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wraggster
February 20th, 2011, 00:51
News via http://geohot.com/


Media, I need your help. This is the first time I have ever asked. Please, if you support this cause, help me out and spread the word.
I want, by the time this goes to trial, to have Sony facing some of the hardest hitting lawyers in the business.
Together, we can help fix the system


https://www.paypal.com/en_US/i/scr/pixel.gif
Donations here are for legal defense ONLY
I checked with my lawyers before setting this up
If you have another substantial way to donate aside from money, let me know

tl;dr
Sony is lame, and is suing me for hacking MY OWN PS3. Help me own them in court

Sony are bullies
Sony doesn't care if what you did was legal, if they don't like it, they sue. Sony tried to sue a guy (http://yro.slashdot.org/story/01/10/28/005233/Sony-Uses-DMCA-To-Shut-Down-Aibo-Hack-Site) for getting his AIBO to do non Sony approved tricks, making it apparent that they don't really care about piracy, they care about control. In (Sony v Bleem (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bleem!)), Bleem was the winner on all counts, but the high cost of a legal defense shut them down. Fortunately, that suit helped set precedent on the legality of emulators. I would hate to lose this case due to resource starvation, and with the support of the masses, I won't. Lets turn the bully back on itself. This case has the ability to set a huge precedent for consoles and all closed systems to come. The other two should be begging Sony to back off.

Sony sued the wrong guy
I am an advocate against mass piracy, do not distribute anyone's copyrighted work but my own, do not take crap lying down, and am even pro DRM in a sense. For example, I believe Apple has every right to lock down their iPhone in the factory as much as they want, but once it's paid for and mine, I have the right to unlock it, smash it, jailbreak it, look at it, and hack on it. Fortunately, the courts agree with me on this point.
My PS3 goal has been to provide users a legitimate path to homebrew, which by the standards of all (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade) previous (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lexmark_Int'l_v._Static_Control_Components) cases (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Chamberlain_Group,_Inc._v._Skylink_Technologie s,_Inc.) (or, in (http://www.law.cornell.edu/copyright/cases/Sony_v_Bleem.htm) reverse (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Connectix_Virtual_Game_Station)), is 100% legal. Sony does not even try to allege piracy or copyright infringement in this case, they allege I did things like play "super mario world, an unauthorized game" on MY PS3. And access MY PS3 in an unauthorized way. Who are they to authorize what I do with my taxed and paid for property?
fail0verflow's goal was even nobler than mine. They wanted to give you back a feature Sony illegally (http://forbrukerportalen.no/Artikler/2011/%20PlayStation_3_violates_the_Norwegian_Marketing_ Control_Act) stole, Linux on your PS3. It's shameful on Sony's part that they are being sued at all. If you have a problem with pirates, sue them, don't sue people who point out your shortcomings.

Why should I care about your personal legal troubles?
You shouldn't. For example, if I was taken to court for sex crimes in Sweden, I would never ask for donations. But this case isn't about me. Clearly I am not being sued because of something I have that Sony wants, I am being sued in order to send a message that Sony is not to be messed with. But if I(and all codefendants likewise) actually win this, we have the power to send a much stronger message back. That consumers have rights, and we aren't afraid to stand up for them.

Why should I trust you? I just saw you trying to rap battle Sony
My attempts at humor aside, I do take this whole matter very seriously. Again, it's not about me, I was on the verge of quitting this stuff last June, and I would hate to be the one who sets a reputation for hackers that all a company has to do is sue us and we back down. In fact, I want the opposite reputation set, that the more a company tries to abuse the legal system, the harder we rally back. I will be the first person in line on the launch date of the Xperia Play, and itching to get my hands on the Next GEOHOT Project.

Why did you wait until now to set this up?
I didn't want to be trigger happy, and thought the suit might go away quickly. Also, I had to consult with my lawyers about how to do this. It's been over a month, and it looks like this is going to be a drawn out case. I am in this for the long haul. I am very serious ethically when I take donations, for all iPhone work I only accepted after the fact, here after the fact is too late. Now I am pot committed so to say.

How much should I donate?
Put it this way, Sony has 5 lawyers, I have 2. I'd like to level the playing field, and really get some hard hitters in there. I have already racked up over 10k in legal bills; donate whatever you feel like. Leftover donations at the end of all this will be donated to the EFF (https://www.eff.org/).

What if I want to donate more than I feel comfortable sending through PayPal?
I'm excited! Email me, we'll figure it out.

Why doesn't the EFF fund this?
Ask them. They have offered to provide some legal help though, which is much appreciated.

Donate to help you, you're the reason I can't play Modern Warfare now…
No, I'm not. Kakaroto explains this really well here (http://ps3mfw.com/?p=134). I have never played PS3 online ever. Frankly I'm amazed by the apparent ease with which these cheats were created, security 101, why is the security in the client anyway? I had no idea this would happen, and am in full support of the cheaters being permabanned from PSN.

I'm a poor college student, what can I do to help?
I feel you, don't worry. Spread the word. Let people know how you feel about what Sony is doing. Let Sony know how you feel about what Sony is doing.

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.

Why isn't SCEA trying to settle?
RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE RAGE...THEY POINTED OUT OUR SECURITY FLAWS...IM SO MADDDDDDDD...WAHHHHHH

Check out the new blog (http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/)
Old index page for archival purposes here (http://geohot.com/index_archive.html)

Contact Me
geohot ... gmail

adventure_of_link
February 20th, 2011, 01:30
lol. geohot put everything nicely.. well said. Hope he actually wins this.

EDIT: I hope geohot knows that there is a DMCA extension that allows for the jailbreaking of phones..

cmptrblder
February 20th, 2011, 06:18
Geohot as well as MANY other DEV's really do deserve our thanks and occasionally our help when truly needed. These guys (and gals) bring to light security issues, holes and problems that the big companies get careless about and ignore when it comes to our private info, cc info and security. There are many people out there that blame the DEV's and hackers for the problems but the problem is the companies like Sony, who have ignored the security issues with there products with no regard to customer security and information safety. Everyone of us deserve to feel confident that the products we buy are safe, secure and as a paying customer not have things taken from us AFTER we pay for them. I personally do NOT agree with piracy but I agree 100% with homebrew as this adds functionality and features to a product that we paid for and leads to future innovation. A perfect example is the original apple tv, apples "hobby" with lackluster features modded to a fully functional mediacenter. This is MY personal 2 cents and as an added thank you for all the hard work these guys do, I'm going to donate $69.99 (the cost of a Sony game) to Geohot. I know its not much but it's what I can give.........CMPTRBLDER

mib_
February 21st, 2011, 13:29
I hope he burns in hell.

BlueCrab
February 21st, 2011, 14:42
I hope he burns in hell.
Just curious, why would you hope for such a thing? You're on a site all about homebrew and the like, and yet you want one of the people who made it possible on the PS3 to be punished for it. That seems a bit nonsensical to me.

neim81094
February 21st, 2011, 16:08
MIB? Men in black? Maybe this guy is from sony you know their "men in black" dude sony or not, i dnt think "hell" is considered a good word to use, u mite get infracted for tht and geohot u inspire young hackers everywhere :D

Malksta
February 21st, 2011, 16:30
Geohot has racked up over $10k for legal fees from donations already.

PS3 scene at best :)