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The Saga of George "GeoHot" Hotz Has Reached its Only Natural Conclusion

The former bane of Sony's existence is shacking up with Facebook now.

Over the last few months, we've had a bit of fun at the expense of George "GeoHot" Hotz, the floppy-haired, hip-hopping hackster who kicked off The Great PlayStation Network Kerfuffle of 2011 by cracking the PlayStation 3's firmware, releasing the tools for other people to do the same, getting sued by Sony over said tools, and thus inspiring a roving gang of Internet hooligans to start taunting and screwing with the console-maker.

Don't lie: You totally missed us writing news stories about this dude.
Don't lie: You totally missed us writing news stories about this dude.

Of course, the shit got a little more real when actual hackers stole actual vital information pertaining to actual PlayStation 3 users. At that point, the whole thing became a lot less funny. Well, Hotz's statements regarding that hack were pretty funny, actually. But the rest was totally serious business.

Anyway, after settling his lawsuit with Sony and making the aforementioned comments, Hotz went into radio silence mode. Evidently, that's because he went and got himself a real damn job.

Confirming a few rumors floating around late last week, Facebook representatives announced today that Hotz has gone to work for the company. His exact role at the company wasn't revealed, but it's presumed that he may be working in the company's mobile division, specifically on Facebook's upcoming iPad app. That would make some sense, given Hotz's previous proclivities toward jailbreaking iPhones.

It's actually a perfect fit, given Facebook head honcho Mark Zuckerberg's own history as an authority-mocking coder back in his college days. One could easily see the two of them becoming fast friends, going on coding dates together and curling each other's hair.

Still, that is a bit of an anticlimactic end to the antics of the gaming industry's own Dennis the Menace. Some of you out there almost assuredly were hoping for more of a Thelma & Louise type ending with Hotz's fellow lawsuit victim Alexander "Graf_Chokolo" Egorenkov (who is still being sued, by the way, and also probably will go to jail), but let's be realistic about this. A nice, quiet desk job at a major social media company is probably more reasonable.

Hey, maybe he can hook his buddy Alexander up with a job, too! You know, so he can pay his legal fees. And, like, not go to jail.

Alex Navarro on Google+

172 Comments

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MrAristocrates

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Edited By MrAristocrates
@VooDooPC said:

I would punch in him in the face just because, look at it! Yikes! Couldn't make it look any worse.

White guy with a lot of curly hair and everyone says, "OMG, is that Patrick!?", this guys looks nothing like Patrick.

This picture doesn't do it justice. There's a pic back from April or May where it was uncanny.
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MrAristocrates

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Edited By MrAristocrates
@sreya92: No. That's not how it works. Yes, he owned the hardware. He did not, however, own the software. When you buy a copy of software, you don't own that, it is licensed to you, and one of the terms of that license is that you're not going to fuck around with it. Other OS was poor and slow, was added in an update (and was thus not a launch feature), was never advertised by the company (and thus could not really be called a "selling point"), and the reason it was banned was because it created a security flaw.  
 
Also, "This pissed off a lot of people because the Linux OS was a big deciding factor for them in buying a PS3 and Sony essentially said, "Just kidding you can't have that feature anymore" and removed it."
 
Bull-fucking-shit. I assure you, very, very few people who weren't cops bought a PS3 just to run Linux, and again, Sony had a legitimate reason. 
 
Anyway, Hotz didn't have any right to go cracking the software, especially not with the intention of distribution, and it doesn't matter if his intentions were to let people play homebrews or open fucking donut shops, he did something that allowed piracy, and thus got sued.
 
 You don't seem to know what you're talking about. Like, at all. Plus, don't call Hotz "the little guy" when he constantly acts like a smug douche.
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librariangmr

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Edited By librariangmr

Great. Does this mean we can stop talking about him now?

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deactivated-57d3a53d23027

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"One could easily see the two of them becoming fast friends, going on coding dates together and curling each other's hair." - very funny.

I don't think that desk job would be very quite, but you're probably being sarcastic about it :)

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Brackynews

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Edited By Brackynews

That's...

Hot?

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sreya92

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Edited By sreya92
@YukoAsho: 
 He didn't do anything criminal that's the problem. He didn't steal his PS3, he just found out that there was a master key and then cracked it. It's his hardware he can do what he wants with it.Now before I go farther let me inform you why he did it. PS3 originally had a Linux OS on their system that they eventually blocked due to whatever reasons they found, essentially bannig the ability to put homebrew apps on the PS3. This pissed off a lot of people because the Linux OS was a big deciding factor for them in buying a PS3 and Sony essentially said, "Just kidding you can't have that feature anymore" and removed it.  
 
Following this injustice by Son, GeoHotz took apart the PS3 and discovered a master key. He then figured out the key code and realized that it allowed people to install homebrew apps back onto the PS3, giving back to the people one of the main features of the PS3. He then posted the code online.  
 
Now the problem is that the code allows one to also do illegal stuff like steal copyrighted property (like video games) and play them on the PS3. Obviously this pissed Sony off and they proceded by suing GeoHotz. Now the reason why a lot of people are pissed at Sony is because they feel (as do I) that GeoHotz didn't do anything wrong in "jail breaking" the PS3 since he owned the hardware often using the analogy of a buying a car and then altering the engine, seats, etc. to your personal preference. They saw a giant corporation, Sony, trying to lay the blame of their incompetence in keeping their system secure on one student. Which quite frankly is unfair. 
 
Now, the question is did he facilitate the piracy of games? Yes, I guess he did and were he to confess that that was his main reason they probably could convict him on it but he claims it was so that owners could continue to use homebrews. But was it wise for Sony to sue him? Obviously not since it's now known that pissing off hackers is basically inviting ruin upon yourself. What they should have done is offered the guy a damn job to help build a more secure system.  
 
Fighting hackers is like trying to win a war against guerrilla fighters. You're not going to beat them because they're not going to take you head on. They're going to hit you when you're not looking and then hide, and even when you get a few, more are going to pop up. Microsoft has realized this, and has taken a more amiable approach towards hackers, offering rewards for the most creative way to hack the Kinect, or the first to jailbreak their phone, etc.  
 
So the moral of the story is don't fuck with hackers and don't pick on the little guy.
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RoyCampbell

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Edited By RoyCampbell
@Brodehouse said:

I really wish Alex would stop giving hackers spotlight. I'd love to hear the change in his tune when they decide to hack Whiskey Media. Why would they? Why do they do anything, for money and to prove they can.

No. For this line -- of which I'll post below  -- to have ever existed, we needed an article like this.
 
"One could easily see the two of them becoming fast friends, going on coding dates together and curling each other's hair."
 
It's totally worth it.
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Mummenschanz

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Edited By Mummenschanz

Hmm. Well, I hope the job is at least soul-sucking. Seriously, that guy is the worst.

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VooDooPC

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Edited By VooDooPC

I would punch in him in the face just because, look at it! Yikes! Couldn't make it look any worse.

White guy with a lot of curly hair and everyone says, "OMG, is that Patrick!?", this guys looks nothing like Patrick.

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WrathOfBanja

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Edited By WrathOfBanja
@kingando420 said:
The only reason that people hate this guy so much is because he interferred momentarily with their Sony ball licking.
I hate this guy because he quit before he could accomplish anything besides damaging Sony.
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Geralt

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Edited By Geralt

Some how after reading the comments, the picture of a vulnerable young girls screaming "Please! Stop hating/punching/killing him! He had done nothing wrong!" comes to mind :1

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Wright

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Edited By Wright

facebook cares about your privacy!

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Keen_12

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Edited By Keen_12

Patrick, if you see this, you're way better looking than George Hotz.

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Magesx

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Edited By Magesx

That guy's fuckin' face

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tourgen

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Edited By tourgen

Facebook soon to achieve douchebag critical mass.

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deactivated-5e49e9175da37

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I really wish Alex would stop giving hackers spotlight. I'd love to hear the change in his tune when they decide to hack Whiskey Media. Why would they? Why do they do anything, for money and to prove they can.

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Legend

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Edited By Legend

@random_guy23 said:

alex, your articles continue to be hilarious, keep that up!

Yeah, I don't care what the article is about anymore. If it's written by Alex, I'll read it.

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ATTILAtheFUN

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Edited By ATTILAtheFUN

@MrAristocrates said:

Also, I'd like to say that I pointed out that Patrick looks like Hotz months ago, and no one noticed. -_-

dude, you are totally right

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DG991

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Edited By DG991

@AriesDog: When has he ever done anything to hurt people? He has only helped users.

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MrAristocrates

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Edited By MrAristocrates
Also, I'd like to say that I pointed out that Patrick looks like Hotz months ago, and no one noticed. -_-
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Dreamfall31

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Edited By Dreamfall31

Patrick Klepic = GeoHotz????

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MrAristocrates

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Edited By MrAristocrates
@CL60: They did have the right to sue if they thought there was a threat to their investments, and there was. As I mentioned, Geohot also didn't have the right to modify software that he didn't own. 
 
Geohot jallbroke, which is different from what he did with the PS3. With the PS3, he cracked the system to bring back a feature that had a gaping security flaw and was thus removed. He was sued because the security of their consoles was at risk.
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CL60

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Edited By CL60
@MrAristocrates said:
@CL60:Even if you don't think what he did was wrong, his own actions led to the lawsuit, so yes, it was his fault he got sued. I don't know why people are calling for execution, but the point stands that he modified software that he didn't own (and before you say anything, when you buy a console, you own the hardware, not the software, which is licensed to you, and is thus not rightfully yours to modify). What's more, he did this with the intention to distribute it, and, let's face it, the main reason people download console cracks is to pirate games. It doesn't matter whether or not Geohot was wrong, just that his own actions led to the lawsuit.
But the lawsuit shouldn't have happened in the first place. How did he know it was going to happen? It's not illegal to do what he did. Which is why Sony settled outside of court, they knew they wouldn't win. He's done it with multiple other products, because it's legal.
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MrAristocrates

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Edited By MrAristocrates
@CL60:Even if you don't think what he did was wrong, his own actions led to the lawsuit, so yes, it was his fault he got sued. I don't know why people are calling for execution, but the point stands that he modified software that he didn't own (and before you say anything, when you buy a console, you own the hardware, not the software, which is licensed to you, and is thus not rightfully yours to modify). What's more, he did this with the intention to distribute it, and, let's face it, the main reason people download console cracks is to pirate games. It doesn't matter whether or not Geohot was wrong, just that his own actions led to the lawsuit.
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CL60

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Edited By CL60
@MrAristocrates said:

@CL60: That's not what people are saying. They find it likely that the Geohot fiasco was the incitement for the hack. 

So because hackers were mad at Sony for suing Geohots(Not his fault) they hacked Sony(also not his fault), so that justifies wanting Geohots killed and tortured? That makes absolutely no sense, because still, nothing that happened was his fault at all.
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wrathofconn

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Edited By wrathofconn

"One could easily see the two of them becoming fast friends, going on coding dates together and curling each other's hair."

I'm definitely glad Alex wrote this article. Of course Zark Fuckerberg loves this dude.

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littlemanbodie

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Edited By littlemanbodie

Guy looks like a douche bag

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MrAristocrates

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Edited By MrAristocrates
@CL60: That's not what people are saying. They find it likely that the Geohot fiasco was the incitement for the hack. 
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Crocio

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Edited By Crocio
@CL60:  
  
Hah, calm down man. Do you think you'll really make a difference when most people don't want to change or acknowledge reality out of their preconceived world? Just relax and learn to take advantage of them like us businessmen. There are only so many people willing to learn.
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CL60

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Edited By CL60

Also, to those of you saying it's his fault because he "opened the network up" explain to me how that even makes sense. How did he open up PSN to be hacked when he didn't do anything to the network. The people that broke in didn't break in by using the rootkey that Geohot released and using their PS3. They broke in on their PC by getting passed sonys terrible security. The root key was for the SYSTEM it gives no access to PSN in any way. 
 
So please, explain to me how exactly he opened up sonys network for hacking when all he did was allow homebrew to be run on the console.

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Agent47

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Edited By Agent47
@Siphillis: What?Jajaja that was so random.
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CL60

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Edited By CL60
@AURON570 said:

i don't remember, have they caught the ACTUAL PSN hackers? are they trying?

No they haven't caught them, and the hackers are probably very happy right now, because judging from this topic it seems like the majority of people are stupid and think it was Geohotz that did it. When he had nothing at all to do with it.
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beforet

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Edited By beforet

Yeah, I guess that makes sense. Kinda like those hackers who are eventually hired by the government.

He has a really punchable face in that picture.

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HURRyDURRy

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Edited By HURRyDURRy

Corporate espionage covers are neat. 
 
LIke, 
 
PR forum posting.

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Olivaw

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George Hotz has a very punchable face.
 
The picture in this article is especially affecting. My fist actually clenched instinctively!

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MrAristocrates

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Edited By MrAristocrates
@Batmeng: Well, that and cyber-herpes.
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Vrikk

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Edited By Vrikk

As someone who does a "nice, quiet desk job" for 40 long hours a week I object to someone doing that instead of the cool things like hacking and romping around the virtual security world!

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Siphillis

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Edited By Siphillis

And then they all fucked.  The End.

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Sharpshooter

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Edited By Sharpshooter

OK I had a knee jerk reaction when I read the title of this arguement. The first thing that flashed through my mind was "Oh my god Sony assassinated GeoHot!!!"

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AriesDog

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Edited By AriesDog

I feel very comfortable with Facebook hiring a famous, amoral hacker who now has access to 500 million people's personal information. Can you detect sarcasm because sarcasm doesn't come across clearly on the internet?
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demarcon

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Edited By demarcon

Some people on this site really need to read fucking articles before they post comments calling this guy an asshole and saying he hacked the playstation network and stole personal information. I'm amazed with the amount of stupidity from some of these comments.

@Batmeng it's a good thing you'll "avoid fucking facebook" don't know if doing that is good for your health.

@PXAbstraction what problems did he cause for paying playstation customers? Where did he enable mass piracy? He's actually still sitting on keys for the NPDRM that would enable piracy of psn games and he will not release them because he doesn't condone piracy. He didn't only do it to restore otherOS but to give people the chance at homebrew with strict coding to make it so people couldn't pirate. Then another group took the keys that were already out there and made a different firmware that enabled piracy.

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Tuggah

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Edited By Tuggah
@Batmeng: I fucked facebook once, no regrets.
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swoxx

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Edited By swoxx

If you cant beat em' hire em'

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korolev

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Edited By korolev

I never had a problem with George Hotz. I hope he finds success in his new job.

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batmeng

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Edited By batmeng

Another good reason to avoid fucking facebook.

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Edited By bybeach

This editor isn't allowing me to do quotes, but in response to Matty FTM, I'm a little surprised you would think Sony would part their legs hire him. Why, the fucker caused them heavy grief, and there are enough talented ppl. out there that they don't need to deal with him. PPl. may have their set conceptions of Sony, I saw Ryan launch a fuck you (Sony) in status up-dates. But that doesn't mean they are so shiftless and even morally ambivalent as to hire Hotz, not at least when they were the ones so grievously wounded. And Alex, for some reason I'm really taking to your articles lately. way more so than before you went to New York, Though that is just appearance for all I know, I simply like your writing more-so than before.

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twillfast

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Edited By twillfast

George looks like something the cat dragged in..

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blacklab

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Edited By blacklab

Anyone seen this guy and Klepek in the same room?

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Duder_Me

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The comment about curling each other's hair was priceless.

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OldManLight

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Edited By OldManLight

Its like the end to the shield. Wait, no it isn't.