Geohot interview on G4TV (Sony lawsuit)

Sounds like Sony may not have much of a leg to stand on. Again, pro or anti piracy letting this get out into the media was about the dumbest thing Sony could do. If 1 or 2 people on the planet weren't aware of the hack they damn sure know now.
 
If, what he's saying is true, they may have unleashed the lawyers too soon, or on the wrong person!
 
eloj said:
Haters gotta hate.
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I don't quite understand it myself. I can understand some people not liking the guy for their own personal reasons (whatever they may be), but what he's doing can end up setting an extremely important precident. As geeks, you'd think that most people here would be supportive of what he's doing.

I wonder what these same people would say if AMD or nVidia took the same stance as Sony. Try flashing a different firmware to your GPU? Overclock it? running PhysX on AMD hardware with hacked drivers? Running software they don't approve of? Get ready to bend over with your court appointed public defender.

If not for him, and people like him, jailbreaking/rooting/modifying your phone would still be considered illegal. Like the guy or hate him, you can't say that he hasn't helped the geek/nerd world in some way or another, either directly or indirectly.

He might have a big ego, but IMHO, he deserves it... he's a very gifted young man that has a bright future ahead of him.
 
Yeah, I'm sure both sides have egos that are too big to fit into the court room. It will be interesting to see what precedent is set. I don't think Sony can really get him on the piracy thing. So they must be going at a different angle... an angle that would set up some huge precedents. But this case is so important, that we might only be seeing round one with appeals to follow. Is this guy paying for lawyers out of his own wallet or are there some advocacy groups involved?
 
Parmenides said:
Yeah, I'm sure both sides have egos that are too big to fit into the court room. It will be interesting to see what precedent is set. I don't think Sony can really get him on the piracy thing. So they must be going at a different angle... an angle that would set up some huge precedents. But this case is so important, that we might only be seeing round one with appeals to follow. Is this guy paying for lawyers out of his own wallet or are there some advocacy groups involved?
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AFAIK, he's paying out of pocket.

As for the angle that Sony is taking, check this out if you really want to read about the meat and potatoes of the whole thing. It contains links to the court documents filed by both Sony and Georges lawyers.

http://www.geohot.com/

From the reading I did yesterday, it doesn't sound like he has a whole lot to worry about. His lawyers (who have sucessfully defended people in MPAA/RIAA cases recently) are really going for Sony's throat. I almost felt a little bad for 'em lol
 
How is he going to get sued in the US if he is german, after all?
 
I hope sony gets raped 6 ways back to tokyo and they die a slow painful death.
 
LOL ppl hating on this dude, if anything ppl here should support fellow nerds. This dude kicks ASS
 
4saken said:
geohot is a tool. hope sony rapes his life.
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Sony are lying cheating thieves. They sold PS3s as Linux computers then they sabotage people's Linux computers. If you did the same you'd be in prison, but Sony is a corrupt corporation who can afford to bribe politicians so they can get away with violating the law. If there were justice, the douches running Sony would in prison.
 
Derangel said:
Yes lets hope a company that employees over a 160,000 people dies.....:rolleyes:
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for their rampant stupidity? yes. many of those 160k are very talented and will find homes elsewhere or start a new company that actually gives a shit. it's the two dozen retards at the top running the company into the ground.

If it means better products, less restriction, better support, open standards, liberal licensing, cooperation and a general interest in what the consumers want? i'm all for it. let them die. someone will take their place.
 
fubar569 said:
for their rampant stupidity? yes. many of those 160k are very talented and will find homes elsewhere or start a new company that actually gives a shit. it's the two dozen retards at the top running the company into the ground.

If it means better products, less restriction, better support, open standards, liberal licensing, cooperation and a general interest in what the consumers want? i'm all for it. let them die. someone will take their place.
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Should I also mention that Sony dumps billions of dollars a year into the world wide economy? Really its incredibly done to wish a company to die based on bullshit that simply doesn't matter in the long run.
 
Derangel said:
Should I also mention that Sony dumps billions of dollars a year into the world wide economy? Really its incredibly done to wish a company to die based on bullshit that simply doesn't matter in the long run.
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There are companies that do that in a single day, week, or month. The world would not miss sony. Someone would take their place. someone ALWAYS does.

and if such things do not matter...why are they continually on the short end of every stick they have in the pot? companies can't get by on rep forever. look at detroit. all but one needed a bailout just to stay alive. years of horrible business decisions sealed their fate. If sony keeps this up it will turn enough people against them and they too will die a slow and painful death.

I'm sure the execs will get golden parachutes as per usual though :rolleyes:
 
fubar569 said:
There are companies that do that in a single day, week, or month. The world would not miss sony. Someone would take their place. someone ALWAYS does.

and if such things do not matter...why are they continually on the short end of every stick they have in the pot? companies can't get by on rep forever. look at detroit. all but one needed a bailout just to stay alive. years of horrible business decisions sealed their fate. If sony keeps this up it will turn enough people against them and they too will die a slow and painful death.

I'm sure the execs will get golden parachutes as per usual though :rolleyes:
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Because they don't have much to stand on and are likely doing this to save some face with the investors aka the people they answer to. Sony does need to do something somewhere along the line. They don't have that much of an image problem in regards to bad products, but their problem is expensive products. A lot of the high end stuff they put out is pretty good, but its expensive as hell and doesn't set itself apart from the competition. Sony's big problem is arrogance, they need to find a way to release cheaper products that compete well against others. It doesn't mean they have to die, but it does mean they need to replace pretty much everyone at the top. A lot of the senior execs at Sony are old Japanese people firmly clinging to tradition and fighting against any change in that tradition. They need some younger blood in the board room to force something to happen.
 
People defending him with half thought out analogies just need to stop now. Because of failoverflow and the like, it will now lead to piracy if its as easy as it's said to be.

That means you don't need to buy software ever again, all you needed was that hardware to do everything for you. A video card is just a piece of the puzzle, even if you flashed BIOS etc, it won't do you any good because you can't just automatically "run" video games, or produce "video" without anything else.

With a hacked PS3, you can essentially do anything with a simple USB dongle, an idiot could do it. Sony would get $0 in those sales, (Not like they were raking in too much in the first place, they are just starting to pick up too). This is pretty much a huge death blow to the PS3 the way I see it. I think the free PSN has something to do with it too. Blah blah -- inevitable Wii and 360 plug -- I don't even know how many people play the Wii online, since most of their games are offline. 360 has XBL to fall back on.

Don't get me wrong, having the OtherOS feature back is fine, and GeoHot said he is preventing piracy in his code, but not everyone is going to do so. Also, he is such a cockboy in his interview, really arrogant.
 
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refraxion said:
People defending him with half thought out analogies just need to stop now. Rooting or modifying your card is fine (I don't care if he does OtherOS), but because of failoverflow and the like, it will now lead to piracy if its as easy as it's said to be.

That means you don't need to buy software ever again, all you needed was that hardware to do everything for you. A video card is just a piece of the puzzle, even if you flashed BIOS etc, it won't do you any good because you can't just automatically "run" video games, or produce "video" without anything else.

With a hacked PS3, you can essentially do anything with a simple USB dongle, an idiot could do it. Sony would get $0 in those sales, (Not like they were raking in too much in the first place, they are just starting to pick up too). This is pretty much a huge death blow to the PS3 the way I see it. I think the free PSN has something to do with it too. Blah blah -- inevitable Wii and 360 plug -- is not p I don't even know how many people play the Wii online, since most of their games are offline. 360 has XBL to fall back on.
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Piracy is vastly overstated. You're falling into a trap of believe everything the media tells you about piracy. Do you really think most people have even close to the knowledge to do that? Or for that matter will ever know? And before you bring up the PSP, lack of quality titles, Sony's piss poor marketing, the over-all faults of the system, and the types of games people tried to make for it is what caused the PSP to die outside of Japan. Also they went up against Nintendo who owns that market. The DS, 360, and Wii have had piracy issues for years and they're chugging along nicely.

PS: The reason Sony got rid of Other OS was due to people trying to use that as a way to hack the console, which is the same reason they disabled all non-authorized devices being used on the USB ports. Where exactly would you like them to stop in this pointless pursuit?
 
I'm not falling into any trap. I guess we will just wait and see, I have my own thoughts on this matter, but I won't have to say them. I'll just see if they unfold like I'm thinking it will ;). Google will play a big part! :D.
 
Derangel said:
Piracy is vastly overstated. You're falling into a trap of believe everything the media tells you about piracy. Do you really think most people have even close to the knowledge to do that? Or for that matter will ever know? And before you bring up the PSP, lack of quality titles, Sony's piss poor marketing, the over-all faults of the system, and the types of games people tried to make for it is what caused the PSP to die outside of Japan. Also they went up against Nintendo who owns that market. The DS, 360, and Wii have had piracy issues for years and they're chugging along nicely.

PS: The reason Sony got rid of Other OS was due to people trying to use that as a way to hack the console, which is the same reason they disabled all non-authorized devices being used on the USB ports. Where exactly would you like them to stop in this pointless pursuit?
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Modern warfare 2 has made well over 2 billion dollars despite known rampant piracy. It's really not an excuse anymore, even among Indie developers.
 
4saken said:
geohot is a tool. hope sony rapes his life.
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fubar569 said:
I hope sony gets raped 6 ways back to tokyo and they die a slow painful death.
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eloj said:
Haters gotta hate.
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Aye. Some of the rhetoric makes it obvious that uninformed, disingenuous malcontents AKA trolls have descended to voice their ignorance.

Derangel said:
A lot of the senior execs at Sony are old Japanese people firmly clinging to tradition and fighting against any change in that tradition. They need some younger blood in the board room to force something to happen.
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Racist much? Your statement could have simply been "old people". wtf is your problem with a predominately Japanese company employing Japanese people? Do you make similar complaints against IBM, Microsoft or Intel for having a buncha Americans? Besides, for the last half-decade, Sony's Chairman and CEO has been BRITISH.

piscian18 said:
Modern warfare 2 has made well over 2 billion dollars despite known rampant piracy. It's really not an excuse anymore, even among Indie developers.
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So, being stolen from is still okay so long as you're making some profit? Be sure to tell your employer it's okay to nip an extra 5-20% from your paycheck. After all, you're still earning money, right? (jobless college kiddies who pirate keep quiet. We understand you're part of the "broke but still wanna game" exception).

I'm all for Robin Hood or minimizing greed by corporations, but your ideas about piracy are an insult to the people who work in the games industry. The guy who made Braid spoke about his income and what he went through. The bottom line was that he'd have made more money, a LOT more money, by just plugging away at a regular job. Even when his game got put onto Xbox Live, his profits were meager. This, from a game that was one of the most high profile indie titles of 2008 and won numerous awards.

A lot of the numbers we see about piracy and its impact are bogus, but it's definitely stealing and it definitely hurts indie devs. This is largely because a huge chunk of indie piracy occurs outside the US/Europe/Japan where the PC's are a generation behind and hacked software/hardware is sold out in the wide open w/ zero fear.
 
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