The court case between SCEA and George Hotz(GeoHot) has been going on for a while now, well it appears that both parties have come to an agreement, GeoHot consented to a permanent injunction (which means stay away permanently from the PS3 and PS3 hacking related activities).
Here is a quote from the US PS3 Blog posted by Sr. Director of Corporate Communications & Social Media Patrick Seybold:
Joint Statement
Sony Computer Entertainment America (“SCEA”) and George Hotz (“Hotz”) today announced the settlement of the lawsuit filed by SCEA against Hotz in federal court in San Francisco, California. The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011. As part of the settlement, Hotz consented to a permanent injunction.
Both parties expressed satisfaction that litigation had been quickly resolved. “Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us,” said Riley Russell, General Counsel for SCEA. “Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal.”
“It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,” said Hotz, I’m happy to have the litigation behind me.” Hotz was not involved in the recent attacks on Sony’s internet services and websites.
In the action, SCEA accused Hotz of violating federal law by posting online information about the security system in the PlayStation 3 videogame console and software that SCEA claimed could be used to circumvent the security system in the console and allow the playing of pirated videogames. Hotz denies any wrongdoing on his part. Hotz’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction was still pending before the federal court in San Francisco but a preliminary injunction was issued requiring Hotz to take down the postings challenged by SCEA.
“We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment and we want to protect the hard work of the talented engineers, artists, musicians and game designers who make PlayStation games and support the PlayStation Network,” added Russell. “We appreciate Mr. Hotz’s willingness to address the legal issues involved in this case and work with us to quickly bring this matter to an early resolution.”
[Source PS Blog] - Thanks to H0lyPuma for the News Tip via Twitter.
So what are your views, especially those of you who donated, do you feel like Geohot made the right decision? Do you believe that the rushed court case settlement could be the work/result of Anonymous? Let us know via comments below.
UPDATE 1
Here is a quote from the court case document:
On March 31,2011, Hotz met with SCEA representatives and the Parties entered
a confidential Memorandum of Understanding, agreeing to settle the dispute between
them. As a part of that settlement, SCEA and Hotz have agreed to the entry of this Final
Judgment Upon Consent and Permanent Injunction (“Judgment” upon the stipulated
facts. Each party has waived the right to appeal from this Judgment. Each party wil
bear its own fees and costs in connection with this action. The Parties further agree that
any violation of this Judgment by Hotz would cause irreparable harm to SCEA and, if
such a violation occurs, SCEA wil be entitled to immediate relief.
ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED AND ADJUDGED by consent of the Parties that Hotz,
whether as an individual or as a principal, officer, director or employee of any business
entity, and his agents, servants, employees, distributors, suppliers, representatives and all
other persons or entities acting in concert or participation with Hotz who receive notice of
this Judgment, shall be and hereby are permanently enjoined and restrained from:
A. Engaging in any unauthorized access to any SONY PRODUCT under the
law;
B. Engaging in any unauthorized access to any SONY PRODUCT under the
terms of any SCEA or SCEA AFFILIATES’ license agreement or terms of use
applicable to that SONY PRODUCT, whether or not Hotz has accepted such
agreement or terms of use, including without limitation:
(i) reverse engineering, decompiling, or disassembling any portion of the
Sony Product;
(ii) using any tools to bypass, disable, or circumvent any encryption,
security, or authentication mechanism in the Sony Product;
(iii) using any hardware or softare to cause the Sony Product to accept
or use unauthorized, illegal or pirated softare or hardware; and
(iv) exploiting any Sony Product to design, develop, update or distribute
unauthorized softare or hardware for use with the Sony Product.
If any term of such SCEA or SCEA Affilates’ license agreement or terms of
use applicable to that Sony Product shall be determined by Congress or by a
court of law in a final non-appealable decision in an action to which SCEA or
an SCEA Affiliate is a party to be illegal and unenforceable, then such term
shall not be binding on Hotz.
UPDATE 2:
And here is Geohots response via his blog:
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.
04-11-2011
10:58 AM
Glad that Mr. Hotz is ok!
04-11-2011
10:58 AM
Does this mean its all over ??
04-11-2011
10:59 AM
He sold out then. What a lame ending to this saga.
There's a shocker. Hope he donates that money he got for the legal team now.
P.S This also means GeoHot will be leaving the PS3 Scene for good. So its not all bad news.
04-11-2011
10:59 AM
Always has been and forever will be a prick.
i donated and i regret it, hope he get caughts for something else and rot in jail
04-11-2011
11:01 AM
What happened here will someone please simplify.
04-11-2011
11:01 AM
lol, you still got your 3.5x homebrew and jailbreaking the ps3 was not made illegal.
what else were you hoping for? this is a win for the scene.
04-11-2011
11:02 AM
So thats it. Geo bent over and has taken a permenant injuction up the a-hole... what a pathetic ending to the so called battle.
04-11-2011
11:04 AM
04-11-2011
11:06 AM
I inevitably knew that Sony would eventually prevail, he more likely told them how he obtained the keys.
04-11-2011
11:06 AM
I think he took the best option he had available without really having to "pay for it". Say he was accused and found guilty...he could earn a big fine or possibly jail time.
IMO, he just wanted to get over the "stress" of the court case and take his best option now rather then wait later.
I think many of you confused or assumed Geohot fighting for the "scene" and future hacking/modding of consoles...we know now that he was just fighting for his own ass.
04-11-2011
11:06 AM
well i have not accepted the new TOS so at least I'm ok
04-11-2011
11:07 AM
This ending is boring -_-
I would have liked this to be the PSP vs Pirates war -_-" but then zzz
04-11-2011
11:08 AM
Well according to geohot's blog he will never buy another sony product ever again...
...so my take is the agreement was "never touch our crap again and we will stop suing you. This is wasting both of our times."
Sony knew they were going to lose with their proof falling through and George was too weak to stay with it and rather just disappear.
I could be wrong...but i dont think i am.
04-11-2011
11:12 AM
Sony settled? Well that speaks volumes about their faith in the court case. He probably could've won out in the end... but he's just a kid. He'd have to be an idiot to throw it all away over a console. Sure, it has more serious underpinnings than that... but it's his life we're talking about. He doesn't want to be the messiah, so leave Brian Hotz alone.
04-11-2011
11:12 AM
i PERSONALLY AM DISGUSTED WITH THIS! HE JUST GAVE IN LIKE THAT!!
04-11-2011
11:13 AM
I appreciate what hotz has done for us, and I respect his choice. However as many of you I feel like he let down other users/hackers and all who payed for his lawyers. I really hoped he would go to the end, fight Sony and show Sony that we users have our rights no matter what they put in there TOS.
But to all those who hate him for his choice, please consider that he is still a kid who's main life should be spend in school, not court.
PS: Does anyone know if he promised not to touch any other Sony device?
04-11-2011
11:16 AM
I havnt read anyones comments yet, although I will
but I'd like to say this is definatly because of anonamous and other stuff im sure. $ony needs there resources back.
In other words, Anon saved geohots ass. Lets wait and see which direction $ony goes in next
04-11-2011
11:18 AM
Well on his blog today, he has stated that he will boycott all Sony products.
04-11-2011
11:22 AM
Settlements like this are usually due to both parties lack of faith in their ability to win. Geohot in his defense simply lacked the resources to battle sony, his legal team always appeared amateurish to me. For Sony this would mean testing the legality of their TOS, something which could be costly should they lose.
Essentially it is a Win/Win for both parties, however for the hacking/modding scene it leaves it still in a legal grey area.
04-11-2011
11:24 AM
i am shocked at people criticizng HOTZ..what the freak do you want him to do spend the rest of his life and money fighting Sony? you make it seem like fighting sony is going to Wonderland..how easy do you think it is to win over Sony? And plus, this is in a way a good ending - if HOtz was found guilty then sony could use it as pretext to get everyone..so quit babbling..the guy has been brave and has done his best
04-11-2011
11:25 AM
so, he fought his best and did everything he could until he couldn't take it anymore and the case was settled.
and you guys are crying about it?
basically all you people are saying "wahhh i thought he was going to win it for me but he didn't what a prick wahhhhhhh"
you guys put all your faith and trust into this one man whom is going up against a huge company and you expect him to just be able to win it with his hands tied behind his back.
and now that he's settled to save his own ass, you whine about it.
what would you have done? when he sees everything you people are saying about the situation, i'm sure he'll be glad with the choice he made for all you inappreciative babies.
the donations were your choice. you were donating money to him to help him pay for his lawyers. you weren't purchasing a win.
if you say you want your money back because he didn't "win" then you're an idiot. you're basically saying that by giving him money, you thought you were assured a victory. and now that the case is finally settled, just because it wasn't what you wanted you want your money back.
i'd spit on you big ass babies if i ever saw any of you.
04-11-2011
11:27 AM
Really didnt think it would end like this but i suppose it hasnt ended to bad for geohot , but what does this mean for jailbreaking legality ?
Is it just the same as before ?
04-11-2011
11:29 AM
04-11-2011
11:32 AM
I dont think he will never buy a sony product again , but he WILL never let his findings out again
also ending like this i feel that sony may have known they were not going to win but i dont blame him for coming to an agreement
04-11-2011
11:34 AM
Definitely was hoping for a better ending but oh well this is still ok kind of lame though.
04-11-2011
11:35 AM
That's ok guys i heard someone i think his name was "grapevine" and he said after Geohot's case he'll release 3.60 CFW.
hope his promise was true.
************* [ - Post Merged - ] *************
I heard it at an IRC conversation
04-11-2011
11:37 AM
04-11-2011
11:38 AM
04-11-2011
11:42 AM
he did the right thing. why be sued for rest of his life? maybe he is just doing this to come back. maybe he is gonna do all he can on the ps3 and give it to someonelse to upload it to stay away from sonys raidar. or he is just trying to get back to his life!
i hope he doesnt quit the ps3 projekt just staying of sony raidar!
he should do like usama bin laden. go underground and work and bring out everything in the ps3 :P
but he help the other developers and they go on with what they can do! geohot cracked the ps3 so its not over. i hope there is someone or all hackers out there do cracked everything sony comes with.
04-11-2011
11:42 AM
@Gpax lol.. xD
04-11-2011
11:50 AM
"We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment" means "we want take as much money from u as we can and never let u do what you want with hardware you bought" ... i sony policy is to screw everbyody up and take as much money as they want/need they should give ps3 away for free! i bought mine on day 1 and man im pissed on myself...
i have only to words for $ony: Fu** You! i promised myself i will never again buy anything from that crappy, money eating company... 9 years i was having sony mobile phones - yesterday i bought htc ;]
04-11-2011
11:51 AM
geonoob shoudl donate the money he received to the victims of the earthquake !
but i feel that he'll spend it on food and porn sites
04-11-2011
11:52 AM
This is awful news.
04-11-2011
11:53 AM
I Don't Blame him.
He was welcome to my donation when I made it and still is.
If more had donated then maybe he would have fought on. Who knows ?
How many individuals have the balls to stand up to a big corporation like Sony, essentially on their own, over something that isn't exactly life or death (hacking) ? The outcome , if it went the wrong way would be ruinous. I wouldn't and I doubt many of the the folks knocking him would either.
04-11-2011
11:54 AM
I wouldn't regard that as a win for any of the sides - but if I had to decide, I'd rather see that as a win for Sony. However both Hotz and Sony get out of this well I guess - Sony as they have been able to take out one of the main personalities, Hotz as he ain't ruined. He had his fun jailbreaking a lil bit, now its over on this system and he's gonna move forward to the next thing anyways.
Hopefully Anonymous doesn't attack Hotz now, as he made an agreement with the ever evil Sony
04-11-2011
12:07 PM
geohot begged for money to win the case then he gives up with the money in the pockets !
WHAT A DISGUSTING BASTARD
04-11-2011
12:13 PM
I don't see this as a settlement but rather as a defeat of GeoHot.
It's as if Sony won the case and that the judges decided of a permanent injunction aginst GeoHot.
04-11-2011
12:22 PM
I get the point of "oh, geohot is just a kid, he has his whole life in front of him" but I still call BS.
He pleaded for money to fight Sony, promising those who donated he would never back down. So much for that.
I also don't think this has anything to do with anonymous.
Plain and simple, the kid just can't keep his mouth shut, and that's what's killing him. His F-U rap video to Sony, bragging that he will break the xperia (which would technically be legal, but still doesn't show much faith in him), lying or supposedly lying about accepting TOS to PSN.
He is an attention whore (a seemingly talented one depending on how you look at it.) but an attention whore none the less.
He probably figured fighting Sony would make him a rockstar haxx0r and quickly realized that he was screwed.
04-11-2011
12:23 PM
Graff Wont settle i guarantee it
04-11-2011
12:26 PM
First post updated with the court case papers.
04-11-2011
12:34 PM
and geonoob? are you forgetting he's the only reason we have CFW on PS3?
04-11-2011
12:35 PM
i hope graf will show who is the boss! i hope i give in 130% in the ps3! like he has these couple of months! love it. he really show that i doesnt give a damn!
like he said "SONY wants about 750.000 euros from me if i dont cooperate They dont know me at all I dont care about it and they might double it The higher is the sum the higher gets my motivation They dont understand what makes me tick. Money and even my life doesnt mean to me very much without knowledge. I have a scientific mind and the knowledge is food to my brain."
he is the king=)
and the other hackers out there who do devs. keep up the good work!
04-11-2011
12:35 PM
Wow.
Wasn't Geohot the one saying "I believe I'll win. This case will determine whether we REALLY own what we buy."
And now look. Settled and agreed to permanently stay away from PS3 hacking/modding?
Yeah, this isn't a settlement. Geohot lost.
04-11-2011
12:36 PM
No he isn't, you are forgetting that it was due to fail0verflow that all the keys were released, all GeoHot did was use fail0verflows tools to get the root key.
Also less of calling people an idiot.
04-11-2011
12:37 PM
sony had side dealt with geohotz lawyer into having his client taking a deal. see it all the time. big corporations can buy out a whole defendents team. it only takes a couple of phone calls to geohotz firm and then sony makes them a great cash offer not even any firm can refuse. let see. if geohotz even had $200,000 for defense lawyers and lets say sony offered even just 1.5 million to swing geos lawyers their way. law firms are all about the money. money can railroad any case any day of the week. BASICALLY MONEY BOUGHT THIS VERDICT!...folks what you fail to understand is this is a white collared crime. geohot would have never seen jailtime guaranteed. he has never had a criminal record. it was a monetary damage case. that is what the scea is all about. protecting monetary income of the corporations. worse off even if geohotz lost. they would just impose a junction from using any sony products and just bunch of fines with 3 years probation. no bodily harm was done. and this crime is not aggrivating. so its non violent. first time offenders dont get jailtime. just probation. a law firm out there right now is sitting fat with a big check from daddy sony.
PLAIN AND SIMPLE GEO IS A KID. A KID WHO WANTED TO SHOW THE WORLD HE WAS TOUGH. BUT IN THE END IT PROVED THAT HE IS STILL A KID. ANYONE CAN STAND UP TO BIG CORPORATIONS IN TIME OF FAME. BUT ONLY A FEW CAN FOLLOW THROUGH WITH THE HYPE (geohotz rap video). IT WAS SWEET AND ALL. EVEN ANON STUCK THEIR HEADS OUT. I GUESS WE CAN RELY ON ANON MAKING A DIFFERENCE AND BRINGING A STANCE AGAINST CORPORATIONS VS. AVERAGE JOES LIKE US. THEY HAVE SHOWED IN THEIR ACTIONS THAT THERE IS NO QUITTING WITH THEM AND LET THE CORPORATIONS KNOW THAT THEY JUST CAN'T THROW THEIR WEIGHT AROUND. I SUPPORT ANON AND ALL HIS ACTIONS. I TRULY MEAN THAT TO THE SKIN OF MY TEETH. THIS IS JUST ONE OF MANY FACES OF A REVOLUTION TO COME. CHOOSE YOUR SIDE. GRAF IS A GROWN MAN. HE SEE THROUGH SONYS SCARE TACTICS AND KNOWS WHAT THE WORST CAN BE DEALING WITH SONY. BUT YOU DONT SEE ANY QUITTING FROM HIM. THANK YOU GEOHOTZ FOR ALL THAT YOU HAVE DONE FOR THE SCENE. WISH YOU COULD HAVE STRETCHED IT. BECAUSE READING EVERYTHING ABOUT THE CASE. THE CORPORATIONS KNEW THEY HAD A WEAK CASE AND THAT THEY DIDNT WANT A FULL BLOWN PUBLIC MEDIA ATTENTION. AVERAGE JOES WOULD JUST BECOME VIGILANTES TOWARDS BIG CORPORATIONS. AS FOR SONY. I LOVE JAPAN AND JAPANESE FOOD. MY BROTHER INLAW IS JAPANESE. BUT MAN....SONY YOUR COMPANY NAME WILL GO DOWN AS THE COSTCO BRAND IF YOU DONT BACK OFF!
04-11-2011
12:38 PM
Seems like hotz agrees to not hack sony products anymore in exchange for the case being over. I see his side of things and understand why he made the move he made. I didnt donate money to him so no personal loss for me. The way I see this though is he kinda sold out consumers to save his own skin. This case could have set an example on whether or not we own the ps3 and if we have the rights to modify it. I doubt Sony would have won this case but by hotz selling out they now can continue acting like we only rent our ps3's even after we have purchased them.
04-11-2011
12:43 PM
apparently this isnt the full story:
AND:
04-11-2011
12:44 PM
04-11-2011
12:50 PM
Indeed, this was not the outcome any of us were expecting. It was either Sony won and continued their reign over their products, geohot won and we maintain our right to own our property and do what we want with it.
Some will say geohot chickened out, is a sell out, etc others will say that he did the right thing, it's his life that;s on the line not ours etc, both arguments are correct imo, geohot was just not the chosen won who would right for consumer rights.
Though the good news we can take from this is that it show Sony, when pushed will back down a little. So it's good news for other hackers as they now know that even if Sony comes after them, if they fight back well enough, they could win.
Also as said, he'll stay away from the ps3, but there's still the sony phone and the psp2. Now he may boycott sony, but there is nothing stopping anyone donating a sony device to him on the agreement that he tries to hack it.
So all in all we are still where we were before the case, just that geohot has left the ps3 scene.
--- doh, didnt read the updated bits, he agreed to stay away from all sony products?! Yeah geohot did really lose this case. Cant believe he agreed to that, even if he tried to hack the sony phone, which would be legal, agreeing to this would make it illegal for him to do so. Looks like he really just wanted to end this and escape.....
04-11-2011
12:51 PM
if he can prove what he has written on his site
04-11-2011
12:56 PM
sony screw either way. the hack out and we can play and ps3 game for for free it not hard to change the eboot files to run on 3.55. geohot only did one thing unlock the firmware let has priate hacker take full support of the system without sony way to control it XP
04-11-2011
12:56 PM
hes really getting flamed
... heres something for all who donated:
04-11-2011
12:58 PM
so its like the whole Dark_Alex thing again... DA became M33...
Geohot becomes....
04-11-2011
12:59 PM
I also have no problem with him taking a settlement, but read the Order a bit better people.
"ORDER
IT IS HEREBY ORDERED AND ADJUDGED by consent of the Parties that Hotz,
whether as an individual or as a principal, officer, director or employee of any business
entity, and his agents, servants, employees, distributors, suppliers, representatives and all
other persons or entities acting in concert or participation with Hotz who receive notice of
this Judgment"
The only grey area here is how we will be notified.
I said before GH' legal team were garbage PMSL.
04-11-2011
01:00 PM
04-11-2011
01:02 PM
I dont agree, i think his legal team advised him that he could lose the case quite easily. All of Sonys tactics have worked for them, once they had his hard drives and stuff and all the info it exposed that he was telling lies. Lets not kid ourselves, if Geohot new that his CFW would be used for piracy, (and dont come at me with the LV2 not enabled).
Geohot is a show boat, he has some skills but rides of the achievements of others for the 15 minutes of fame. This time tho he bit off more than he could chew.
In saying that I honestly dont blame him, you have to remember that it is his name and his life. I wouldnt want to risk losing the case for some noobs calling themselves 'the scene'.
I love homebrew, but the homebrew on the wii is far more sophisticated and advanced than the PS3. Sony are winning this war by a long shot. Only a select few running CFW 3.X will have access to the homebrew.
04-11-2011
01:02 PM
could we see him as a sony employee ?
04-11-2011
01:02 PM
Well I have to agree with geohot.... I mean its only hacking a ps3 not his life work. The guy still has more important thinks to do then hacking a ps3 and the frelling lawsuits.
Would have done the same thing if i where him.
Now he can go back to his life.
04-11-2011
01:03 PM
apparantly, All they have is the filed Injunction and Stipulations for the out of court settlement.
************* [ - Post Merged - ] *************
04-11-2011
01:05 PM
Wisdom
If your actions might anger a big evil company, do them anonymously. At least until the lawmakers wake up. China does not have the DMCA.
04-11-2011
01:08 PM
it's the 1st and last time that i donate to a hacker
geo gave us the finger
04-11-2011
01:11 PM
04-11-2011
01:11 PM
I thought GeoHot was going to take this all the way. Even in his interviews he made it seem like he was standing up for all of us and to finally get it in law that if you buy a product its your to do whatever you want with it. Instead he folded. I'm not saying I wouldn't have taken the deal but I really thought he was going to fight this all the way. Very disappointed with this outcome. So basically sony can sue any hacker and eventually settle that they will not mess with their products, which in turn Sony wins because every hacker will just settle to not mess with their product. This is a HUGE win for Sony and a HUGE LOSS for all of us. SAD SAD DAY.
04-11-2011
01:13 PM
please be serious... that's a good chance for that guy! well, no one could predict the end of this legal action.. maybe geohot should have won... but maybe not.. in his shoes, anyone would probably accepted this ending... just say "it's over"...
Anyway... this is a victory. if sony decided to end this stupid things it means they are scared about the possible ending of this scenario. and it means they fear developers cause the "most secure system" isn't so inaccessible...
04-11-2011
01:13 PM
why in the frontpage post do they spell "softare" instead of "software" ?
04-11-2011
01:17 PM
I donated and I regret it...this isn't a settlement; this is a surrender. I am sure he will go on to hack other devices...and then someone will sue him...and next time he won't find so much help so easily.
04-11-2011
01:17 PM
Copied directly from the PDF, didn't even notice that.
04-11-2011
01:20 PM
I still don't blame him though, but his legal team should be shot for letting Sony dictate every last word of the order.
04-11-2011
01:20 PM
There's talk about people reversing their paypal donations. :O
This could be a bad thing, technically they donated to geohot to provide a service, to fight for consumer rights; by settling he has not provided that service. So if people reverse the charges paypal may actually let them. geohot could be left with his $10,000 bill again.....
I mean what if he actually starts releasing stuff anonymously, it could happen. All this negative reaction may prevent him from considering that option.
04-11-2011
01:35 PM
sony was going to lose the case so they went for settlement sony couldnt afford to lose the case so they went for settlement i wonder what Geohotz got out of it that hasnt been made public as its blatently something big
04-11-2011
02:03 PM
yeah big corporations dont settle if they can win -_- makes no sense
04-11-2011
02:08 PM
YOU SHOULD INCLUDE IN THE ORIGINAL ARTICLE, that the document on psx-scene.com doesn't include the confidential memorandum of understanding (referenced page 1, line 20 of the document they posted) that both parties agreed to on Mar. 31.
That, I presume, contains the meat of the agreement, and the part we won't see unless someone leaks it.
04-11-2011
02:13 PM
Unless I am missing a part that says Sony have to forego something?
EDIT Sony have apparently made a massive win here as they have stopped the famous iPhone hacker in his tracks and made him bow down to them. If he had lost a court case then he would have lost, this way he is admitting he was wrong so Sony win on all fronts.
04-11-2011
02:17 PM
to all the guys who have a problem with this - why dont you ask him to continue hacking anonomously and then post the results to you to undersign in your name
04-11-2011
02:21 PM
Im glad Hotz is free and clear of Sony, but to be banned from tinkering with ANY Sony product? Doesn't that kind of defy the whole point of Hotz's stance on the matter? "Don't **** with what rightfully belongs to us, because we bought it?" Apple took their hits like a champ, Sony cried about it until everybody hated them, and now they're only meeting him halfway in the sense that they aren't just taking him to the cleaners for everything hes worth and then some. I hope he continues anonymously, but if he does, it wont be for a long time. Kind of a letdown really. I thought Hotz was going to fight till the end.
04-11-2011
02:22 PM
Well he isn't allowed to hack ANY Sony product, he isnt allowed to help anyone in doing so either, so i guess Sony won.
04-11-2011
02:23 PM
04-11-2011
02:38 PM
All the people that think it was ok for Hotz to roll over and take this injunction as if he had no choice are stupid. He made it very apparent on his blogs, and his interviews that he was ready, willing, and had 100% confidence that he was going to win this battle with Sony. We were all rooting for this kid, and he ****ing let us down. Again, im glad hes free of Sony's evil clutches, but i'll say this: At least Graf wouldn't take this nonsense. Graf is still fighting for this scene, and ill donate 10x more to him than I ever did to Hotz.
::EDIT::
Also, id like to point out that while I support the choices Anonymous made, I feel it had ZERO effect on the outcome of this case. Anonymous did not take down Sony, nor is this a win for Anonymous. They just put fuel on the fire at the end of a dying blaze.
04-11-2011
02:44 PM
I'm a bit ignorant on how courts work on these matters but if Geohot cannot work on Any Sony product, doesn't that essentially mean he will can be barred from working on any other electronic product so long as the manufacturers take him to court and use this precedent?
04-11-2011
02:47 PM
N00bz post ere,,,
I feel disgusted @ peeps who seem to ******e & moan on Geohot settlement,, the way i see it "Im a winner", so are the simply minded peeps who only take the cfw to play freebies, regardless if one is able to play online or not.... fl*cking fools....(learn how to do this type of wizardry yourself ((BECAUSE I CAN'T) "thanks again Hacker))then shout you traitor slang) aaaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrgggghhhhhhh makes me mad...
"I'm Glad sony/Pony realized a small man/Group with computer time & knowledge will eventually crack anything to do with the WorldWideWeb"..... Roll on the next Genius who fill the foootstep that are printed in the sand.
Geohot & all who have made this possible Should be paid & if my donation earned them any cash,, so be it ,,, no-one held a gun to my head to donate & help a worthy cause ,,,, nor did the irritating sales assistant who sold me my console...
Geohot hope you have enough funds left for a good life,,, i believe you earn't.. Just don't sign for sony/Pony,,, "cause you will get beat,,, maybe by a 10 year old""
well done
04-11-2011
02:55 PM
Anyway, why would Geohot pay for porn sites? He could just hack his way in. :P
04-11-2011
03:08 PM
Also, not everyone knows the details of this "Confidential" agreement yet, so maybe there is a silver lining here, and Hotz isnt such a pansy after all. We just have to wait it out and see.
04-11-2011
03:22 PM
Guess this means Geohot gave in and cant be the first to hack an xperia play anymore(then again mobile device jailbreaking is legal so can he still do it?) then only problem with this case is the legality of jailbreaking a ps3 is still not clear. This sounds like he has just accepted sonys EULA in a court so if he does it again they can prove he accepted the EULA just my thoughts from what I read, Geo gets a yellow card lol one more and hes off.
04-11-2011
03:25 PM
So I take it that geohot won't be the first person to jailbreak the xperia play like he originally planned as he is "boycotting" Sony?
04-11-2011
03:29 PM
Did anyone actually read the PDF?? Does Sony have to make any changes??? Or does Geohot just have to never touch a Sony product again and Sony can keep attacking other people who modify the PS3?
If Sony has to allow people to modify their PS3s, then Geohot still won, but I don't see that clarification anywhere.
04-11-2011
03:29 PM
I'll hold-off judgment until we see what the full terms of the settlement are for both sides.
What was released so far is completely made for public consumption and purposefully one-sided. That's also why Sony is willing to publicly acknowledge it on their official blog.
For consumers' sakes in general and George's sake in specific, there had better be a serious concession or two from Sony's side as well.
04-11-2011
03:37 PM
04-11-2011
03:38 PM
It has set a precedent as the next case along these lines will cite this as his open admission to guilt.
It Does need All the details to be made known, and unless I am mistaken isn't that a legal requirement as this was a civil case and only information that can cause someone harm can be witheld from the public??????
04-11-2011
03:39 PM
04-11-2011
03:42 PM
i say good move geohotz......
screw as much money out off ppl as you can,become a internet celeb,take on a big corp...
then just sit back and watch the ps3 scene DIE!!!!!
No one cares about you mate,so why ruin your life for it
well done
04-11-2011
03:45 PM
04-11-2011
03:45 PM
Whats up with this? Why did people donate money for his legal funds if he is just going to settle. People should have the right to jailbreak any device they want and the courts already said we have the right to jailbreak the Iphone so what difference is that between a PS3? I want an epic battle.
04-11-2011
03:50 PM
04-11-2011
03:52 PM
So does anyone else realize that, since Sony didn't have to settle on anything or change at all, while Geohot keeps the legal donations and gets out of being sued, it means Sony can keep suing people who have less supporters for the same reason they sued Geohot.
04-11-2011
03:55 PM
Saying that it is still a wee bit up in the air though until all details are released.
04-11-2011
03:57 PM
everybody complaining about him settling, ask yourself, what would you personally have done?
the kid released signing tools for 3.55. so what if hes a ****y S.O.B, he did good.
he got us 3.55HB
mathieulh got us psgroove
graf got us awesome hv info
F0F got us linux and the epic fail incident
be grateful for the ppl who give more than you ever could.
ive said it before and i will say it again.
YOU DONT NEED TO LIKE SOMEONE IN ORDER TO RESPECT THEM
i would have bailed out long before he did. sony would have bankrupted him well before the case actually went to court. be happy for what you recieved and be thankful that for the time being we can hack away without it being deemed illegal.
as far as the hacking scene goes, we should consider this a WIN by the fact that it was not a loss
p.s. its a safe bet that the donations were all used up. court costs against a major corp like sony would be extortionate.
04-11-2011
04:27 PM
However you look at it he bailed out, him and his lawyers bottled it....
You can't all say it's down to Sony chucking it's wieght and money around he took on Apple, saw it through and won....
He took the easy way out....Pure and Simple.....
04-11-2011
04:28 PM
correct me if I'm wrong but from what i read, the injunction states that he is never to touch a ps3 again, that he has to step back from ps3 hacking activities... imo that doesnt include all the other sony products. since sony must be planing on releasing a new console, whether its a next psp or the ps4, i think that settlement is not as bad as it sounds. we have to admint most of the work to unlock the ps3 has been done already. tools have been released, lots of devs are working on homebrew and stuff. I believe If you havent accepted the new TOS and you dont use their network, using CFWs is still perfectly legal
the sad part is that lots of people beleived that this lawsuit could have ended like the iphone case ended, witch made it legal to modify any portable device. I personaly would have loved to see our customer rights to be respected and this could have been a exemble for the upcoming cases that might happen next.
anyhow, the fight isnt over yet. sony is still being sued for removing the otherOS option from their FWs. the outcome of that lawsuit has much more potential to make sure our customer rights are respected by big brotherish companies like Sony and such.
04-11-2011
04:51 PM
Anyway, I really appreciate all the hackers like Geohot who have worked so hard to make our electronics better without demanding any money in return.
I'm just crushed that Sony basically didn't have to settle at all. Geohot is the one who had to surrender, so Sony can go around suing others for the same reason they were suing Geohot. Geohot settling is "almost" an admission that what he was doing was wrong.
04-11-2011
04:53 PM
What a coward and a flop Hots turned out to be, really wish for him to disappear into obscurity now, bloody attention seeking whore.
First I want a refund of the money I donated to that flop, I donated (as well as everyone else who did) on the promise and pretense from Hots that he will fight Sony to the end in this case. Now Sony dangle a carrot and the coward jump on it and rapes it like it was last carrot on earth!
Serious let down and not what anyone was expecting! I think we should take hots to court in a class action suit to get our donation money refunded by the attetion seeking ass hat. He falsly claimed he would fight Sony over this and had us donate, knowing fully well he would not fight it and would probly just use the money to gain more fame and fortune.
I also demand that he be audited over the donation money and have a breakdown of what he spent and where. Starting to think that 5* Brazil holiday was not paid for a year in advance like he claims (probly was 2*-3* till he had a little extra cash lying about...).
04-11-2011
04:55 PM
04-11-2011
04:59 PM
I think he copped out too easily; if Sony was willing to settle, they were for sure scared of losing this battle. He could have pursued it and fight for PS3 to be as open as the Iphone, he did not. What was the point on even using the media to show what a great sharing guy he is, if all he was going to do was cop out? I am not impressed, but I didn't donate to his fund either, so I feel no loss or gain either way.
04-11-2011
05:04 PM
All i can say is:
Did you really think that someone as geo would pull this trough the end.You have to enter his mind to fully understand why he did this.
1)egomaniac
2)just a kid
3)realizes its not to late to screw his life
4)not worth it over the people who he doesn't even know
Phase 1.)So...basicly he got caught because he couldn't keep his mouth shut and he wanted the e-fame because he thought he was super cool.
Phase 2.)Making a rap video for people to see that sony sucks (my dad is stronger syndrom) and proving he's just a kid.
Phase 3.)If you ever got caught smoking weed, or something and you heard the word jail you would know how much fear that puts in a kid.Life basicaly slaps you and you realize the mess you made
Phase 4.)Decision over the "internet people" or his own life wich is ahead of him.In laiman terms don't forget your real life.Somebody offered him a clean slate.Weakened and scared he took it because he's just a kid.
He did his share and that's it,forget him (altough some people never learn).He should return the money people donated or reroute the funds to graf.
Oh yeah and i don't know if this is true but looking at his twitter he paid his spring brake with your donations.I would be pissed if i donated for his "lawyers"
Quote: Today I'm calling it the PayStation Free. Lawyers paid, South American vacation paid. Thank you PayPal YEEE-HAAA!
Source: http://twitter.com/#!/egohot
04-11-2011
05:23 PM
Just kidding that isn't him. But still.
04-11-2011
05:26 PM
CELEBRATION!
04-11-2011
05:35 PM
04-11-2011
05:42 PM
#
Pirate - 04-11-2011 10:06 AM
I think he took the best option he had available without really having to "pay for it". Say he was accused and found guilty...he could earn a big fine or possibly jail time.
IMO, he just wanted to get over the "stress" of the court case and take his best option now rather then wait later.
I think many of you confused or assumed Geohot fighting for the "scene" and future hacking/modding of consoles...we know now that he was just fighting for his own ass.
#
Read more: http://www.ps3hax.net/2011/04/scea-a...#ixzz1JG04D5kp
IT WAS A CIVIL CASE!! WHICH MEANS THERE WAS NO CHANCE OF JAIL TIME! PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE UNDERSTAND WHAT YOU ARE COMMENTING ON BEFORE YOU MAKE YOURSELF LOOK LIKE A FOOL!!!
04-11-2011
05:50 PM
Now your turn to explain the riciculous farce that passes for law in CA please?
EDIT GH commited perjury by stating he had Absolutely NO knowledge of Sony' EULA or ToS and that Does bring jail time. My opinion of perjury of course, but he would have been laughed out of court straight into jail anywhere else for making that statement.
Additional EDIT I think he did what was right for him, and I honestly think he will learn from this that his ego is no where near a match for the real players in the field.
04-11-2011
05:59 PM
04-11-2011
06:43 PM
The problem here is twofold in that George said that he wouldn't settle without certain criteria being met and he also took donations for his legal defense under the guise that he would fight Sony as he did Apple.
People already want their money back and George donating that remainder to the EFF will not fly here. George not living-up to his word of requiring OtherOS as part of a settlement also will not fly here.
If those supposed promises were but lies then it will garner him zero sympathy when the various scene and hacking entities turn on him and make his life a living hell.
04-11-2011
06:53 PM
I do agree he had best do his hardest to return the monies to whomever donated though and give a full detailed account of where it went or he may end up having more than one suit against him for obtaining monies under false pretences.
Life is a learning curve and sadly he thought he had learnt it all and how to play it when like the rest of us, he should have known life always has a way to bite your bollocks lol.
Phew.... Very philosophical..... *Goes to drink a beer to calm down*
04-11-2011
07:28 PM
is a shame to be a human with people defending crap like sony or "games"
those people are already rich they dont care for nothing. if u gonna say stealing defend food u *******s u dont eat with games ,sony can go bankrupt i dont care for them or another billonare company u gonna defend something defend ur rights and ur family **** the game industry is not the same anymore in anyway. is stupid people fall in the stupid excuse sharing is stealing so i cannot give some pepsi to mi girlfriend because is stealing i gotta buy another yeah right **** sony
04-11-2011
07:37 PM
Did I ever have faith in Geohot? No.
But I do hope after this now, Graf or Math can release the 3.60 CFW. If they were to kept anonymous and not detectable and untraceable, It would be a good thing to send out the CFW
. Seems like a good idea to me. But if your worried about getting caught, don't go on psn!
04-11-2011
07:45 PM
04-11-2011
07:47 PM
A lot of bitterness in here today.
You tried your best Hotz. Thanks for the iPhone and PS3 hacks.
04-11-2011
07:54 PM
Sony ARE greedy f***kers, but the time and money that goes into making the big games is a Huge amount so I Do understand when they quote Piracy.
As to them going bust, what about the guys who work in the Sony high street stores and suchlike? They are the ones who will be hurt, not the big bosses.
04-11-2011
07:57 PM
This is too bad. I'm glad that GeoHot did not get thrown to the wolves. But, I'm bummed we didn't get a legal ruling similar to the iPhone ruling. Seems all the attention from Anonymous and others was just too much heat for GeoHot to handle.
Basically, Geohot got out of trouble, but Sony still has the power to sue any other jailbreaker they want, for the same reasons.
04-11-2011
08:04 PM
so now i don't own a PS3 as it is owned by $ony.... so why did i just give $ony 300?
04-11-2011
08:10 PM
i know it did but what if he didnt... he had to take that in to account.
Geohot to never hack/release a sony product again? wow harsh.
Also would like to man up :D the hackers that brought us all we have for the ps3 homebrew scene. Without them where would we be?
Say what you want about these guys showboating or whatever.... but if they didnt do what they did....Can you do it? They deserve to showboat there talent!
04-11-2011
08:16 PM
First post updated with new info
04-11-2011
08:22 PM
To bad he gave up the change to make big money in a few years with "Geohot, the movie" or "Geohot does SCEA"
My donation money can go to Graf, Geohot. I'll respect your decision but I am left with the feeling you gave up to soon. Sony got very cheap away I think.
The real winner is again.....: the lawyers. Like in every lawsuit.
04-11-2011
08:24 PM
it cracks me up that anyone is the least bit surprised or that anyone put any faith in the guy.
remember when he did his HW/Linux hack and sony removed otherOS?
and how Hotz promised another way to install otherOS because he supposedly already had the way to do it?
and then he disappeared... rememeber....
and then when 90% of the work was done. and teamoverflow released certain keys but not all of them... geo basically took their work and released the keys they could have but didnt.
he was never "in the scene". he was trying to further his name not the scene.
If anyone would bother to read the original Sony filing for the case...
ALL they ever wanted was an injunction against him from hacking or helping to hack the PS3. HELLO.... he gave them what they wanted.
there was never any fighting it. They didnt have the judge in theyre pocket.. they had the Law in their pocket (DMCA). it is an extensive and very explicit piece of legistation outlining what cannot be done with copyrighted material and the systems used to protect them. the "Jailbreak" clause was very specific to wireless handheld devices to allow them to be used on any network instead of the one it was sold for. this never had a chance of falling under that clause.
If Hotz had fought for it to go under that clause it would have had to go to court.... the initial judgement would have been in Sonys favor and Hotz'legal team would have had to bring it to the 9th circuit appeals. if Sony lost there or Hotz had and had still wanted to fight it.. it would have had to go to the SCOTUS for a definative decision on a law that is auhorized and enforcable by a constitutional ammendment.
as for your consumer rights... the SCOTUS would judge that against Sony's rights. do your rights to tinker with your hardware outweigh Sonys rights to protect the device they spent millions to develop.. to protect the code they wrote that enables the machine to play the games they make and the code that keeps people from playing the games they make for free?
I doubt it.
Now if you wanted to completely wipe the OS and all of Sonys code off and start anew and code your own OS. Id say that would be totally your right to do so and any court would most likely agree.
04-11-2011
08:32 PM
I don't completely agree with Geohot's 100% on his boycott call.
I have no intention of returning my PS3. Even though it is hobbled from it's original specs, it still plays PS2 games and BluRay movies, and see no reason to return it when I can still purchase non Sony products for it.
Even better reason: if I sell it, that means someone is buying it with the intent of purchasing things to use it on, meaning it is aiding and abetting the future purchases of Sony products.
I'll sit on my console and keep it from being used in that way.
04-11-2011
08:34 PM
I'd sooner give up my XBOX 360 than my PS3, at least Sony doesn't charge its consumers for absolutely everything they do on the PS3. I'd say Microsoft is still more underhanded than Sony, just not in an insanely illegal way.
04-11-2011
08:48 PM
I Do find this quite insulting though...
"And here is Geohots response via his blog:
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."
Quite sad too as he still seems to have his "wait upon my words" attitude *Sighs*
04-11-2011
09:30 PM
So is sony going to give him back his HDD's?
Seriously, He did the right thing. he don't have the money nor resources to fight this. to be quite honest, we gripe about what geohot did but at the same time, how many of us really want to go at sony? how many lawsuits are out there by us? there are thousands of us and sony can't sue all of us if we are suing them.
we can handle this in one of two ways: Boycott or lawsuitYou make the call!!!.
************* [ - Post Merged - ] *************
04-11-2011
09:39 PM
we make only tiny percentage of the buying consumer ... if we give up on sony , still it wouldnt matter ... coz many believe sony is the best , which we all know its not... but cant educate those noobs , what ever we say , he will shrug off and buy a sony tv , player etc...
unless otherwise something comes up like android agaisnt RIM/Blackberry/Apple ... it will be a long , hard battle to beat this monster...
or sony realises thier mistake
04-11-2011
09:40 PM
I don't blame the kid for backing down. Many of you may act tough and say "I wouldn't give in, yadda yadda yadda "but the fact remains when the blue-suits start talking about dollars and bars most of you would fold as well!
If anybody really wants to make a difference ...........start an online class that teaches C++ or C# or Python, or Java, or whatever language this consoles code is written in. Then the whole scene can collectively go to work accomplishing what everybody yearns for (not quite sure exactly what that is)
No more complaining about this
When will we get MKV support that
He's an egomaniac
He's just in it for the fame
I want.......whatever
Sometimes we have to fight for ourselves. So anybody who is feeling manly enough to run head on into a brick wall, please do. Then we will call you weak for folding when you know in your heart that further pursuit would do more harm than good on your behalf.
$0.02
04-11-2011
09:43 PM
04-11-2011
09:54 PM
dude your lame. you took it in the a$$ from sony. then you release a statement like you are still fighting for us...you went from someone i cared about to a total ****** a poser...your not half the man graf is...weak!
04-11-2011
10:00 PM
That SONY boycott is never gonna stick and y'all know it!
04-11-2011
10:10 PM
While I agree Geo hurt the scene more than he helped overall, AND was an egotistical little prat, he did what was right for him and his family. Do you think the $10 you donated to his cause would have helped pay a likely multi-million dollar judgment had he lost? Hardly.
All anyone has seen are the terms Geo must abide by under the terms of the settlement. The terms Sony must abide by regarding the settlement have yet to see the light of day. Who knows...maybe tomorrow we'll see a new TOS stating that circumvention, while not illegal, will get you banned, thus proving a win for homebrew. You never know. Until we see the flip side of the coin, don't throw stones at glass houses.
As for Geo keeping quiet about the terms of the settlement, the reason he has to keep quiet is, A) Sony can sue him for breach of settlement, and B) any judgements against Sony or terms they must abide by would immediately be overturned.
Look, I'm not defending either Sony nor Geo here...as far as I'm concerned, they're both flipsides to the same a$$hole coin. But as my dad used to say, "Don't let your bullfrog mouth outrun your tadpole ass"...meaning don't talk tough when you don't have the grounds to.
EDIT: Just as a sidebar...anyone remember the kid who pirated New Super Mario on the Wii, and the shatstorn he suffered legally? His family had to suffer, and is still suffering, through some SERIOUS financial dire straits. Just saying....
04-11-2011
10:55 PM
LET ME GET THIS STRAIGHT; SO IM SUPPOSED TO NOT BUY SONY PRODUCTS BECAUSE GEOHOTZ WAS TOO STUPID TO KEEP QUIET ABOUT HACKING THE PS3? ****ING BULL****. APPARENTLY, GEOHOTZ ISN'T SMART; HE'S JUST A NERD WITH NO LIFE (THAT INCLUDES NO SEX LIFE) WHO USED HIS INTELLIGENCE AND CREATIVITY IN THE WRONG WAY. TOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO BAD...
P.S. since this site's gay and won't let people speak "dirty" words, the 2 words in astericks were fukkking and shhhite ;-)
04-11-2011
11:11 PM
i want my money back, no money for runners
04-11-2011
11:12 PM
lol Boycott...
This isn't the 1600s... Boycotts NEVER work.
04-11-2011
11:39 PM
Ah, So HE is the guy who was supposed to "make it for all of us" huh ?
told ya, the damned kid saved his ass, period.
**** him with his boycott, If i would have a permanent injunction on me, I'd surely boycott too ! But no, I paid for my ps3, those who supported him financially ... well, good for him , Wasnt he saying that this was supose to help the user in the long run ? So nothing changed huh ? ...
****ing kid.
04-11-2011
11:43 PM
This a massive FAIL on Geo and the scene. And the effects won't just be felt in the ps3 scene ANY product Sony has any interest in directly or indirectly Geo will now really not be able to touch. The saddest part is that he doesn't admit wrong doing or that its illegal yet he still agrees not to reverse ect and that if he does Sony will deserve immediate compensation.. It could even affect any future employment opportunities as who wants an engineer that is owned by Sony?? I gather though that t5he Hotz himself isn't happy about this; powers well beyond his or most peoples controls had this all stitched up from the get go... A sad sad day for natural justice... The only thing i really dislike about America is how easily manipulated the legal system there is, but i guess its better than most still.
No right to appeal, No right to Hack....
May as well be No right to breathe....
04-12-2011
12:08 AM
I'm not versed in legal mumbo jumbo, but I believe that there is no such thing as 'permenant' in the legal system. Rulings can be overturned. Hotz took the very best option available to him. However now that he has opened the door, I think it's time that another brave 'dev' take over the reigns and continue fighting. Preferably one with a huge bank account. I believe Hotz still could be a great asset in the continuing fight against Sony.
04-12-2011
12:08 AM
From the PSX site. Thought I'd share this as it pretty much sums up how I feel atm.
04-12-2011
01:25 AM
Wow! I'm not happy with the out come this case has. What do we get?
.
Did he not say he's going to fight back not only for him but for all of us, Except this is a agreement between Hotz and Sony.
This was complete and utter-waste of time, Why didn't they just shake hands and make an agreement in the first place instead of the reason why Hotz was going to fight back at Sony.
I feel highly the same as was "bruiser brody" quoted and said!
This is straight bull****! This case pretty much took a **** on a baby turtle made it flop over and die
04-12-2011
01:33 AM
04-12-2011
01:57 AM
For those who say "If you were in his shoes you would have done the same", Sure that's true. But why say what 'Hotz' said at the very start of this situation? Knowing to start off with you have Little to NO money and expect donations to try and fight back SURELY you'd know in a snap that it won't be a over night case.
The reason for many being upset would be because He and WE expected something big at the end of the case, We are sadly mistaken, Right?
As tech-smart as he is, Reality has yet to knock on his font door.
04-12-2011
02:06 AM
What happened to the cause Hotz? I was right,dudes just out for himself,egotestical!
Hes been smug for ages now this,a joke to the scene.
And that blog statements a joke trying to sound like hes succeeded.
I dont blame an individual covering there back but this result does nothing for the important issue it may have set presidence for and wasnt Hotz all like hey come on guys we can beat them!
He was the number one media focal point for all this nonsense but what of the others left fighting. Hes made this whole affair about him!
Hes not a bad guy but like i initially thought before getting sucked,hes just a whimsical kid.
A bloody clever one but a kid non the less!
But hey your never gonna by another Sony product,thatll screw em Hotz!
Joke,bare joke!
04-12-2011
04:32 AM
Oke all of you, who never had any efford in hacking but just having bad words and using his hacks.. all i can say is **** YOU hypocrits, how dare you talking low about him after all he has been through and done for you!
This kiddo was in a position that no one will ever understand, just be happy he came out this clean.
04-12-2011
04:45 AM
Dear Geo,
Thanks so much for all you've done for the PS3 hacking scene.
Which amounts to not a great deal really, apart from draw attention from Sony to what was possibly the greatest break through in jailbreaking since the 3.41 dongle's.
You made it all so bloody public even my dog understood what was going on.
None of the above would have mattered if you'd stuck to your promise of taking on Sony and seeing it through to the end, the same as you did with Apple.
But you didn't, you took the fame, took our money and took our sympathy, you even managed to get a few people on side that really didn't like you. Even groups like Anonymous decided to try and support you and others getting flack from Sony.
How did you repay all this loyalty, by chucking in the towel before it even got to court....What a bloody cop out...
By doing this you have now set the standard for all those that are currently trying to beat back the steam roller that is Sony, you have left them and us completely at the mercy of the Sony Bully Boys.
You were Sony's biggest threat, you had an understanding of how this could have been beaten, you'd done it before and Sony was scared, or they would never have offered you this way out, and you and your lawyers didn't see it.
Sony was being attacked from so many different angles they didn't know which way to look, by backing down at this early stage you've instigated a devide and conquer type situation.
How have you responed to this show of weakness, by claiming you will now boycott all Sony products. Well as that was part of the judgement this is just empty words that I'm sure Sony are really hurting over !!...
All this has done is make you and all people involved a laughing stock, thanks for that...
I don't care about anybody else, cause as you've demonstrated it's all about yourself, I think this stinks....you let down us, other hackers trying to fight off Sony but most of all yourself....You had little trust from the community to start with and you just lost any chance of redemption...
I defended you when everybody else told me you'd do this, but I thought you were different and that people had got you wrong....Yes you like the fame, maybe that's not a good thing, but after the Apple thing I honestly thought you had a good fight in you, I was wrong, they were right...
Thanks for nowt......
04-12-2011
04:50 AM
Oke all of you, who never had any efford in hacking but just having bad words and using his hacks.. all i can say is **** YOU hypocrits, how dare you talking low about him after all he has been through and done for you!
This kiddo was in a position that no one will ever understand, just be happy he came out this clean.
- There's a reason for the bad words especially when alot of us who supported him from the start are now pretty much got **** on with what Hotz SAID at the start of all this drama.
Sony offers a hand shake to Hotz -> Hotz Declines -> Hotz takes his situation further then asks for donations -> Hotz got hit by reality -> Hotz doesn't have enough money -> Hotz goes back to the start and shakes hand with Sony.
A circle of attention.
Many of us respect Hotz for his previous releases and still do, But on top of that theres also a sigh disappointment for the fail result of what he said he was going to try do, His whole dream of supporting the scene by continueing the case and to 'win' for all of us.
Except it seems like this whole thing only works in favour of Hotz and Sony with an out come we aren't allowed to know.
Hotz is a camera greedy whore, We all know it, right?
04-12-2011
05:28 AM
Just before I get flamed for my previous post, lets get something clear....
All you Geo fans/sympathisers claim he was a Lone Ranger type chap, trying to take on the might of Sony all by himself....
Well that's not exactly true, like him or hate him we were all right behind him, we gave him as much support as we could, we even paid his legal fees...!!
Other Hackers were standing along side him in what they thought was his defiance..Some even feeling the force of Sony with him.....
Anonymous stated that one of the reasons they had decided to get involved was to try and help Geo and his co-defendants...
He was a long way from being out on his own in this, the whole community wanted him to take this fight to the end and was happy to back him in anyway it could including substantial monetary donations.....
Before you defend him based on what you feel is a lone stance, stop and think about the support you and the rest of the community had offered and given.
We more than backed up our promise to support him, he backed out of his promise to fight this... So who should really be getting the sympathy....????
04-12-2011
05:49 AM
Apparently not a lot of people are boycotting Sony, th PS3 is selling very well, much more than the 360 and the Wii :
because ofw 3.60 isn't jailbreakable yet.
http://www.vgchartz.com/
I think people are buying a second PS3 to be able to play pirat... I mean homebrews
04-12-2011
06:04 AM
nobody is arguing about his selfishness. we all knew it, we all expected him to be out for himself.
the fact still remains that what was at stake was the important part and thinking on that fact, did Sony win? I dont think they did.
think about it. SCEA had a case against geohot more than any other dev but not only could they not claim jurisdiction, they backed down just as much as geohot.
if they did have a solid case on the legalities of what was done they could have taken the case in any state and won instead of solely in California. instead what did they do? stall for time, lie, make the jurisdiction case go on for too long in order to try and bankrupt him before a case even got to the point at hand.
this is a good sign for the rest of the world. if they had a real case, they would have crucified geo in court to set an example. now for all of us nothing has changed. we have homebrew, we have CFW, Sony are not going to sue us all as they couldn't carry their own case through so hacking the ps3 has not been deemed illegal so we are free to carry on.
of course, anybody accepting the new EULA is not safe because you agree not to hack any Sony product and accept that if you do, you agree to fall under jurisdiction of California. even this is quite vague as it states that basically they will rape you "unless" it is proven in court that sonys action against you is illegal, which would entail a separate case.
anyway, back to the topic, geohot saved his own ass without a doubt so he deserves bad feelings for breaking his promises but he deserves a little respect for taking it as far as he did, bringing sonys actions to the media and also for proving that sony were forced to back out too. if he got a job working for Sony as some suspect then for us it means the next console will be secure. I do not have a problem with that.
04-12-2011
06:16 AM
If the case had run it's course and GH had lost there would still have been many people saying he was shafted etc. As it stands now he is seen as the back stabbing attention whore by most people. Look at his 'support' here and on his blog, even some of his most devout fans are flaming him for being a liar and a fake.
I DO agree with what he did for his OWN sake, but does ANY of it even come close to backing up the promises he made to everyone at the beginning?
Ps If anyone is actually signed up to his blog try posting this and see what answer you get...
"George Hotz said...
In general in court cases, the settlement agreement is not filed with the court. If a party is bound by an injunction, that would have to be made available on the public docket."
Now here is a question you Are allowed to answer.... Has Sony been forced to back down in Any way on their OtherOS stance? You do not have to give details, but you are Not bound by any restrictions in answering Yes or No... Take a moment before you answer though, as it will be recorded and noted.
04-12-2011
06:32 AM
no, none of it backs up any promises he made. I 100% agree but nothing Sony has done has affected us normal people in this case that is the important part.
for me, this case was not about geohot,it was about our rights. if Sony won in court then they would have won their case against the scene in general and we would have list tbe right to hack the ps3 making it easier to attack all if us with the law well and truly behind them.
geohot deserved his beatdown for being so damn arrogant but at the same time there was nothing gained by Sony in regards to all us filthy hackers
they have no case on us, that is what I class as the positive outcome.
it may seem like I'm defending him, but in reality I'm just happy how it turned out for the rest of us. for me and you and most people here, no harm has come to us.
04-12-2011
06:47 AM
It all boils down to the courts opinion of whether GH' acceptance of the strictures is an open admittance that what he did was wrong or not?
Time will tell for Sony and us
04-12-2011
06:53 AM
yeah, Graf is a bigger threat than geohot ever was.
I'm surprised they didn't attack him harder. he is one dev that without a doubt does it for the scene and not for personal glory.
I wish them all luck.
p.s it's nice to be able to have a nice conversation/debate without blood boiling over
04-12-2011
06:59 AM
Who would have thought a bloody electronic piece of plastic would have caused such a debate.
In the end we are no better off but we haven't lost anything either. Its a rather pointless stalemate, the score still is 0-0 but theres still another half to play with extra-time and sudden-death still on the cards.
The only thing to come out of it, is even though Sony state they are the Sh*t they couldn't beat a single hacker kid. If they had a watertight case they would have wiped their rich a$$ with settlement and destroyed Geohot.
What I wonder about is this case had more than geo on the docket. Weren't there fail0verflow and 100+ DOLES named on the case, what about these guys? Are they now not in Sonys Sights? ... maybe they were and sony did have a case.. maybe George the egomaniac took the bullet so these others could continue what they do best, giving Sony a ruddy nasty headache.
I don't know but in time I am sure that the "confidental" agreement will come to light. Personally I foresee a return of OtherOS (possibly also Homebrew path), it would be good publicitiy for Fony and will stop a bunch of pissed off hackers from continuely cracking their beloved "property".
04-12-2011
07:05 AM
I don't think Geo getting employment with Sony is an issue.
Thinking about it logically, would I trust a person who has previously been involved in hacking my product and who still has links to the hacking community. Would I trust this person to not leak details of future products security measures, or to purposely leave holes however small or hard to find...Urmm Nope......
Companies involved in the console market I'm sure would love to have these hackers locking down their systems, but with that comes the risk...Hackers by their nature are not exactly trust worthy, just one hacker having a bad day or getting ticked off with his superiors or just out to make a name for himself could cost the company millions.
As good as it would be, it's got to be safer to have the hacker at home with limited resources and hire the best they can get from a trusted proven source....
What we needed in this was a real fighter, someone maybe older, who understood properly the situation....Someone who understood that Sony was on the back foot and that they was fighting a battle they basically new they couldn't win.
This needed someone that was gonna look at all the possible ways to get help and support to take this all the way, find lawyers that were more sympathetic than money motivated, look at other people fighting for our rights and ask for help of any kind.
There is always the defender of the little person, there is always somebody will offer help you just got to ask sometimes....
I can't help but feel Geo and his Lawyers let this go a little to easy, maybe it's an age thing on Geo's part, maybe Sony managed to somehow get at his Lawyers and they because of his age managed to convince him to take the offer....
Whatever your feelings about what happened the fact remains this was his case to win, and I think someone a little older with a little more understanding and a little knowledge of what this meant for the whole consumer market wouldn't have backed out so easily...
Geo at the start of this made a lot of promises, and we all brought into it, we backed him with our cash to show how behind him we was, and he showed us just what that meant to him by taking a dive before the first bell had even sounded....
Way to go....
04-12-2011
07:33 AM
I am very disappointed. I was really hoping that it would end like the apple suit. Guess, after everything was settled, we can conclude that Geo really did not win anything and whatever good fight he had in him is no longer there.
Sad day for us all.
04-12-2011
07:36 AM
This is Lional Hutz Lawyering if I have ever did see it, from incorrect serial numbers to stating Geo infact was also someone else Billy Blogs (or whatever he was called). Defense wise not opening a manual and "lending" a internet connection to a neighbour WTF.
For what I paid I excepted to see a more hardcore legal representation/battle with dirt being dug up on both sides, wild trailer trash sl*tty women being called to the stand & finally OJ Simpsons lawyer turning up and destorying the prosicution with "If the glove don't fit, you ain't got sh*t".
Instead we get a rather confusing/useless case where neither party could strike the fatal blow so it was classed as a draw... a long winded draw at that.
YouTube - Lionel Hutz: I move for a bad court thingy
04-12-2011
07:53 AM
Sony won...sorta.
They got everything they were asking for in the first place...that is a win by any standard.
However, they did not get a win in court, so they can't quickly sue hackers...they still have to go through the whole case like they were going to with geohot.
To those who say that this changes nothing, I respectfully say that you are wrong. As long as PS3 jailbreaking is a gray area, most devs are going to stay away. If PS3 jailbreaking ever gets the same legal status as iPhone jailbreaking, we will see a massive influx of high quality apps (stuff like FireFox and VLC), custom linux distros, and so much homebrew that you won't be able to keep track of it all.
geohot has not helped the community since firmware 3.15 was current...this case could have been a landmark, but instead it is just a bunch of wasted resources that could have gone to other hackers.
There is one other little issue that this causes. The OtherOS case is in the same court...and sony was submitting conflicting information in the two cases...they were essentially in a situation where they would have to admit that they were in the wrong in at least one of the cases...and it appeared to be going towards the geohot case. Now that that case is gone, they are not forced to choose between perjury and and surrender.
04-12-2011
08:25 AM
[QUOTE=KillerBug;190422]Sony won...sorta.
They got everything they were asking for in the first place...that is a win by any standard.
However, they did not get a win in court, so they can't quickly sue hackers...they still have to go through the whole case like they were going to with geohot.
[QUOTE]
I think a lot of it may have to do with how they have worded the agreement with GH. Lagalise is a load of pants as we all know, but i did notice they have been Very broad and encompassing in what they class as someone working for or in conjunction with GH...
"IT IS HEREBY ORDERED AND ADJUDGED by consent of the Parties that Hotz,
whether as an individual or as a principal, officer, director or employee of any business
entity, and his agents, servants, employees, distributors, suppliers, representatives and all
other persons or entities acting in concert or participation with Hotz who receive notice of
this Judgment, shall be and hereby are permanently enjoined and restrained from:
A. Engaging in any unauthorized access to any SONY PRODUCT under the
law;
B. Engaging in any unauthorized access to any SONY PRODUCT etc etc etc !
I'm still unsure what 'receive notice of this Judgement' means though???
EDIT Does this also mean that the controller vibe is banned as well?
04-12-2011
08:36 AM
that may mean anyone else who was working along with geogot at a guess. maybe just using those terms as a template to offer to drop cases against other devs.
psvibe is still ok as it fits with sonys position. them ****ing people over with the products they purchased
04-12-2011
09:32 AM
And so was born.....GeoHuts! =).
04-12-2011
01:05 PM
Could be hard to boycott them since they own companies that actually dont have the "Sony" name on them. But since I haven't baught anything from Sony in years it'll be easy to stay away. Only thing I own from them is my "very first phat PSP" and have no plans on paying for a newer one. And my Ps3 which is an old original phat one. Other then that I don't even pay for games either anymore. So in a way I'm kind of boycotting them right there but for me its easy since I got no money to even spend on anything pricey let alone somthing from them. But ya I can't imagine the deving scene to move forward because of this, this will kill the scene if it hasn't already.
04-12-2011
01:16 PM
So after all that, they basically made him sign a TOS? Bwahahahahaha.
04-12-2011
01:44 PM
lol funny guy he was nvr gonnae win and your a fool if u thought otherwise bye geohot
04-12-2011
04:34 PM
what makes me mad is: IF u planning on running, dont start the fight :D
Dont come in videos and blogs talking things you cant honor, money back please
now he comes with this bull-**** about boycott, N-E-V-E-R gonna work, and IF U PLANNING ON RUNNING, just pack your things and go, dont keep the bull-****
04-12-2011
04:38 PM
the boycott is bull****.
he is not allowed to hack so he avoids the subject by pretending its his choice to stay away
04-12-2011
05:37 PM
I cant see how he can claim this is a good ending after all his talk of consumer rights etc. Hes agread to stay away from their toys and theyve agreed to carry on as normal sounds like a FAIL to me
What of failoverflow now then?
04-12-2011
06:50 PM
I hope 3.6x gets hacked soon.
Never buying anything Sony related when it happens
04-12-2011
07:18 PM
Well if anyone seen his interview while this was all going on you would have noticed he said he was working on a hack for the new phone by sony....He said he bought it second hand because he is not supporting sony directly by buying it from someone else...So maybe this is what he means by he is boycotting sony....If not then he went from GeoHOTTT to a Geonott and a sell out
This is the video while the court case went on
Around 4:17 in is pretty much the info I am mentioning
YouTube - Geohot's Latest Interview
04-13-2011
08:59 AM
So, how much (donated) cash was left over?
04-20-2011
08:43 AM
From the looks of it, just under 10k, as he said he threw some pocket money out to round it up to 10k.
04-20-2011
09:05 AM
He shot his mouth off and tried to play a game when he has zero idea about the rules (the iPhone was so completely different a case before anyone says), and he ended up kissing arse, but he is STILL trying to tell everyone what to do.
I have utmost respect for Graf and fOf etc, but sorry, I do not need a jumped up little child (he IS a child emotionally) acting like God.
He labelled himself as a Saviour of hackers rights and such, and then he basically turned around, laughed in the face of all who supported him and Still gets wonderful PR from it all. (I refused to give money directly to him btw although I stated I would give directly to his lawyers)
He HAS hurt Grafs case with this, and given Sony a complete quiver full of arrows as well as another string to their bow.