“Together, we can help fix the system”
Update from Tristan: Early Monday morning, Hotz closed off open donations for now, saying he has met current needs to cover his legal fees. His statement, in part, reads:
Thank you so so much for all of your help, things are looking up money wise.
Expect to see a few more lawyers on my responses!
I have enough to cover my legal fees for the time being.
And in the absolute worst case scenario, we don’t want Sony getting it
More rounds of donations may follow as this case evolves. It is worthy to note here that Hotz claimed the case so far has cost him more than $10,000 in legal fees when the drive started Saturday; presumably he recuperated that amount and beyond in under 36 hours–all without the account being frozen or Sony trying to intervene.
The original story follows below.
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We’ve been following the story of George Hotz – “Geohot”. For those of you just joining us, here’s a recap: Hotz landed himself in legal hot water with Sony for cracking the Playstation 3′s copy protection, allowing unauthorized software to be executed on the console. Sony sprung in to action and sued Hotz over the matter, and have been taking increasingly extreme steps to make sure this information does not spread very far.
Today, Hotz has officially launched a campaign on his website to fight back against Sony:
tl;dr
Sony is lame, and is suing me for hacking MY OWN PS3. Help me own them in courtSony 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 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), 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 previous cases (or, in reverse), 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 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.
More information on the hows and whys of donating to his cause are available on Hotz’s website. The information is also mirrored on Hotz’s newly-launched blog, where he further discusses Sony’s methods and his position in what is becoming an somewhat unorthodox legal battle.
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I’m all for sticking up for the right cause, but I’m not giving him a cent
I want my Linux back too, but. I don’t go around asking for donations.
I do agree that Sony are dirtBags, and my opinion of them hasn’t changed since the last 90′s.
When he puts it this way, it makes Sony sound like total a-holes. I’m siding with him. They have no right to attack him when he’s hacking something he paid for. It’s like the Super Smash Bros, Brawl texture hacking group, ]Syntax Error[. They were threatened to be sued by Nintendo just because they hacked the textures and images and wanted to release this free hack to everyone else (they couldn’t anyways, though, due to technology problems). These gaming companies want to sue people when they didn’t do crap just to show everyone who’s boss. Good for Hotz for standing up for what’s right. He deserves a good pat on the back.
Fight the good fight. He’s had my support since day one.
I hate ALL PS3 hackers.
Now, ps3 exclusives turn special games into “normal” games.
f*****u GeoH.
And please GeoHotz
You are an idiot, pleasy READ THE LEGAL TERMS OF PS3.
You CAN’T modify your ps3.
Enter in Playstation Oficial WebSite, and first of all, read the rules.
ChaotixFox:
Mmmm, this is not good, GeoHotz is a ignorant child.
Sounds to me like the only ignorant child here is you, Lucas.
(Be nice — no personal attacks going forward. -T)
Hotz should have done his research and see what Sony did to Bleem, they didn’t care about winning the case he is in hotz water now. I have no idea why he thinks being mouthy and annoying is going to help his cause, I guess he is still under the naive delusion that the Internet is a white knights that comes to the rescue of the weak and helpless.
ChaotixDox
Undestand.
I want defend my console and the quality of exclusives ps3 games.
Actually, I have another perpective of games with ps3.
In ps2 era, I have 80% pirate games, and 20% original
But in PS3,I want all 100% original, with free online and good DLC.
Today, I study games, and have a big value of quality and art.
The PS3 change my vision about games.
Metal Gear Solid 4 is the better example.
Lucas, that is completely and totally irrelevant in every single way. Good for you?
Sonical… that’s sort of the point. He obviously knows what they did to Bleem, and he’s asking for help so that people don’t sit by and let that bullshit happen again.
He’s not saying OMG SAVE ME, I AM SO SCREWED, BOY I WISH I HAD SEEN THIS COMING! He’s saying that what Sony’s doing (as well was what they did to Bleem) is FUCKED UP, and anyone with an ounce of decency shouldn’t want to let them get away with it. This does have the potential to affect everyone. It doesn’t mean you have to help the guy, but this IS kind of a bigger deal than “well, serves him right”.
“Lucas, that is completely and totally irrelevant in every single way. Good for you?”
Wait!
The quality of games is irrelevant?
Look MGS4, Last Guardian, GT5, Gow3…
Ok…
I agree with Lucas Hinz.When I had a ps1 as a kid I had only pirated games(sometimes thet didn’t work properly or didn’t work at all),now I buy original games for my wii
@Lucas
“reading”-the cognitive process of understanding a written linguistic message.
I hope Geohot wins
@Lucas Hinz & Frankthehedgehog105
So Geo Hotz should stop modding HIS OWN SYSTEM just because you don’t have enough integrity to not pirate? How does that make sense at all?
@Skai
This is your VideoGame, but the system is SONY COPYRIGHT
Sony can modify all components and add/remove all components.
You can’t modify original PS3 config. Read the Terms Of User.
Donate to piracy!
I love paradox!
Guys donate and not buy a original game and f****ck game industry and the ART & Quality of games.
At this point, I honestly think pirates have more moral integrity than Sony does anyway. I’d gladly donate to even a CONFIRMED pirate’s cause if it helped knock Sony down a few pegs.
I’m all for what this Hotz guy is fighting for. Once you own a piece of equipment it is yours to do what you please with providing it’s within the law. For me piracy is a big no no due to quite a few friends of mine working within the games industry, piracy puts people out of work. Anyway, as far as this guy’s appeal is concerned while there are many who support his cause for legit reasons such as homebrew games many fans of his work are the theives that pirate game so they don’t have to spend money buying them. Why would they donate anything when they are pirating games to avoid spending money?
In my own honest opinion GeoHotz has a valid point, and I agree that once you buy the system and own it you can do what you will with it.
I will also agree with the fact that one may not distribute such software should one have access to it.
The only thing I do not agree with is the donation drive. GeoHotz should have had this planned out long before he even had a remote thought to jailbreak/hack the PS3. It’s his own fault for not seeing the trend of hackers in the world, and the lawsuits that followed thereafter.
Again these are just my opinions.
@Mathias
“I will also agree with the fact that one may not distribute such software should one have access to it”
Why? Give me one good reason why a hacker like Hotz can’t/shouldn’t share his findings with the world? If it’s YOUR console and you agree that people should be allowed to do what they want with it, does it really matter who teaches you how? That’s like saying you should only be allowed to paint your car if you mix the paints yourself.
Also, how can anyone “disagree” with a donation drive? It’s a completely voluntary thing. It’s not as if Hotz is desperately begging for people to pitch in and rescue him from unexpected consequences. The donation drive is more for a cause than anything. It’s to help prove a point. Whether he saw this coming or not, it’s something that should not even be happening. The fact that this is even going to court is a gross injustice in and of itself.
If anything, Hotz’ hacking uncovered something more than just a security flaw. It’s making Sony reveal (once again) its true and ugly colors. They NEED to lose this case and we, as consumers, need them to lose this case. Sony has NO right to even THINK that they have a justifiable excuse for this lawsuit, and the very fact that they’re trying means SOMEBODY should stand up to them.