You are probably aware that Geohot, aka Gorge Hotz who first jailbreaked the Apple iPhone is in the midst of a legal battle with Sony over jailbreaking their PS3 console, and as legal battles cost a fortune Geohot is now asking for some support from his followers.
According to an article over on Redmond Pie, the iPhone hacker has now set up a new blog after discussions with his lawyers and is asking for donations to his legal fund or if you can’t donate then spread the word.
Geohot is adamant that Sony isn’t suing him for piracy or even copyright infringement, but claims Geohot played such games as “super mario world, an unauthorized game” on his PS3. You can read Geohot’s explanation by hitting up Geohot.com.
Now personally I’m not legally minded, and I don’t own a PS3, but my personal view is somewhat akin to Geohot’s and that if you hand over you hard earned cash for something then that something becomes your property to do with as you see fit.
The product no longer belongs to the manufacturer and they shouldn’t have any rights to tell you what to do with it, once the warranty has run out of course. Thus I feel Sony is overstepping the mark as they don’t have the right to tell owners of their product what to do, which is what they are trying to accomplish with this court case, send a message to the public that you don’t mess with Sony gear even if you paid for the right to do so.
Put it this way, if a individual sold an item on say eBay, once it is sold it is the property of the buyer and not the seller, and the seller doesn’t have any rights to say what the buyer does with the item after its been paid for, so why should a big company like Sony think they can?
It seems to me this is a case of, we are big and you the public will do as you are told otherwise we will use large amounts of cash that the public has given us by purchasing our products in the first place, to slap you down in court and make you and everyone tow the line.
Basically I see this Sony verses Geohot case as not about Geohot jailbreaking the PS3, but more of Sony sending a message to the public saying mess with us and you will pay. So perhaps it is time all those iPhone users who have taken advantage of Geohot’s jailbreak of the Apple device to stand up and be counted, lend the Geohot some support, and send a loud message back to Sony saying…No Sony, you are not bigger than the public, you do not own a device the public has purchased, so back off.
Of course if Sony does browbeat Geohot into submission and wins the case maybe Apple will then decide to take the same stance with the iPhone, so there is a lot to lose here. Feel free to voice you opinions as to whether you agree or disagree to our comments area below.