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Sony settles court case with George Hotz

by · April 12, 2011

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29 Responses

  1. Lorz says:
    April 12, 2011 at 3:21 am

    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.

  2. Boom Box Thrasher says:
    April 12, 2011 at 3:30 am

    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.

  3. acacia says:
    April 12, 2011 at 3:34 am

    Oh man, I forgot about that Maddox page about Sony. That GIF gets me every time.

  4. H4CREW says:
    April 12, 2011 at 3:58 am

    GeoHot for president!!!

  5. Asmith906 says:
    April 12, 2011 at 4:18 am

    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.

    • Lorz says:
      April 12, 2011 at 6:14 am

      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

  6. BigFat says:
    April 12, 2011 at 5:06 am

    just glad to hear George is free but not at the cost of rights

  7. Mewneko says:
    April 12, 2011 at 8:07 am

    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 (:

    • Mewneko says:
      April 12, 2011 at 8:15 am

      woo wall of text XD sorry bout that o.o;;

    • Lorz says:
      April 12, 2011 at 8:52 am

      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”

      • Mewneko says:
        April 13, 2011 at 4:31 pm

        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 ):

        • Lorz says:
          April 14, 2011 at 7:35 am

          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

    • wololo says:
      April 12, 2011 at 8:59 am

      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)

  8. Vince says:
    April 12, 2011 at 1:51 pm

    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

    • Lorz says:
      April 12, 2011 at 3:44 pm

      Dunno dun care… won’t be buying them……. would much rather give my money to a company that doesn’t hate thier customers

    • sony can kiss my ass says:
      April 12, 2011 at 3:44 pm

      it will, call one popular console/phone which is not hacked.

  9. Roberto1 says:
    April 12, 2011 at 9:59 pm

    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?

    • Lorz says:
      April 12, 2011 at 10:06 pm

      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

    • Boom Box Thrasher says:
      April 12, 2011 at 10:31 pm

      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.

  10. equis says:
    April 12, 2011 at 10:49 pm

    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.

  11. Asmith906 says:
    April 13, 2011 at 12:36 am

    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?

  12. Asmith906 says:
    April 13, 2011 at 12:39 am

    Even after all this i’m still buying the ngp. I love me some gadgets

  13. Dick says:
    April 13, 2011 at 1:34 am

    Lol. He just got PWNED.

  14. Krozoa says:
    April 13, 2011 at 1:45 am

    i will do as I always do, i will only buy sony products once they are hacked.

  15. dlmultiply says:
    April 13, 2011 at 2:23 am

    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.

  16. Strider Hien says:
    April 13, 2011 at 12:31 pm

    piracy is illegal but it looks like sony is caring more about locking the consoles to homebrews and plugins than to piracy… so foolish…

  17. omar says:
    April 13, 2011 at 4:10 pm

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cdXYz268rPc

    He kind of won and lost if you see this video…

  18. elac says:
    April 13, 2011 at 7:41 pm

    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.

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