Geohot Gives Remaining Legal Funds To EFF

from the not-gone-to-waste dept

Mon, Apr 18th 2011 10:56pm — Mike Masnick

When George Hotz (Geohot) settled the lawsuit Sony had filed against him for jailbreaking the PS3 in order to restore a feature that Sony had taken away (despite advertising it), many were upset. Part of the reason people were upset was that he had asked for donations, and insisted that he would fight Sony until the end. Those people wanted to know what would happen to the money they donated. Geohot has now said he's donating the remaining cash to the EFF, which hopefully will satisfy those who were upset over that aspect. As I said earlier, unless you've been subject to a lawsuit from a giant company, it's tough to sit there and criticize a guy for settling, rather than fighting to the end. The legal system is set up such that it's a stacked deck against the little guy, so as disappointing as it may be not to get a full ruling out of this, it's hard to fault Geohot.

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Filed Under: geohot, george hotz, hacking, money, ps3
Companies: eff, sony

17 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 18 Apr 2011 @ 11:13pm

agreed, Mike.
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Will Sizemore (profile), 19 Apr 2011 @ 12:03am

Me too. It doesn't make sense to be a martyr here, as much as I was all for Sony losing.

That being said, I'm also a happy player of DCUO. Sony's not all bad, but I'm upset enough about PS3 not supporting the Other OS that I won't own one. I also won't own another VAIO but that's because I wasn't happy with the one I owned and all its hardware issues. That being said, my uncle purchased the same model and my little brother used it until it was about 9 years old and that isn't all that bad for an early P4 Desktop. (Totally useless, I know. Sorry.)
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Faceless Minion, 19 Apr 2011 @ 12:17am

No, when you beg for money from people swearing to keep fighting, it's not too much to ask that you do what you say you will. I'm sure there are plenty that would have much rather kept their coin then have it donated to someone they didn't ask it to be donated to.
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The eejit (profile), 19 Apr 2011 @ 12:34am

Re:
Do you have any idea how fast costs rise in a single lawsuit? I suspect not.
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Hiiragi Kagami (profile), 19 Apr 2011 @ 3:18am

Re:
"No, when you beg for money from people swearing to keep fighting, it's not too much to ask that you do what you say you will."
Then perhaps those who were being begged upon should have taken the first step?

GeoHotz donated $10,000 to the EFF. Ten. Thousand.

If you think this is any amount of money to fight against a corporation like Sony, you are the fool.

GeoHotz didn't even have enough funding to start the first round, let alone the battle.

By the way: how much did you contribute?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2011 @ 4:25am

"it's hard to fault Geohot."

Its also hard to fault those who want their money back.
If the system its designed to smash the little guy, dont mess with the system! and if you do, dont ask money, its no use!
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abc gum, 19 Apr 2011 @ 4:31am

Re:
Tell that to the countless political pundits.
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Michael, 19 Apr 2011 @ 4:51am

Re:
"If the system its designed to smash the little guy, dont mess with the system!"

Geohot is one guy. I'm sure when this started, he felt he was in the right. Since he lives in the land of the free, he figured he could fight this - even if it was David vs. Goliath. So, he asked people to help - because he was, in some ways, fighting THEIR fight as well.

Sometime between then and now, he came to understand just how big of a mountain he was trying to climb, he looked at the step stool donated to him, and Sony offered to settle on terms he could live with.

There is fighting the good fight, and then there is bankrupting yourself in a matter of months in a losing battle.
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2011 @ 7:41am

Perhaps people who ask for such donations should mention that any remaining money after the lawsuit will go to organization X ahead of time, so that there are no surprises at the end. They should also mention that they may end up settling the case and not fighting it sometime during the case. As long as none of the donated money can go to Sony during the settlement process (or if the defendant loses the case), I think most donators will be happy. Can the law demand that donated lawsuit money go to the plaintiff (ie: in the case of a settlement or after a losing judgement). I suppose in a settlement case, probably not, but what about a losing judgement? Can any remaining donated money to fight a lawsuit then be transferred over to the plaintiff?
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2011 @ 7:44am

Re:
(or, rather, can the law demand such a transfer)?

So say I got $100,000 to fight a lawsuit. I fight it and lose with $5,000 left over. The judgement against me is for $300,000 but I can only afford to pay $50,000 out of my own money. Can the law demand that I now turn over the remaining $5,000 donated money over to the plaintiff, or can I legally give it to some charitable organization of my choice first and pay the remaining non-donated $50,000 that I do have while figuring out some potential payment plan for the rest (or declaring bankruptcy). How does the law work here?
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Common Sense, 19 Apr 2011 @ 8:16am

Donation
What part of a donation do you people not understand? If you gave a donation, it's with out stipulations or don't donate. How many people have giving change to you're local homeless person asking for money? When you give the cash do you put a stipulation not to buy beer? And if they do, what are you going to do about it? When you donate to the Red Cross 1 pint of blood, do you tell the Red Cross not to give your blood to a race that is not your race or have your religious beliefs? Have common sense and stop being stupid.
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Benny6Toes (profile), 19 Apr 2011 @ 8:26am

where's my refund, Sony?
I think it's great that Hotz is donating the remaining funds to the EFF, but I'm still waiting for Sony to refund me some money for removing a feature that I paid for (with the expectation being that I would have access to it indefinitely).

It's like a car dealer coming back to me three years after I bought my car, taking the spare tire back, and telling me that I can't get another one.
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Chuck Norris' Enemy (deceased) (profile), 19 Apr 2011 @ 8:35am

The end...really.
insisted that he would fight Sony until the end

Well, the settlement is technically the end of the court battle...so I would say he kept his promise. =]
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Anonymous Coward, 19 Apr 2011 @ 12:38pm

Re: Re:
There's also the problem that if his defense fails, then he's the one in deep shit. The people who pitched in money are just out a couple bucks. He'd be the one facing jail time(?), fines, responsibility for all the legal fees, etc.

As far as I'm concerned, that takes way more balls than I would ever have. I can't fault the guy at all.
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hmm (profile), 20 Apr 2011 @ 4:10am

the other thing is...
The information on how to basically eviscerate the PS3's "security" system is now out on the internet and is unstoppable, unless Sony decides to sue pretty much half the planet........

In effect Geohot got what he wanted because now dozens (if not HUNDREDS) of people can happily work on restoring other OS functionality and there is exactly zippo that Sony can do to stop it.......

Welcome to the Information Age Sony, you're kinda late......
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hmm (profile), 20 Apr 2011 @ 4:13am

also
Sony exposed itself for 1) Having really feeble security measures that were basically security-by-obscurity....and 2) showed that it actually feels some sort of hatred/animosity to every single one of its customers and intends to "punish" them for trying to enjoy a previously-available feature.

Its like a father cooking his kids a healthy breakfast, then getting annoyed when they actually dare to ENJOY it instead of complaining about the muesli....

Yay! for George Hotz for helping to expose Sonys TRUE feelings toward the rest of humanity......
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Anonymous Coward, 20 Apr 2011 @ 5:35am

DON'T STOP THE BOYCOTT UNTIL SONY IS OUT OF BUSINESS!

Death to the Brand!
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