You read that headline right folks! George Hotz, otherwise known by his notorious hacking moniker Geohot, is getting his legal fees against Sony covered in large thanks to a few friends in Seattle. But before we dive to much into those details, lets take a look back on all that has transpired on the PlayStation 3 hacking front over the last few months…
It goes without saying that Geohot is one of the more prolific personalities on the device hacking scene, having successfully delivered a jailbreak to Apple’s iOS. After news broke of him managing to circumvent Sony’s DRM and security on the PlayStation 3, the company responded with a crippling restraining order, preventing him from disseminating his findings any further. Unfortunately for Sony, the damage had already been done, further igniting a firestorm of hacking on the console that had previously just been simmering under the surface.
In order to combat all of the potential legal fees he was facing, Geohot reached out to the community of gamers, asking for their donations to help defend himself against a tremendous amount of legal fees. Not only was his initial asking amount met, but did so in a very timely manner. Was this just a tremendous response from the hacking community? It is hard to be sure, but he also allegedly received a large lump sum for the folks over at Microsoft, acording to EverythingHQ.com:
The information comes from a source close to the matter who must remain anonymous that in an attempt to help George win his case, and thus making it legal to hack the PlayStation 3, the company anonymously donated a large lump of cash so he could cover his court fees; remember: only 2 days had passed after Hotz requested the money and then received all of the money.
So is this the Sony vs. Microsoft legal throw-down that we have all secretly longed to see? I highly doubt it, considering that Microsoft has openly encouraged Geohot to bring his development talents over to Windows Phone 7. Whether their motivations are selfish or otherwise, this is an interesting development in the saga of Geohot against the evil empire. We will keep you posted if any other details break on this story.
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