going to follow threw on what you say and now we should listen to you and boycott sony because you say so? Who the heck are you. I have been boycotting sony since april 1 2010.
He took those donations to get his *** out of trouble, than signed a job. I feel sorry for all those who donated to him, you just gave him a job.
The REAL details are in the memorandum of understanding, which is confidential, and direly in need of leaking by someone other then Hotz and his legal team.
Straight from his blog:
What if SCEA tries to settle?
Lets just say, I want the settlement terms to include OtherOS on all PS3s and an apology on the PlayStation blog for ever removing it. It’d be good PR for Sony too, lord knows they could use it. I’m also willing to accept a trade, a legit path to homebrew for knowledge of how to stop new firmwares from being decrypted.
Well after reading the court documents, i’m wondering what this lawsuit was all about
George Hotz just accepted what Sony wanted from him in the first place – he could have signed this agreement months ago
@iShauny I believe there is a war coming that extends much much further than “is jailbreaking fair use?” and Sony.
As I said before, you are a genius and now is a right time to put that to work. be the good boy and hack in the shadows. Stop looking for celebrity status. But be carefull! They are on to you now and they will put you in jail if you mess with the NGP or Xperia or any other SONY device.
Just a few words about you: You talked a lot of #$$# and coulnd cash any of it. You were never in this for “us”, you did this for yourself and I pity the people who donated money to your Holy Crusade.
You got OWNED boyz!
Pathetic, *** pathetic if you can’t see how you are being manipulated here.
I guess the early bath suited you more. And that picture of you lifting the cup? Not going to happen as I don’t think even a Sunday league team would take you with your baggage in tow.
Thanks for the drama.
Not Tv, Not SoundSystem, Not DVD player, Nothing Sony.
From Chile
*** you.
You owe us an explanation on what exactly happened.
*** your confidential *** nobody gives a ***.
Man it up.
‘Cus atm i and many others would class you as a fraud, and a lier, “I will not give up until they settle with my demands” now, were your demands “my demands must remain confidential” eh eh eh? i didnt think so, you settled on theres, thus you fail.
Get your head out of your ***, put yourself in Geohots shoes for five minutes. I doubt he RAN away with your money. Sure he and Sony settled but we still don’t know the terms and we may never get the full details… But if you donated to him you were a supporter and now because he walked away with a settlement you want to crucify him without even knowing the full impact of this case. Really?
@Geohot Winning!!!!!
I assure you… after what I just realized and compared to what I read, it’s not what everyone here thinks. Back off of Geo, I know (though not word for word) that this isn’t actually over. And Sony didn’t win. Anyone who donated more than I has somethin’ to say. Sorry, not tryin’ to be an ***, but “when you play the rank game, you gotta have the rank,” and no one I know yet has donated more than myself. I assure anyone who donated to him, it wasn’t in vain at all…
@George Hotz
All I can do is thank you. I refuse to divulge anything I found out. If they wanna know, they can snoop around. And as far as Sony is concerned, don’t sweat the small stuff. You did a great favor to many, and there are plenty of others to pick up the torch. It’s all about fear. They’ll never make it illegal for everyone. We’ve (You’ve) won this one.
Everyone either boycott Sony or hack the **** out of their products! They can’t stop us all!!!
The conclusion I have drawn is that PS3 fanboys are just *** off.
And no one except me has lost any rights today.
The fact that this is part of a settlement agreement between sony and geohot and not a court decision means that no basis of law has been decided….. for one the trial took place in california where “jailbreaking” is already illegal and for two no judge had anything to do with this decision.
This is still bad. The question still remains, can you hack your PS3 like you can your phone?(I know, stupid question.) Another game company is going to unjustly sue a customer over something like this(Most likely Sony, because Microsoft and Nintendo aren’t this stupid.) All because Geohot, who had the popularity, notoriety and moral support of every other person out there failed to hold on a little longer and finally put the question to rest. Not saying I would have done otherwise, but with all that freedom-of-information and right-to-my-console talk you would expect more from him.
And this boycott won’t do anything. Majority of Sony’s customers just want to use their stuff without any interruptions, even if it means coughing up more and more money and gradually losing their rights to their console. And there’ll still be dimwits out there who’ll buy the NGP/PS4 and start crying for a jailbreak. And there’ll be a dimwit hacker out there to deliver a jailbreak. And Sony’ll sue ’em. And this whole nonsense will happen over again.
Oh man, I forgot about that Maddox page about Sony. That GIF gets me every time.
GeoHot for president!!!
If this case wasn’t settled there was a good chance geohot could go to jail or even be buried in mountains of debt. If its between pleasing fickle fans of the hacking scene just read some of the past comments directed at tn and the pro team. heck just read the comments that where directed at DAX i’d try to settle it to. It’s always easy to say what should be done when it’s not your *** on the line.
Agreed…. this case was not going to be won…. it was pretty plain to see right from the beginning that Sony bought themselves a judge…. pretty much let them run rampant and dig wherever they pleased……….
An American court allowed a Japanese company to violate an Americans constitutional rights and OURS….
Remember Sony also obtained information on who visited GeoHotz youtube vids and his website.
Anyone who can forgive and forget Sony or the American legal system for this is seriously blind
just glad to hear George is free but not at the cost of rights
What’s done is done I guess? I must say though I’m a little uncomfortable with the feel he’s giving off as the war hero who is now being attacked by the masses. Looking at many other sites… People just didn’t seem to like the guy ):. I’m not gonna judge as I don’t know him personally, but I don’t know if its a good idea to give a feeling of being a victim of the people and their wrath. Maybe it’s just me but that is the feeling I get from the quotes on here.
I can’t say I side with him as I remember when this all first came out. The keys I mean, there was the question of is this right? And the ethics behind using the keys… Plus weren’t some people a bit angry about him releasing them in the first place? Then Sony stepped in and it was the big evil company against the poor little guy. Open source is great. Homebrew is also awesome. But there is a point one can take it too far. A line has to be drawn somewhere. And a company big or small has a right to protect their intellectual property. What you do offline is your business, but you bring that online and its well public. Enabling others to do the same as you and most likely taking steps farther. And you the end user have a right to buy or not buy. If you don’t like the companies practices don’t buy their stuff from the start. Putting your best foot forward and presenting a non-hostile argument would gain a lot more respect I would think. Fighting for your rights, though I fail to fully see what rights “of the people” he was fighting for through tactics that would clearly, from the start, anger the side your looking for rights from blows up in your face.
Also the quote from the movie ._. I’m not sure what I’m supposed to get from that exactly. All I’m getting is Sean took down Tower records through the fact he was sued by them and now you hate them for suing him o_O??
One thing that that also baffles me, and has since Anon started their attacks is how people can have so much hate and anger for Sony that they cheer this group on, all the while tsk tsking them for messing with the PSN O_o. As I said before hate the company don’t buy their stuff. Reminds me of the people in outside America hating America all the while wearing American brand clothes and drinking a Coca Cola. But that’s just my little opinion (:
woo wall of text XD sorry bout that o.o;;
Getting sued is not heroic, i personally do not believe GeoHotz is a “hero”, but what i do think is that this case represents yet another public abuse of the American legal system and yet another attack on its customers by Sony.
If i sell you a car, i have no right to tell you that you’re not allowed to take that car apart and put other parts in it.
I have no right to sue you for telling other people how to take it apart and add parts to it, and this is exactly what Sony has been doing, this has nothing to do with “intelectual property”
I’m not fully understanding the abuse of the legal system part though. He did this not just for personal use but distributed a part of their hardware/software that wasn’t meant for customer use. An exploit that can be seen as a security risk? Sony is allowed to go after that. Especially if you make such a thing public. I mean if you use a service and they tell you you can’t listen to music while using our service. It may seem o_O to you but you have the choice of not using the service and or complaining and that company has the right to tell you how to use their service too. It is their service.
Hrmms Well if you go with the car idea then, couldn’t you argue that he took Sony’s car keys, ones that were meant for the people they approve to sit in the drivers seat, duplicated them and gave everyone a copy?
I get that its you property when you buy but, looking at the terms on many a software/hardware and overall products (non-open source stuff) there are parts of that you still don’t fully own. Many things have a don’t mess around with certain parts of this software/hardware and redistribute in their terms.
I don’t know but that just my view point on it >.<
I do see a tragedy that the homebrew comm. and Sony may never see eye to eye and the benefits they can give each other. Would have been nice to see both side working together. Its like parents (Sony and the Homebrew people) fighting and we the users are the kids ):
i detailed why it was an abuse of the legal system already above and have went into it many times before that im pretty much sick of repesating myself so i wont
And i cannot even comprehend how someone could not possibly see that what sony is doing is anything but wrong
I think the quote of the movie is to be understood like this:
– What was the point to fight against big Music corporations, since eventually you lost in court?
– Well do you think people have been buying more of their products since they won that lawsuit? Would you buy some of their stock options?
– (implicit answer is no, because the whole Napster thing, despite legally ending on Music Majors’ side, completely destroyed their business model, and the way people think and talk about them nowadays, to a point where nobody sane would bet cash on them)
Hrms I kinda understand it a bit more ty ^^
I’m quite dissappointed…
In this event that Geohot will never buy another sony product…
will the xperia play or even the ngp be hacked? o.O
lets hope so. =S
Dunno dun care… won’t be buying them……. would much rather give my money to a company that doesn’t hate thier customers
it will, call one popular console/phone which is not hacked.
you know what ima do I gonna get the psp2 then iso the games only made by sony and release them lose all your money got a problem?
You wouldn’t get Sonys attention with that, they don’t care about piracy, they completely ignore ISO sites and instead target Homebrew enthusiests and people who want to squeeze a few more features out of thier system
I think you should go ahead for the same reason as Lorz’s. Sony prefers to chase one hacker who’s CFW doesn’t allow piracy around while the real pirates are left to steal to their heart’s content. Why? Because it’s cheaper to sue one guy. They don’t care if they’re trampling on his rights or misinterpreting the law. Just drag the lawsuit as long as it can go, dilly-dally around with useless TROs and trying to prove that the defendant joined PSN when that has almost no relevance to the core debate brought before the court. My friend, you’re welcome to steal all you want. Sony doesn’t care.
I think GeoHot would not give up in this battle without a very good reason, I don’t know what but it seems to me he has high values, previously demonstrated. Also, Sony had all the chances to win in the court, but went for a settlement… why? There is something more in this case not available to our knowledge that will bring more huge news in the future, I expect to better our world.
isn’t it more disturbing that he can be fined simply for hacking a sony device even if he doesn’t distribute it over the Internet. I mean is that for a set time. how can they legally enforce something like that?
Even after all this i’m still buying the ngp. I love me some gadgets
Lol. He just got PWNED.
i will do as I always do, i will only buy sony products once they are hacked.
In a way, Geohot is experiencing the things that happened to Solid Snake in the events that transpired between MGS and the start of MGS2. I’d like to elaborate on the parallelisms but unfortunately I’m too lazy to do that.
piracy is illegal but it looks like sony is caring more about locking the consoles to homebrews and plugins than to piracy… so foolish…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdXYz268rPc
He kind of won and lost if you see this video…
So….not only did Sony secure the PS3 and any of their products against GeoHot working on jailbreaking them, they also have “secured” that the information regarding his works (on the PS3) and his side of the story on the outcome is “confidential” and not made available to the public.
Wow!!! I can’t believe our US legal system allowed this misuse of justice to restrict the quest for knowledge.