I always end up reading up on anything I can find as far as technology goes. Especially with the big 3 platforms. One of the companies, Sony, has been falling into some major legal battles lately. Especially the one with Geohot.

When it comes to technology freedom, I always side with hackers. This isn’t the kind of hacking where I like to ruin everyone’s experience, this is more of I want to see how far this technology can go under my own personal use. It’s not a “stick it to the man” situation, it’s more of “damn, I have to try that”. I also understand the companies ToS (Terms of Service) and I totally agree with them. That’s why I’m not putting my equipment online.

Anyways, the reason why I’m posting this is that I want to talk to you guys about a new situation that popped up with the Geohot case. If you click on the link below, there is a news article that states that Sony managed to get the OK to obtain every IP address that visited Geohots website between January of 2009 to Present. They also won subpoenas for data from YouTube and Google, as well as Twitter account data that is linked to Geohots. What does worry me is what they will do with this data. Will they use this to link everyone that visited Geohots anywhere on the internet to Geohots himself or will this just be basic data to gather and see how many visitors he does get?

I may be a little paranoid, but I’m just looking out for everyone that either accidentally stumbled upon his site through a crappy search engine and the people that just like to follow hacking news.

What do you guys think? Let’s discuss this matter. 

Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.  

I imagine this will just be a number that Sony can throw around in court. They can cite how many unique IPs visited his site and then claim (probably misleadingly) that this resulted in X amount of PS3's being compromised.

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

" I imagine this will just be a number that Sony can throw around in court. They can cite how many unique IPs visited his site and then claim (probably misleadingly) that this resulted in X amount of PS3's being compromised. "

Thing is, the whole big corporations versus hackers thing, really is a case of programmers that made it big and have a steady income versus programmers that doesn't and lives off infamy. On both sides they are human beings trying on up each other fueled by different intents. So if I was a hacker and I want to know as much as possible about the company I hacking into, I would probably find some way to see the IP addresses and such that they were conspiring/connected to. Does it ever lead to anything? Maybe, who knows, its just data mining, but since these programmers are on the side of big corp, they can use the legal ways like file lawsuits and subpoenas instead of hack into the other hackers and see the list of IP addresses that way.  
 
So honestly, I don't see it as any different other then the big corp uses different tools to achieve the same means. 

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

This won't ruin any sort of business because gaming has always come with people who mess with the system. As far back as floppy discs, we've been copying files so we can get the game/program/content for free. It's just part of human nature. Sony can't change that.

I feel like this is just drawing more attention to it. Like I don't even own a ps3 and I'm commenting on a subject about hacking one. I'd imagine the number of owners gaining interest in hacking is much larger then the number of owers becoming afraid to do the hackins anymore.

" @kingzetta: I kind of understand their thinking.. kind of. They don't want the PS3 turning into the PSP, so they're gonna try and make an example out of Geohot... this won't make a difference though because the hack is out there and it's not going away. This whole trial is making them look dumb. The people who support them I really don't get though. Sony's trying to say that the console you bought isn't really yours and  (some) people are still rooting for them. Anyway, the way they're choosing to tackle this problem is horrible and it's just making them look bad. "

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:SNE "

" @Cameron said:

" I imagine this will just be a number that Sony can throw around in court. They can cite how many unique IPs visited his site and then claim (probably misleadingly) that this resulted in X amount of PS3's being compromised. "

yeah this sounds likely "

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

totally agree with you.  i personally dont think its right to download something for free like music and games.  but i guess im a hypocrite cause i have a shitload of music i downloaded for free "

" @Laketown said:

" @Cameron said:

" I imagine this will just be a number that Sony can throw around in court. They can cite how many unique IPs visited his site and then claim (probably misleadingly) that this resulted in X amount of PS3's being compromised. "

yeah this sounds likely "

 @the_OFFICIAL_jAPanese_teaBAG said:

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

totally agree with you.  i personally dont think its right to download something for free like music and games.  but i guess im a hypocrite cause i have a shitload of music i downloaded for free "

Ditto. "

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

I guess I'm retarded for thinking a company should protect it's assets?  Sony's not a charity, they have money to make. And when they just broke even on the PS3... to have it hacked at a time like this would suck if I worked for them.  I'm all for hacking, but downloading GeoHot's hacks and running them doesn't make you a hacker, it makes you someone a punk. If people want to hack the PS3 so damn much, crack it yourselves. But spreading it is pretty irresponsible. I don't think GeoHot should be charged with anything, but he definitely needs a legal slap on the wrist. This is probably a good enough scare anyway.  "

" @XII_Sniper said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

I guess I'm retarded for thinking a company should protect it's assets?  Sony's not a charity, they have money to make. And when they just broke even on the PS3... to have it hacked at a time like this would suck if I worked for them.  I'm all for hacking, but downloading GeoHot's hacks and running them doesn't make you a hacker, it makes you someone a punk. If people want to hack the PS3 so damn much, crack it yourselves. But spreading it is pretty irresponsible. I don't think GeoHot should be charged with anything, but he definitely needs a legal slap on the wrist. This is probably a good enough scare anyway.  "

Suing a private individual for millions of dollars is a slap on the wrist? "

" @august said:

" @XII_Sniper said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

I guess I'm retarded for thinking a company should protect it's assets?  Sony's not a charity, they have money to make. And when they just broke even on the PS3... to have it hacked at a time like this would suck if I worked for them.  I'm all for hacking, but downloading GeoHot's hacks and running them doesn't make you a hacker, it makes you someone a punk. If people want to hack the PS3 so damn much, crack it yourselves. But spreading it is pretty irresponsible. I don't think GeoHot should be charged with anything, but he definitely needs a legal slap on the wrist. This is probably a good enough scare anyway.  "

Suing a private individual for millions of dollars is a slap on the wrist? "

Well, if the individual in question is worth hojillions of dollars, then sure. "

" @Hailinel said:

" @august said:

" @XII_Sniper said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

I guess I'm retarded for thinking a company should protect it's assets?  Sony's not a charity, they have money to make. And when they just broke even on the PS3... to have it hacked at a time like this would suck if I worked for them.  I'm all for hacking, but downloading GeoHot's hacks and running them doesn't make you a hacker, it makes you someone a punk. If people want to hack the PS3 so damn much, crack it yourselves. But spreading it is pretty irresponsible. I don't think GeoHot should be charged with anything, but he definitely needs a legal slap on the wrist. This is probably a good enough scare anyway.  "

Suing a private individual for millions of dollars is a slap on the wrist? "

Well, if the individual in question is worth hojillions of dollars, then sure. "

Is he? "

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

when Geohot mentioned he wanted to buy a windows 7 phone, microsoft sent him one and it had a note that pretty much said "do what you want with me". there are other ways to respond to this kind of stuff "

Muhahahha you're all criminals! 
Sony will throw the shithammer down on ALLL OFFF YOOOUUU.

hackers suck, sony's legal department sucks, everyone sucks. I'm going back to playing games.

You guys being all, "GRR SONY!" should really stop being upset that a major company is being cut-throat and more upset that a judge approved something so potentially ridiculous.  The news here is that they actually got the OK, not that they asked for it.

" @buft said:

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

when Geohot mentioned he wanted to buy a windows 7 phone, microsoft sent him one and it had a note that pretty much said "do what you want with me". there are other ways to respond to this kind of stuff "

Microsoft did this just to spite Sony and Apple (this is the same guy who hacked the iPhone right?). It's all PR bullshit. If it was just some random hacker, Microsoft wouldn't give a damn about this guy.  And I'm all for homebrew and stuff like that, but we all know 1000x more pirates are going to abuse this to all hell. At a certain point, I think you just have say screw homebrew if it means you stop an ungodly number of people from getting your shit for free. "

If you buy the damn thing, then you should be able to do what you want with it except use it to steal other things.

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

I guess I'm retarded for thinking a company should protect it's assets?  Sony's not a charity, they have money to make. And when they just broke even on the PS3... to have it hacked at a time like this would suck if I worked for them.  I'm all for hacking, but downloading GeoHot's hacks and running them doesn't make you a hacker, it makes you someone a punk. If people want to hack the PS3 so damn much, crack it yourselves. But spreading it is pretty irresponsible. I don't think GeoHot should be charged with anything, but he definitely needs a legal slap on the wrist. This is probably a good enough scare anyway.  "

 @the_OFFICIAL_jAPanese_teaBAG said:

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

totally agree with you.  i personally dont think its right to download something for free like music and games.  but i guess im a hypocrite cause i have a shitload of music i downloaded for free "

Ditto. "

" You guys being all, "GRR SONY!" should really stop being upset that a major company is being cut-throat and more upset that a judge approved something so potentially ridiculous.  The news here is that they actually got the OK, not that they asked for it. "

" If you buy the damn thing, then you should be able to do what you want with it except use it to steal other things. "

@XII_Sniper said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

I guess I'm retarded for thinking a company should protect it's assets?  Sony's not a charity, they have money to make. And when they just broke even on the PS3... to have it hacked at a time like this would suck if I worked for them.  I'm all for hacking, but downloading GeoHot's hacks and running them doesn't make you a hacker, it makes you someone a punk. If people want to hack the PS3 so damn much, crack it yourselves. But spreading it is pretty irresponsible. I don't think GeoHot should be charged with anything, but he definitely needs a legal slap on the wrist. This is probably a good enough scare anyway.  "

Yeah, pretty much. Sony may not be a charity but I'll be fucked seven ways from Sunday before I agree with some shit munching corporation that thinks it can take away my basic legal rights. If we went with what you said, do you realize what the implications are for the ENTIRE modding scene? And I'm not talking about just electronics. Cars are another big category. Do you realize how stupid it is to defend Sony suing someone over hacking their OWN property. Again, Sony can go fuck itself. "

" @XII_Sniper said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

I guess I'm retarded for thinking a company should protect it's assets?  Sony's not a charity, they have money to make. And when they just broke even on the PS3... to have it hacked at a time like this would suck if I worked for them.  I'm all for hacking, but downloading GeoHot's hacks and running them doesn't make you a hacker, it makes you someone a punk. If people want to hack the PS3 so damn much, crack it yourselves. But spreading it is pretty irresponsible. I don't think GeoHot should be charged with anything, but he definitely needs a legal slap on the wrist. This is probably a good enough scare anyway.  "

Suing a private individual for millions of dollars is a slap on the wrist? "

" @XII_Sniper: Reverse engineering (which is exactly what he did) is not against the law. He didn't steal Sony's code in other words. Additionally he didn't sell it either, in fact he showed how people could discover it on their own. Again, reverse engineering, something that has been the right of most people on this planet for a long time. Either way, there's legal counsel is that siding against Sony on this one. On the other hand what Sony did by removing OtherOS (which is why hotz and overflow started to hack the PS3 in the first place) also has Sony now in deep because it's illegal to remove a feature from hardware that was advertised with that feature and sold as such. "

" @imsh_pl said:

" @Laketown said:

" @Cameron said:

" I imagine this will just be a number that Sony can throw around in court. They can cite how many unique IPs visited his site and then claim (probably misleadingly) that this resulted in X amount of PS3's being compromised. "

yeah this sounds likely "

 @the_OFFICIAL_jAPanese_teaBAG said:

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

totally agree with you.  i personally dont think its right to download something for free like music and games.  but i guess im a hypocrite cause i have a shitload of music i downloaded for free "

Ditto. "

Buying used games is just as bad as pirating games.  "

" @Quacktastic said:

" You guys being all, "GRR SONY!" should really stop being upset that a major company is being cut-throat and more upset that a judge approved something so potentially ridiculous.  The news here is that they actually got the OK, not that they asked for it. "

It makes sense. We should be upset at the legal system instead. However, Sony would have to ask for the subpoena before the judge would grant it. So, shouldn't we be upset at both the legal system and Sony? "

" @imsh_pl said:

" @Laketown said:

" @Cameron said:

" I imagine this will just be a number that Sony can throw around in court. They can cite how many unique IPs visited his site and then claim (probably misleadingly) that this resulted in X amount of PS3's being compromised. "

yeah this sounds likely "

 @the_OFFICIAL_jAPanese_teaBAG said:

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

totally agree with you.  i personally dont think its right to download something for free like music and games.  but i guess im a hypocrite cause i have a shitload of music i downloaded for free "

Ditto. "

Buying used games is just as bad as pirating games.  "

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

I guess I'm retarded for thinking a company should protect it's assets?  Sony's not a charity, they have money to make. And when they just broke even on the PS3... to have it hacked at a time like this would suck if I worked for them.  I'm all for hacking, but downloading GeoHot's hacks and running them doesn't make you a hacker, it makes you someone a punk. If people want to hack the PS3 so damn much, crack it yourselves. But spreading it is pretty irresponsible. I don't think GeoHot should be charged with anything, but he definitely needs a legal slap on the wrist. This is probably a good enough scare anyway.  "

Since they are getting taken up the ass over here in Europe right now, they need to fight a battle they can win.

Well, if I understand IP addresses correctly, they can figure out where you live based off of that address.  Plus, they can monitor the activity of that address.  So, if they see a person who visits Geohots eventually do illegal activity online then they can contact the appropriate authorities (I assume those local to the hacker in question) to take action against the hacker.  
 
I can understand where Sony is coming from.  They made the PS3 and PSP fairly open systems and people took advantage of it by hacking the hell out of them, using illegal copies of games on them, and so on.  Hackers cause Sony to lose money, lose publisher and developer support, and ultimately negatively affects their reputation as a business.
 
But, what they are doing seems better suited to the authorities not to a business.  I don't mind them using all of their pull to authorities to go after hackers if they break the law (specifically, if they hack their systems so they can play illegally copied games on their systems).  What I have a bigger problem with is these renegade, pseudo-justice they are professing.  It seems inappropriate.

" @Pinworm45 said:

" @kingzetta said:

" @Terry_Bogard said:

" Yeah, Sony's taken this too far. Anyone who supports their behavior is retarded.. seriously.   "

Well would you like it, someone made a thing could collapse your business? "

http://www.google.com/finance?q=NYSE:SNE "

i have no idea what im looking at. just business words, numbers and a graph  "

I just want to play games. Don't give a shit who hacks the ps3, don't care what Sony does to the hackers.

" @ch13696 said:

" @Quacktastic said:

" You guys being all, "GRR SONY!" should really stop being upset that a major company is being cut-throat and more upset that a judge approved something so potentially ridiculous.  The news here is that they actually got the OK, not that they asked for it. "

It makes sense. We should be upset at the legal system instead. However, Sony would have to ask for the subpoena before the judge would grant it. So, shouldn't we be upset at both the legal system and Sony? "

Sure.  Upset wasn't the right word, I guess.  Surprised maybe. "

" @XII_Sniper: No, reverse engineering of software has only been ruled against by a few cases in the US where the judges found that the EULA overrode copyright law (which is a load of shit to begin with). In most other areas of the world it is legal. 
 
Yeah, Sony is claiming to have the ability to remove features because of the EULA (they've also used some other pathetic excuses, such as, "We didn't know people wanted to use it for the life of the console." EYEROLL) but the fact of the matter is that they're being sued for having possibly violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act...the very same act Geohotz has possibly violated and is being for sued for by Sony.  Yeah no one used OtherOS...except for the thousands who used it to run Linux. Go ahead online and look.  Yeah that would suck if I spent years making the hardware and then it got hacked...only I'd make sure I'd put together a decent fucking security system to prevent that from happening. Go ahead and look at what the hackers found: one of the most pathetic forms of security both hardware wise and on the network side through PSN.  Your claims of piracy are massively overblown. Piracy on the PC is probably the highest out of all consoles yet it's still incredibly profitable. The 360 and Wii have also been hacked and encounter a fair amount of piracy...but nothing that has stopped them from raking in billions in profits each year. Additionally you make it sound like you punch a key in and bam you can burn games to blu rays and play them. It is NOT that easy and the vast majority of people won't even bother trying to figure it out. "