As I’m sure many of you have already heard, George Hotz or GeoHot is currently being sued for, essentially, hacking his very own Sony Playstation 3, and creating the ability to jailbreak the ever-popular Sony console.  Many already know who GeoHot is, but just for the sake of it, I’ll tell you who he is, George Hotz is the man behind the jailbreaks such as LimeRa1n and BlackSn0w.

Even though it’s perfectly legal to jailbreak an iPhone, iPad or iPod touch, it’s definitely not legal to jailbreak a Playstation 3, nor any Sony product for that matter.  So, Sony filed a lawsuit against GeoHot, saying that he “encouraged piracy”.

Of course GeoHot is now royally ticked off, and now he really needs our (the media and the community) help in this legal fight against Sony.

He’s asking for help financially and morally, he needs our support and I, for one, am here to help!  He’s asking for donations, only through PayPal to help pay for the legal fees, on his website, and for everyone to spread the word.  Here’s what he had to say about it.

“Media, I need your help.  This is the first time I have ever asked.  Please if you support this cause, help me out and spread the word.  I want, by the time this goes to trial, to have Sony facing some fo the hardest hitting lawyers in the business.  Together, we can help fix the system.”

On the subject of Sony, GeoHot got deep, down and dirty.

“Sony is lame, and is suing me for hacking MY OWN PS3.  Help me own them in the court.

Sony are bullies

Sony doesn’t care if what you did was legal, if they don’t like it, they sue.  Sony tried to sue a guy for getting his AIBO to do non-Sony approved trics, making it apparent that they don’t really care about piracy, they care about control.  In (Sony v Bleem), Bleem was the winner on all counts, but the high cost of a legal defense shut them down.  Fortunately that suit helped set precedent on the legality of emulators.  I would hate to lose this case due to resource starvation, and with the support of the masses, I won’t.  Lets turn the bully back on itself.  This case has the ability to set a huge precedent for consoles and all closed systems to come.  The other two should be begging Sony to back off.

Sony sued the wrong guy

I am an advocate against mass piracy, do not distribute anyone’s copyrighted work but my own, do not take crap lying down and am even pro DRM in a sense.  For example, I believe Apple has every right to lock down their iPhone in the factory as much as they want, but once it’s paid for and mine, I have the right to unlock it, smash it, jailbreak it, look at it, and hack on it.  Fortunately, the courts agree with me on this point.

My PS3 goal has been to provide users a legitimate path to homebrew, which by the standards of all previous cases (or, in reverse), is 100% legal.  Sony does not even try to allege piracy or copyright infringement in this case, they allege I did things like play “super mario world, an unauthorized game” on MY PS3.  And access MY PS3 in an unauthorized way.  Who are they to authorize what I do with my taxed and paid for property?

fail0verlfow’s goal was even nobler then mine.  They wanted to give you back a feature Sony illegally stole, Linux on your PS3.  It’s shameful on Sony’s part that they are being sued at all.  If you have a problem with pirates, sue them don’t sue people who point out your shortcomings.”

If you want to donate anything at all, but you really don’t know what to think about him or why you should even care about this lawsuit at all, well GeoHot had something to say about that too!

“Why should I care about your personal legal troubles?

You shouldn’t.  For example, if I was taken to court for sex crimes in Sweden, I would never ask for donations.  But this case isn’t about me.  Clearly I am not being sued because of something I have that Sony wants, I am being sued in order to send a message that Sony is not to be messed with.  But if I (and all codefendants likewise) actually win this, we have the power to send a much stronger message back.  That consumers have rights, and we aren’t afraid to stand up for them.”

Now, as I’ve said before, GeoHot is taking donations and to read the rest of what he had to say on this subject, you can visit his website.

Oh yes, one more thing.  On his blog, you’ll notice a bigger scale of the picture that is on this blog.  GeoHot is asking for people to join “Operation Boycott Sony.”

GeoHot has my full support in this lawsuit.  I’m a full believer in the fact that GeoHot has done nothing wrong, and I’m sure that he’ll win this case, their isn’t a doubt in my mind.  So, here’s me, helping GeoHot out to the best of my ability, by spreading the word.

So, what do you readers think?  Are you going to spread the word, perhaps even donate a bit of money to help with the financial aspect of this upcoming trial?  Do you plan to take part in the boycotting of Sony?  Let me know you in your comments, I look forward to reading what all of you have to say!