

Sony says PS 3 hacker Geohot has fled to South America - SriniK
http://venturebeat.com/2011/03/23/sony-says-ps-3-hacker-geohot-has-fled-to-south-america

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gs8
His attorney says:

Hotz's attorney, Stewart Kellar, told Threat Level and IGN that Hotz has not
fled to South America and that the missing components have been provided to
Sony.

Its just Sony trying to declare him guilty in public.

He's on vacation:
<http://geohotgotsued.blogspot.com/2011/03/fearmongering.html>

~~~
potatolicious
Ugh. Fuck Sony - I'm used to anti-hacker attitudes from companies but this
takes it to a new level. Not only have they decided to sue someone for doing
something entirely reasonable to his own hardware (this after Sony
_retroactively_ removed _advertised_ features), they are running a dirty
campaign of defamation and mud-slinging.

I'm selling my PS3, or at the very least throwing it in the back corner of my
closet. Sadly, this isn't as selfless of a move as it ought to be - the PS3 is
already a console that the industry whizzed right on by and is literally
collecting dust in my living room. Good riddance.

~~~
gs8
I stopped buying overpriced Sony tech sometime ago, about 10 years ago. After
I bought a Vaio from them and they couldn't even provide proper drivers for it
on their website. How difficult is it for a company to provide some drivers on
their own website? When it came to deciding between a PS3 or XBox, we bought a
Xbox.

My Sony purchases since then have been some CDRs (on sale) and an auto time
setting alarm clock (couldn't find any other, and I need one that day).

~~~
maushu
These driver problems on laptops aren't uncommon, specially regarding graphics
card drivers.

~~~
gs8
Never had any problems with Toshiba laptops.

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Derbasti
Isn't it fantastic how a company can sue someone for using something that he
_bought_ in a way that was not intended by the company? This make 'ownership'
kind of a funny thing since Sony still has rights on a product even if it does
not own it any more (you bought it!).

I know that some other countries (e.g. Germany) allow anyone to do whatever he
likes with something he bought as long as he does not re-sell it. But if he
bought it, it belongs to him, and he is free to do with it whatever he wants--
be that using it as intended, destroying it, or hacking it.

What if Sony would declare it illegal to destroy your Play Station? Would they
be able to sue you for throwing it out a window? Would they be able to sue you
for indadvertedly breaking it during a power surge?

Seriously, this is very close to what is happening to Hotz right now. US law
is fucked up!

~~~
Shanewho
Didn't he distribute his tools to others though, and isn't that what they are
going after him for? If he said he hacked his PS3 but didn't tell anyone.. I
don't think they would have a case.

~~~
Derbasti
But that is the point: He _told_ others, but he did only do it to his own
stuff and he did not sell or otherwise distribute hacked PS3s. Also, he only
told them how to run Linux, not how to play pirated games.

How is anyone supposed to do security research if one is not allowed to hack
stuff?

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FirstHopSystems
I find it interesting that they need his hard drive or any equipment as proof
that he did something illegal. At this point is it just Sony making stuff up
about what he did before they have all the facts?

Protip: If your equipment is at risk being seized by the cops, feed it to
tumblbeasts for proper disposal.

~~~
flipbrad
best to ignore that protip or face horrible consequences.

anyway, my understanding is that the lawsuit is still stuck at jurisdictional
discovery, not full-on, let's find out if you did something naughty discovery.
Which means they're looking for evidence of links to California (such as
having a PSN account, which is a contract that, I think, claims Cali as
jurisdiction) so they can sue him there, not in new jersey.

~~~
danssig
>best to ignore that protip or face horrible consequences.

I suppose it would depend on what was on it.

~~~
FirstHopSystems
Yeah I would ignore that protip, instead of taking you to jail they would take
you to the Mental Hospital for trying to feed something imaginary. If indeed
Tumbleasts are imaginary. I still might not be convinced they are NOT real.

------
nopassrecover
I find it understand how a company that released some of the most creative
advertising of the past decade (Sony Bravia adverts) could simultaneously be
so PR-self-destructive.

Is the leadership of top companies really so blissfully unaware of the impact
of social news?

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darklajid
We had that "news" several times already (i.e. it's a dupe of a dupe by now)
and - as commented here again, it seems to be blatantly wrong/false.

The linked article differs with every submission, but always repeats the "that
guys seems to have fled" thing.

------
rdl
Sony has every right to terminate the guy's PSN account if he turns out to
have violated the user agreement.

~~~
callumjones
I think it's gotten to the point that it's about a little more than Sony just
disabling his PSN account.

