sharing knowledge is fine. He did not hack the psn or pirate. Its that simple. You want to hate on cheaters and pirates fine. He is not one. We dont get it because it not true. He hacked his ps3 and told others how to do the same, something which is perfectly legal and brteaks no laws, that is the reason sony had to try and get him in civil court instead of criminal. All the psn hacks and piracy were not him, had it been sony would of given that evidence to the appropiate officials and he would have had criminal charges brought. You need to stop trying to pin something on someone who did not do it.

He's got a bright future in his career as an attorney. :)

depends on the country you in, but when you buy a PS3 you accept a terms and conditions which states you cannot alter the software, and like all software there is certain rules that are generally accepted when it comes to its use. One is that you can have open software which can be changed and sold (Linux is one with mac osx being a verison thats being sold), then you have freeware that the program can be altered but must be sold for free at all times and then you have proprietary software that cannot be changed or sold without permission of the creator, in the case of the software on your ps3, your 360, your wii and windows for example are all proprietary software that you cannot change. 

If you are in the software industry you would want these rules to be obeyed because its heart breaking if you slaved years on a software only for someone to change it and release it for free or just re sell it under a different name. 

What do you mean by "programming"?  The hardware is yours to do with what you want but OS and Software is normally a different story.  For example you never "own" Windows OS the way you own your computer.  The OS is treated differently and the code is considered Microsoft's IP and not for you to tamper with without breaking the terms of the licence under which you use the code.

While I agree hacking isn't always bad or even unfounded there is no doubt that with the huge move to online across the board, from phones to consoles to TVs, etc. the whole distinction between the hardware and the software and what is yours to do with as you will is getting cloudy, particularly as a core principle of do with what you own as you will is that it only affects you - whereas of course in the online world it can affect others.  For example someone might want to hack to cheat and others might want that prevented.  I might want to alter my OS to allow me to harm your computer if we connect and you might not want me to of course.

I suspect we'll see changes of legislation eventually to try and better accomodate current trends, etc. but as ever anything legal seems to lag for ages behind the real world in these kinds of areas, as does general awareness of the whole issues, which I think is the real core problem - a disconnect between where we are now with such devices, the general perception of consumers which is often out of date and a legal system based on principles/concepts which no longer really accurately relfect the situation.

Not that this is anything new - I'm sure the first time someone could record a live concert the musicians weren't necessarily keen on it if they weren't going to see any money from the copy.  It's an old problem in many ways and has been around for a long time across various media.

I live in the US. I tried to find a case with any device where it was deemed illegal to hack  your own equiptment. I could not find a single one. In the ps3's case it was not illegall, in the iphone case not illegal, you are allowed to hack yur cars computer if you wish also not illegal. I have not found a single case where someone has been criminally punished for hacking somehting they own. Nothing geohot did was deemed illegal as no chares were brought against him. If you find a case where hackking something you own was deemed illlegal please feel free to post it as I have not (at least for the US but even for other countries I have not)

I live in the US. I tried to find a case with any device where it was deemed illegal to hack  your own equiptment. I could not find a single one. In the ps3's case it was not illegall, in the iphone case not illegal, you are allowed to hack yur cars computer if you wish also not illegal. I have not found a single case where someone has been criminally punished for hacking somehting they own. Nothing geohot did was deemed illegal as no chares were brought against him. If you find a case where hackking something you own was deemed illlegal please feel free to post it as I have not (at least for the US but even for other countries I have not)

Edit: I will just add that it really dfoes not matter what the ToS or EULA says, you can not contract yourself out of your rights. That means that they can not take away your right to alter your device just cause they throw it in the EULA.

"All the psn hacks and piracy were not him"

absolutely wrong, all of it ( that we know of ) stemmed from him... he broke the security and spread his methods RESULTING in other people breaking the security and using the ps3 for activities that he says he is against... but the fact that he says hes against these activities does not negate his involvement :

"Sony has only pinned the change on “security concerns,” but hacker George “Geohot” Hotz, who released the first-ever PS3 hack earlier this year (preceded by several high-profile iPhone jailbreaks), which could ultimately allow piracy or other nefarious uses of the consoles, believes he played a role:

First off, I want to apologize to all the people who use Linux on their PS3. Before releasing, I weighed the pros and cons, and considered the possibility of an impact on OtherOS support. My logic was this. OtherOS support had already been removed from the Slim … The builders had apparently no intention of including it in future products. So for the purposes of openness why not release?"

link : http://gamercrave.com/ps3-hacker-geohot-on-lost-linux-support-im-sorry/2349/

btw i never spoke on the legality of what he did but on his impact to the ps3 community and even on devs to an extent... if some dude takes a shotgun and blows my brother's brains out but hes never convicted you think i'll give a crap about the laws? 

i dont think you are grasping the notion of hacking your equipment, I am talking about breaching the internal software so you can modify it, and when people do that they cant help but show it off so they post step by step guides or release it on the internet. Hacking your equipment to instal another os or anything other than change the os on the machine is fine. 

really no one cares if you hack the software and change it as long as its not used to damage others, used for priacy and is not distributed to others. In the case of the PS3 hacks, look what we got, possibly millions of credit card info gone, but then was that the hack allowing that or other, who knows. It did offer priacy on the machines so it is bad. 

we seem to be on the page. I know that hacking your own equiptment can involve hacking the the software installed on said equiptment. I am saying that as far as I can find in all case law in the united states is that that is perfectly legal, and it is also legal to tell others how to do so.

Bopy I see you in these threads and we argue the same things over and over again. It stemmed from his work as much as it stems from sony releasing the ps3. So if you are going to blame hime for the piracy and psn hacks sony shares an equal blame as they both provided the tools.

But as I always say that is besides the point, the whole flaw in your argument is that he did not actually do anything your are acussing him of. Others did the piracy and others hacked the psn. He is a provider of tools just as any pc maker or sony is a provider of tools in this matter. So either blame them or blame none of them, take your pick. But you can not blame him and not blame sony and every opther c amkers or pc componemnt maker as they all provided pieces of all the tools necesaary. Most sane people though would choose to blame those that actually hacked the psn and pirated. I really do not know how else to say it. Either blame sony and geohot and pc makers or only blame the pirates.

Using your logic we all knoiw it stems from evil sony relesaing a console that could be hacked and allowed piracy.

It was smart of him to wiegh the pros and cons but you have yet to show even a speck of evidence that he hacked the psn or pirated. Until you do i am done with arguing in circles with you, its pointless you seem to just want to defend sony in some way here when this is even really about sony. its about what is legal and what is not and what someone did and what they didn't do. Not what others have done.