Archive for: geohot
Since the whole thing with Sony, Geohot has remained pretty low. In fact, we have heard anything from the once prolific hacker for several weeks. But that changed in mid-May when he began working for Facebook. Yes — Facebook.
While Geohot started at Facebook in May, he only announced it this past Wednesday, June 17th (which interestingly enough doesn’t feature a “Friend” button anywhere on the page). With that said, it’s not exactly clear what he’s doing there. The “coming out” post on his Facebook profile page simple says:
is Facebook is really an amazing place to work…first hackathon over.
Cyber security perhaps? If only Sony would have hired him (or other hackers) instead of suing them…
Geohot may have been exiled from the PlayStation scene, but thankfully previous endeavors are waiting by, open arms and all.
The iPad 2 has thus far resisted the attempts of some of the best jailbreak developers. According to one such dev, @p0sixninja, accomplishing said feat requires more skill, time, and patience than most people have or care to give. However, in the spirit of competition p0sixninja threw out a friendly invite to one-time iOS jailbreaker, Geohot, to see who could crack the iPad 2 first. According to ‘ninja, Geohot accepted despite not having an iPad. (He’s claimed to be getting one soon, however.)
The end result will hopefully mean a much more open iPad 2 for all of us. Until then, keep checking twitter and Gadgetsteria for the latest iPad 2 jailbreak news.
During the entire Sony vs. GeoHot ordeal, donations from around the world poured in as sour PS3 owners and outright Sony haters wanted to see fair use trump an over-zealous hardware manufacturer. But as it turned out, no one actually “won” per say. Though, some would argue that we consumers still have the upper hand now that the dust is settling. As such, all that donation money didn’t end up being needed by GeoHot thanks to a no payment settlement. So where is it going?
As promised, GeoHot donated a cool $10,000 to the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) this past Saturday closing his story on the PS3 lawsuit while providing the EFF the necessary resources to help fight the “next GeoHot”.
As promised, all left over legal defense money, plus a little to bump it to a nice number, has been sent to the EFF. Thank you all so much for your support, without it, things could have been much worse.
This money goes to the EFF in hopes that America can one day again be a shining example of freedom, free of the DMCA and ACTA, and that private interest will never trump the ideas laid out in the constitution of privacy, ownership, and free speech.
At the end of the day, something I take comfort in. The PS3 got OWNED.
“Once the code works they’ll never be able to take it away from us.”
Look for other aspiring hackers to quickly take GeoHot’s place as he has both sworn off any and all Sony products for life as well as being required to not hack them as part of his settlement. Fair enough. Who’s next…?
The ongoing dispute between famed Playstation/iOS hacker, George Hotz (Geohot) and Sony has come to an end. Both sides were able to reach some sort of agreement, with Hotz agreeing to an injunction.
Sony Computer Entertainment America (“SCEA”) and George Hotz (“Hotz”) today announced the settlement of the lawsuit filed by SCEA against Hotz in federal court in San Francisco, California. The parties reached an agreement in principle on March 31, 2011. As part of the settlement, Hotz consented to a permanent injunction.
Both parties expressed satisfaction that litigation had been quickly resolved. “Sony is glad to put this litigation behind us,” said Riley Russell, General Counsel for SCEA. “Our motivation for bringing this litigation was to protect our intellectual property and our consumers. We believe this settlement and the permanent injunction achieve this goal.”
“It was never my intention to cause any users trouble or to make piracy easier,” said Hotz, “I’m happy to have the litigation behind me.” Hotz was not involved in the recent attacks on Sony’s internet services and websites.
In the action, SCEA accused Hotz of violating federal law by posting online information about the security system in the PlayStation 3 videogame console and software that SCEA claimed could be used to circumvent the security system in the console and allow the playing of pirated videogames. Hotz denies any wrongdoing on his part. Hotz’s motion to dismiss for lack of personal jurisdiction was still pending before the federal court in San Francisco but a preliminary injunction was issued requiring Hotz to take down the postings challenged by SCEA.
“We want our consumers to be able to enjoy our devices and products in a safe and fun environment and we want to protect the hard work of the talented engineers, artists, musicians and game designers who make PlayStation games and support the PlayStation Network,” added Russell. “We appreciate Mr. Hotz’s willingness to address the legal issues involved in this case and work with us to quickly bring this matter to an early resolution.”
Is Geohot done hacking the PS3 for good? Stay tuned…
Today is not a good day to be Sony, for the infamous hacker “group” responsible for a string of website crashing tactics, Anonymous, has officially announced their plans to target the consumer electronics giant in their latest #opsony campaign. The reason — Sony’s relentless and to some, fruitless lawsuit against PS3 and iOS hacker Geohot. Prevoiusly, anonymous has been tied to PayPal, Visa, and Wikileaks site attacks in which said sites were brought down for hours on end and rendered completely unresponsive.
So far, Sony has remained mum on their new-found award.
The ongoing Geohot vs. Sony lawsuit gets more interesting with each passing day. Yesterday, we were talking about Geohot’s apparent fleeing to South America. Today, Geohot himself has both confirmed and denied the rumor he fled the country saying:
Factually, it’s true I’m in South America, on a vacation I’ve had planned and paid for since November. I mean, it is Spring break; hacking isn’t my life. Rest assured that not a dime of legal defense money would ever go toward something like this. And of course Townsend loves the idea of painting me as an international fugitive. I have been in contact with my lawyers almost every day; I would not let the case suffer. That said, I also won’t let this ridiculous lawsuit run my life either. Then the fearmongerers win.
Fair enough. He does have a point — through all the drama that’s been going on, he probably does have a life outside his hacking hobbies. As for the claim that Geohot tampered with his hard drives, we’ll have to wait and see…
Update
About those “tampered” hard drives — Geohot simply removed the controller cards. You stay classy, Sony.
Infamous PS3 hacker, Geohot, is reported to have fled his New Jersey home and taken up residence in South America, this according to his PSN profile. Certainly this type of move can’t paint any type of optimistic image for his defense. Also further tarnishing the hacker’s case — hardware (PS3s, computers, etc.) that was used by Geohot to hack the PS3 has not been turned over to Sony in a timely fashion as well as critical data deleted from his hard drives. While we don’t exactly see eye-to-eye with Sony (ever), Geohot isn’t doing himself any favors with his actions.
Now that Geohot is soaking up the South American sun, is it game over for PS3 hacking as a whole? We doubt it. Plenty of other talented (and less egotistical) people will pick up where he left off. As for his trial’s outcome — that’s a different story. Look for the Geohot vs. Sony drama to heat up in the coming weeks…
- February 16, 2011 4:56 pm
There you have it folks. Sony has finally published a ban-hammer press release on PS3 Jailbreaking. We’ve been covering all the info about the lawsuit against geohot, but here it is, finally something has been released for the regular mom and pop out on the street. It’s pretty easy to understand; they don’t want you to do it!!!
Sony released this statement on the Playstation Blog this morning:
Notice: Unauthorized circumvention devices for the PlayStation 3 system have been recently released by hackers. These devices permit the use of unauthorized or pirated software. Use of such devices or software violates the terms of the “System Software License Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System” and the “Terms of Services and User Agreement” for the PlayStation Network/Qriocity and its Community Code of Conduct provisions. Violation of the System Software Licence Agreement for the PlayStation 3 System invalidates the consumer guarantee for that system. In addition, copying or playing pirated software is a violation of International Copyright Laws. Consumers using circumvention devices or running unauthorized or pirated software will have access to the PlayStation Network and access to Qriocity services through PlayStation 3 system terminated permanently.
To avoid this, consumers must immediately cease use and remove all circumvention devices and delete all unauthorized or pirated software from their PlayStation 3 systems.
Just as Microsoft has done in the past with Live, you’ll lose all access to the Playstation Network. And in case you weren’t aware, copying or playing pirated software is a violation of International Copyright Laws 
Source: Playstation Blog
- February 13, 2011 12:17 am
Legendary iPhone Jailbreaker/Unlocker GeoHot has released a humorous thuggish rap on the youtubes directed at Sony. We told you about the initial lawsuit about a month ago. Numerous events have unfolded in the case, including California granting Sony the restraining order, and most recently – the judge allowing Sony access to any and all ps3 related material on George Hotz’s hard drive.
With all that has happened GeoHot still holds a sense of humor about the entire thing and has granted us a peak into his attempt to jailbreak and unlock the hip hop scene.
Get Jiggy with it on in to see the video
