My wife brought something to my attention last night while hitting up her daily websites. She ran across an article on Boing Boing from Cory Doctorow highlighting George “geohot” Hotz’s legal battle with Sony. I just can’t let this go without comment.
I’m a fan of Sony, have been since the Playstation first hit the scene. I don’t even want to consider how much money we’ve spent on two PS2s, two PSPs, and two PS3s, not mention Rock Band instruments, games, multiple controllers, etc. And, when all is said and done, I’ll probably still be playing on a Sony console. But I have to disagree with them on this case. What they are doing is bullying, plain and simple. They are using economic muscle to try pushing over a small-time, anti-piracy hacker. Moreover, Hotz hasn’t broken any laws by hacking a piece of hardware he bought.
The Supreme Court has already addressed this issue in regards to “jailbreaking” the iPhone. Essentially, once you’ve purchased a piece of hardware, it is yours to modify as you see fit. If you want to put stickers on it, feel free. If you want to write and load your own programs, have fun with it. The court also determined that if you do modify the hardware, the manufacturer is under no obligation to provide warranty coverage or support for the device. This also addresses only the issue of hacking the device. If you choose to do something illegal with your hacked machine, that’s a different story.
If we assume that Mr. Hotz has not pirated any media to his console, and this a safe assumption as there are no criminal charges being levelled, then Sony needs to back off. Yes, he may have violated the Terms of Service, and by all means Sony should take action in that respect. Cut him off from PSN and tell him he’s no longer allowed to use their software. But, as far as this country’s highest court is concerned, that’s the extent of your influence. Taking him to court is a mean-spirited, bully move that is clearly designed to hurt him, even though you know you are going to lose.
This is the real crux of the problem, and it brings up other issues about our court system that warrant deeper discussion elsewhere. Simply put, Sony can win this through monetary exertion even though they are wrong. Sony is a multinational, multibillion dollar corporation that can sue whoever they want, whenever they want, with no significant financial impact. George Hotz, on the other hand, is a working stiff with a knowledge of computers. Simply by filing the suit, Sony forces Hotz to appear in court at his own expense. Sony’s high-priced lawyers can keep him tied up in appearances and delays for a lot longer than his bank account or mental health can last. Ultimately, if Hotz can survive the battle long enough, Sony will lose and may even be subject to a countersuit for recompense. But that hardly seems like justice.
George Hotz has no intention of accepting his fate without a fight. In addition to his intention of being the first to break the Sony Ericsson Xperia Play, he has asked for help in the battle against Sony (despite years of providing jailbreaking resources and other hacks for various devices at no charge). He has asked for donations to help with his legal fees to hire the best lawyers money can buy and people have responded. His donation service is currently closed as he has received enough to cover his current fees and fears anything in excess of that may be subject to seizure by Sony if they somehow win the case. I’ll be keeping an eye on the case and if he finds need for further defense funds I’ll be opening up my wallet to help.
In the meantime I have a request for Sony. Stop this bullying tactic. If you’d like to address piracy, do it without suing a pro-DRM hacker. Piracy is illegal and it’s certainly possible to make these consoles report use of pirated games or movies to Sony’s servers when they enter the network. Find the pirates and have them charged in the criminal courts, subject to stiff fines and jailtime. It might only work temporarily, but that’s a much better way of letting the public know you’re serious about copyright protection. If George Hotz wants to run an alternate OS on his PS3, write some homebrew applications, and make use of “your” machine in ways you can’t even conceive, let him. You might even learn something from him. All technology manufacturers could benefit from observing what their consumers want with their devices, rather than telling them what they can have.