He hasn't missed the point.

I can assure you he has missed no point, he simply relises the true value of freedom of speech and is fully aware of the hierarchy of weights of importance of various rightmorals etc.

In this case geohot may have facilitated piracy, but his sole intention was not to do so. He even added features in his firmware modifying tools to disable piracy!!!

This isn't about what YOU feel is fair and just, this is about what IS fair and just. Neither you nor I nor the next person decide that. The law states geohotz is untouchable. If he can weather this one through he is guranteed to win, because he did some very important things...

1. He released tools that patch Sony's firmware - not distribute modifiied firmware.

2. He added anti-piracy safeguards to the patches he made.

3. He's never advocated piracy EVER and always spoken against it.

I mean you do realise that one his patches had been applied, his custom firmware wouldn't even allow backup managers to load pirated games, it took a couple of weeks for hackers to patch geohotz' firmware to allow them to run!

Seriously, Oxfam is in need of your money. Give them it. Give your money to Red Cross or the Disasters Emergency Committee. UK folks, donate to Red Nose appeal.

If you are willing to give some guy who caused this issue on himself, then at least at the same time consider those who didn't.

In this case instance, i have no word on his actions, the legality of it and what people think he deserve but bloddy hell, donating your hard earned money on some thing like this is just illogical and redundent.

GIVE YOUR MONEY TO CHARITY (he isn't one).

Damn fine first post by Tsudai.  Welcome to the boards.  Unfortunately, some will ignore it and continue to scream about "consumer rights."  Of course, they will completely ignore company rights.  Without company rights, they would not be able to protect their interests/products, and many would go out of business.  With that comes the decline of tech advancement (there goes with all the cool little gadgets we are priviledged to have) and millions would lose their jobs, followed by the world economy turning to crap.  And yes, there has to be a balance between both sets of rights.  But we already have a very powerful tool to ensure our consumer rights, our wallet.  We are not forced to buy anything we don't want and corporations don't automatically get money from our wages.    This is something many seem to forget here.

Another thing some seem to forget while spewing consumer rights is that out of the big 3, Sony was the one who gave the consumer the most freedom to begin with.  They gave people the ability to go online without the need for hacking through the PS3's browser.  Sure it's not the greatest around, but it gets the job done.  They also allowed everyone to play games online, free of charge.  Need a larger HDD?  Buy any laptop HDD from whoever you want and it will work.  And most importantly, the PS3 didn't need to be hacked to allow Linux on it.  Sony gave people the choice to install another OS on it, opening up many new additional features that could be done on the PS3, REAL HOMEBREW.  Something I enjoyed messing around on.  Unfortunately some, like Geohot, weren't satisfied and wanted complete control.  Which would have been fine.  Well, if he wasn't the attention seeking whore he is.  He could have kept it to himself, while I continued to enjoy my YDL.  So where were all of you at the beginning of this gen when Nintendo and MS wouldn't allow Linux to be installed on their system first day of purchase?  Or when MS was charging crazy prices for its proprietary HDDs?  I highly doubt it was on here screaming "consumer rights."

Wait...didn't you just get done saying he NEVER distributed CFW?  But now you're saying his custom firmware wouldn't load pirated games?  So which is it?

BEST PHRASE EVER!

This thread is hilarious. People donating to a publicity whore, somebody who CLEARLY did something illegal in the fact that he didn't just hack his own console, but distributed copyrighted code used to hack a whole GRID. Yeah. let him keep fighting for freedom, for the windows PC's that we won't be able to use for what we want anymore if Sony wins - a reminder for that meek argument: all PC's since win95, as far as I know, are open for exprimenting out of the box... and all PS's since the PS1 are closed. How the hell does this argument justify anything?

All of you who indeed donated, you could've burned that cash and you'd have the same exact results. All of you who said that they did, and there are indeed a lot in here, you are just sad and should find another hobby.

/endrant

I See your point but on this site you will not get a unbiased point of view if it goes against sony.  This is why sony in the end will have to charge for PSN, Security. This is why I choose XBOX live. The extra money means they better fix the problem fast and flawlessly.  By paying for my service with xbox I have every right to b-tch that security should be up to par to deal with hacks such as so.

Whether PSN becomes a "pay to play only" service like XBL or not won't have any bearing on security.

It's in their best interests regardless of whether they receive "pay to play" fees from all users or not. Unsecured services means unhappy developers when the experience of their games is compromised by exploits. But this happens regardless of whether there are general fees or not.

Case in point, cheating occurs on XBL. Hacks exist on XBL. Aimbots exist on XBL. Like any exploit, they only last as long as it takes to become identified and the users banned, but to say that they simply don't exist "because I'm paying $60 a year for this service" is akin to sticking your fingers in your ears, closing your eyes and saying "this is not happening."

Hotz is basically appealing to the hacking community, meaning those who actually discover the exploits rather than those who use them. Big distinction.

While the former is a tighter knit community, the latter is considerably larger and quite unlikely to give the guy a dime for his work. And yes; it was work, as he spent a considerable amount of time and effort to find and distribute the keys to the vault.

And yes, he did distribute them; they were on his site.

Publishing those keys for the general public, including those who simply want something for nothing, probably wasn't the smartest thing to do even if "data simply wants to be free." Try explaining that mindset to the guy who has his bank account and routing number or CC account information cracked from a D-base and then published for anyone to access, relying upon the attitude of "I don't advocate theft, but decide for yourselves what you want to do with this information."

The only real mistake he made was in choosing to be a showboating exhibitionist in regards to his exploits, and freely distributing his findings rather than playing ball with SCE directly in regards to their security. 

The sad thing is, nobody wins in this case but those who use the information to "get something for nothing." Hotz pays a mint in legal fees, win or lose. SCE loses a much larger mint due to the security compromise and lost software sales as well as damage to the security image of their platform.

I was saying I have a reason to bitch if it is not taken care of fast. More money means more people on staff to take care of these problems in a timely manner and usually xbox live is good at catching such actions fast.

I never said it doesn't exist. READ THE POST BEFORE YOU GO OFF TALKING ABOUT SOMETHING I NEVER SAID.  So try to understand the post before running off at the mouth about me denying the truth.

SO what I put in bold is pure imagination on you part and putting words in my mouth.

The best interest was stated. If  I buy a product and want to smash it into the wall and take a sh-t on it, I will. Thats the point here. I shouldn't have to be sued because I made a video on how to smash the product and take a sh-t on it.

EDIT: lets add to that and say people now went into stores and followed my formula to smash the product and then cont. to sh-t on the product. It's not my fault that people decided to take things into there own hands and I shouldn't be sued over other actions.

Just like blaming marilyn manson for kids acting out in anger, when really it's usually a house hold problem brewing for years before he even heard the music.