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GeoHot Asks For Donations To Fight Sony
mede writes "In an interesting turn of events, Sony might have stumbled into a tough nut to crack. George Hotz (aka GeoHot) famous for his iPhone hacking achievements, is planning on fighting the big corporation on removing his free speech rights at utilizing his fully paid for hardware. Hotz has always claimed being anti-piracy (since iPhone activities) and says he has never pirated any game or even signed PSN agreements. He's asking for donations to fight Sony back and try to achieve something similar to what was previously accomplished by the EFF with regard to cellphones. I've already donated."
My small contribution to a great cause.
My $50 is a small price to pay if it helps him win the case and set a precedent that leaves me free to discuss Sony's cryptographic failures.
Evil people are out to get you.
I am trying to weed out the fucking donation link amongst ~*8 links (and maybe ones i dont see) sprinkled and 'beautifully' embedded in the sentences as part of sentences in the summary and articles.
why are people doing this ? is it 'cool' when you embed the links with their link texts being parts of sentences ? what about usability, user friendliness ?
holy cow.
if someone can link the donation link in an non hipster, uncool, plain way, i will be grateful.
Read radical news here
Isn't this kid's hack the reason every PS3 game is now rife with cheats?
No thanks, I'm rooting for Sony on this one.
I'm sure they'll return the favor...
"A government is a body of people usually -- notably -- ungoverned." -Shepherd Book
Repeat after me: Not every business plan is viable or continues to be viable as times change.
The PC market does fine without subsidies, let console players pay the full price of their hardware so they stop saying how cheap their hardware is compared to a PC, while typing said message from a PC.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
By the way, I can't believe slashdot changed the link to the source...
Don't go to techspot.
Go to geohot.com
Nintendo doesn't seem to have any problems...
because inherently you have the right to alter things you own....EXCEPT when that device is suddenly covered under the DMCA, and suddenly it's illegal to do something with your own device. The grounds on which he is being sued on are based on unjust laws. If the DMCA had been passed 100 years ago it would be illegal to work on your car, to renovate your home, or to alter your clothes.
What is your point? That these companies have a business model that is based on not selling their products for a profit? That they want to use the force of law to force that business model to be profitable?
I feel absolutely no remorse for these companies.
Palm trees and 8
You have a problem with him reverse engineering the inner workings of a device he legally purchased and then sharing that information publicly?
Nerd rage is the funniest rage.
The thing with trade secrets is that you're only bound by the NDA if you actually signed it.
If the company gives you the trade secret, without making you sign an NDA, but puts it inside a box, it's their fault if you open the box and get the trade secret, not yours.
What trade secret? Published keys were already "published" by Sony, because a defective security implementation. It is like writting a number in the box and forbidding you to tell it to others. Geohot just told others what was the keys for his console, and the fact that these keys were the same for all consoles is just Sony's fault. In my opinion Sony deserves this and much more, because of fuking their customers (I still hold PS3 firmware 3.15, for using Linux, but not being able to play new games, because the *requirement* of firmware update). By the way, I have no intention of buying anything produced by Sony, including their media brands (e.g. Columbia Pictures).
As it turns out, you can modify a car so that it is not street legal, and you can then send information on how you did that to other people. This is a free speech issue: Geohot did not break into Sony offices or commit any sort of industrial espionage in order to compute the signing key; his only apparent violation of the law was to post a copy of what he had computed on the web. When posting something you computed becomes illegal, then there is a serious free speech problem.
Palm trees and 8
I heard Sony loses money for every PS3 sold, so I went ahead and brought one to help out the cause.
What's wrong with Hotz's activities? Are you saying he should not be allowed to do whatever he wants with the hardware he owns? He purchased his PS3 fair and square, from a retail vendor. He never signed any contract with Sony (nor even agreed to any EULA or ToS or similar bullshit).
Sony is the villain in this picture, they distributed a malicious update that DISABLED the perfectly functional OtherOS feature in existing fat PS3 consoles. They advertised those PS3s for years as being able to support OtherOS *and* being able to connect to the PlayStation network. Then they took these actions which force each PS3 owner to choose either one or the other, rather than keep both like they were originally advertised. That's bait-and-switch. As the owner of a fat PS3, Hotz was totally justified in hacking the hardware to reenable functionality of his console that was maliciously disabled by Sony. Anything he learned during that process (including crypto keys, etc.) can be shared freely because he never agreed to an NDA with Sony.
All these companies that think its OK to sell a piece of hardware and then use the legal system to prevent the OWNERS of that hardware from doing whatever the fuck they want with it, need a fucking reality check. And if you feel bad for them losing money because Hotz has given everyone back the ability to run whatever software they want on their Sony-subsidized computing devices, well maybe Sony should not have based their business model on holding their customers hostage.
So when exactly did geohot ever sign any agreement to keep their crypto key secret?
he's not their employee.
he has no privileged access.
If I analyse coca cola in a lab and figure out their secret formula I don't have to keep my findings secret because I've never signed up to any agreement with coca cola.
It's not my responsibility to keep their secrets secret.
Hotz can do what ever he wants to his consoles in his house but the moment he went to the internet with this another issue because it forces Sony's hand. Just like the guy who tinkered with his care enough to not make it street legal and the cops want to arrest and the state wants to take away his license complaining he needs money to fight THE MAN is a giant whatever from me. And again I have to reiterate this isn't a free speech issue either but a dispute between two parties in contract.
He did what he wanted to his own console in his own home. He told others how to do the same. The court silenced him. That sure as hell sounds like a free speech issue to me - not to mention the fact that there never existed a contract between Hotz and Sony (he rejected their EULA and does not use PSN, from what I gather).
To use your analogy: guy modifies car to the extent that it is no longer street legal. Guy has great fun driving around on his private farmland. Guy posts on internet explaining how others can modify their cars for use on private land. Car company sues guy. Guy is silenced by the courts and forced to stop discussing his modifications.
You sound reasonable enough, and obviously I can't make you care about this issue, but I'm surprised that you claim that he had it coming; his 'crime' here is pissing off a big company, and the company is responding with a classic SLAPP suit.
If you want to see a people fight the good fight for free speech, look no further than recent events in the new where people are protesting on the streets of middle eastern countries. Hotz vs Sony isn't even on the same scale.
Absolutely true, but as others said further up, the fact that one fight is more important doesn't render others unimportant.