Sony and Geohot reach a settlement

[Max King of the Wild]

Hapimeses said:

ChichiriMuyo said:

Oh god, I want to archive this whole thread given the number of people who think that Sony won this and that GeoHot gave up because he knew he'd lose.  It'd be a crow banquent the next time a case like this comes up, given the  jailbreaking case that set precedent for users hacking devices they own. 

It's like some people can't imagine that Sony got the best deal they could have ever hoped for here and that they, based on precedent, would have actually lost the case if it ever went to the supreme court. 

Sure, they put some meaningless restriction on GeoHot so he couldn't hack their devices, and he proved that hackers can end up having way more power than Sony can actually tackle because legal precedent is against them.  It's not illegal to jailbreak your iphone by court order, just imagine if Sony lost this case and hacking a PS3 wasn't illegal by order of the court as well. 

Sony didn't have him by the balls, they offered him the chance to walk away without years of battling that would have ended up against their favor.  A compromise.  And one that isn't going to help Sony in the future.

Whatever makes you sleep at night. Do you really think Hotz gave up because he was sure he would win? Really? And are you trying to tell me a jailbreaking case for iPhone based on understandable competition issues bears any similarity to a console where there are no similar competition issues at all? Do you know anything about the iPhone case at all? As it stands, it appears you do not. The PS3 case is in a completely different position, legally, than the iPhone. Or so I've read -- I'm certainly no expert, either.

George had "Enough to cover legal fees and then some" according to him about his donations. He wouldn't have cared how long the battle lasted if his lawyer was basically free. His lawyer probably worked this deal out for him... And if the lawyer was working and knew he was set he wouldn't care how long it went on either... No sounds to me like the lawyer knew geohot would be facing a big charge if not settled as quickly as possible. Also, sounds to me like geohot is bitter with sony. If he got a good deal and laughed about how he got away with it why would he have this resentment towards them?