On the subject of a Legal Defense Fund
Read You must login or register to view this content., You must login or register to view this content., the You must login or register to view this content., and You must login or register to view this content. for updates on the case

Media, I need your help. This is the first time I have ever asked. Please, if you support this cause, help me out and spread the word.
I want, by the time this goes to trial, to have Sony facing some of the hardest hitting lawyers in the business.
Together, we can help fix the system
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You must login or register to view this content. Donations here are for legal defense ONLY
I checked with my lawyers before setting this up
If you have another substantial way to donate aside from money, let me know

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

Sony are bullies
Sony doesn't care if what you did was legal, if they don't like it, they sue. Sony tried to You must login or register to view this content. 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 (You must login or register to view this content.), 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 You must login or register to view this content. You must login or register to view this content. You must login or register to view this content. (or, You must login or register to view this content. You must login or register to view this content.), 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 You must login or register to view this content. stole, Linux on your PS3. It's shameful on Sony's part that they are being sued at all. If you have a problem with pirates, sue them, don't sue people who point out your shortcomings.

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

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

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

How much should I donate?
Put it this way, Sony has 5 lawyers, I have 2. I'd like to level the playing field, and really get some hard hitters in there. I have already racked up over 10k in legal bills; donate whatever you feel like. Leftover donations at the end of all this will be donated to the You must login or register to view this content..

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

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

Donate to help you, you're the reason I can't play Modern Warfare now…
No, I'm not. Kakaroto explains this really well You must login or register to view this content.. I have never played PS3 online ever. Frankly I'm amazed by the apparent ease with which these cheats were created, security 101, why is the security in the client anyway? I had no idea this would happen, and am in full support of the cheaters being permabanned from PSN.

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

What if SCEA tries to settle?
Lets just say, I want the settlement terms to include OtherOS on all PS3s and an apology on the PlayStation blog for ever removing it. It'd be good PR for Sony too, lord knows they could use it. I'm also willing to accept a trade, a legit path to homebrew for knowledge of how to stop new firmwares from being decrypted.

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

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Contact Me
geohot ... gmail

I think sony doesn't even stand a chance in court. Jailbreaking is totally legal . You own the device and you can do with it what you want. The same way with PSN, sony owns it so they decide what they wanna do with it.
I'm curious what the judges will say. I support geohot in this.

Then in other words, hacking is legal? just becuase "you own" a thing it doesnt mean you have the right to do whatever you want.

Oh look I own this bank, so I can do whatever I want, I'm gonna take everybody's money. Does it sound right for you? You can do whatever you want as long as the damages are just for you, but when it if s for others, your rights are gone, which is what Geohot did. He put Sony's key on public thats one, (is that for his own? when hes giving it to world?) and he made a CFW and put it online, again is that just FOR his OWN console?

Then in other words, hacking is legal? just becuase "you own" a thing it doesnt mean you have the right to do whatever you want.

Oh look I own this bank, so I can do whatever I want, I'm gonna take everybody's money. Does it sound right for you? You can do whatever you want as long as the damages are just for you, but when it if s for others, your rights are gone, which is what Geohot did. He put Sony's key on public thats one, (is that for his own? when hes giving it to world?) and he made a CFW and put it online, again is that just FOR his OWN console?

OLD :p



i downloaded geohot's website with HTTrack Website Copier and i found some interesting site in it:



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Geohot we will help you!


i just donated 10 $ to him
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lol uuuuh hell no ?
id like him to get thrown in jail and be made some nigga's bitch
after hearing his anti-sony rap

donations??? why

G

GeoHot made CFW for one sole purpose, to be able to run homebrew on the PS3 again, a feature that was advertised when I and alot of others purchased our PS3s. But Sony took an advertised feature away. The people who are the ones you should be pointing at are the 10 year olds who used CFW to cheat in Call of Duty and pirate games illegally.

Then in other words, hacking is legal? just becuase "you own" a thing it doesnt mean you have the right to do whatever you want.

Oh look I own this bank, so I can do whatever I want, I'm gonna take everybody's money. Does it sound right for you? You can do whatever you want as long as the damages are just for you, but when it if s for others, your rights are gone, which is what Geohot did. He put Sony's key on public thats one, (is that for his own? when hes giving it to world?) and he made a CFW and put it online, again is that just FOR his OWN console?

lol uuuuh hell no ?
id like him to get thrown in jail and be made some nigga's bitch
after hearing his anti-sony rap

@bizarro
Aren't you cool for being an prepubescent kid that doesn't understand life and swears off his mouth at every death on Call of Duty, we don't need people like you on our forums.

@houst
Legal fees, court funds, lawyers and stuff cost money.

@GeoHotz
Exactly. He did nothing illegal.

@T-Icey
*major sigh of depression*
With your bank example, the owner COULD DO THAT yes, but thing is, banks have some like contract when people sign up bank accounts that show whatever they do. And if it said he could do all of what you said, then he could, but nobody would sign up an account.

On the other hand, with an electronical device, its legally yours once bought from a retailer. There is no contract that says you HAVE to NOT do this, NOT do that, the closest thing to that is a Terms of Service which is displayed on the CONSOLE, and you can have the choice not to view it. Once you buy it off a retailer, its legally yours, its like a car. You can do WHATEVER you want to it once you buy it, because its legally yours. You could use that car for bank robberies and shit, and the manufacturer (sony in this case) can't do SHIT to you. Because its legally yours.

On the CFW/Keys note: Theres no rule stating you can't display PS3 Security keys, nowhere. It's under the rule of fair use. And the CFW wasn't illegal. It COULDN'T be used for piracy, therefore it wasn't illegal and couldn't be used for illegal actions unless modified earlier.

Plus, alot of this was to restore the OtherOS feature, which sony illegally removed (yes illegally, look up the case on google).

Why bother watching the video of a guy you want thrown in jail?

---------- Post added at 02:38 PM ---------- Previous post was at 02:32 PM ----------



Exactly, there was no rule saying you cant distrubute the PS3 OFW Keys b/c Sony originally claimed the PS3 is unhackable, therefore they had no reason to say, "You may NOT distrubute the PS3 OFW Keys." in the TOS. But now they have realized they were wrong.