PS3 Hacker Sued by Sony – Asks For Donations; Gets $13,900 in 2 Days

A PlayStation 3 hacker is currently undergoing a legal battle with Sony in the court; as a result, Alexander Egorenkov has asked his readers to donate to cover his court fees and the hacker has managed to receive nearly an astonishing $14,000 in just two days.

[taco_tom237]

lots of morons out there lol

[-Mezzo-]

Agreed, 13,900 thats a lot of money, why would you make others pay for your mistakes, it's Pathetic.

[Blad3star]

Some did not just give him 13,900 - its a contribution of a lot of people that made up that amount.

[V0LT]

Actually $13,900 isn't enough to hire good lawyers to go up against Sony IMO. I wouldn't handle this case for $13,900. lol

[Dante112]

He's gonna need close to a million if Sony proves their case that he blackmailed/tried to extort them, as well as purposedly leaking details after Sony didn't follow his way and laughed saying he won't stop trying to allow piracy till he's given death. He could also get some possible jailtime if Sony goes there as well.

But wow, if someone really needs money for food, to pay rent or bills, pretending to a ps3 hacker being sued by Sony wouldn't be a bad way to go.

[Istanbull]

If hackers don't want to pay for anything, why do or should they pay money for them?

Sony will financially exhaust these suckers.

GLORY TO SONY, GLORY TO HELGAN!

[jidery]

lol @ all the disagrees to blad3star.

[captain-obvious]

while thats alot of money
you need alot more to hire a good enough lawyer to go agents a big cooperation like Sony

heck maybe even more than 1 lawyer

[Coheno]

So these morons would rather pay a hacker $14000, than just pay for their games!? God damn people are more stupid then I give them credit for!

[young juice]

didnt sony sue that german hacker for 1 mill? and win?

this guy might need a few more donations

[olLANDSHARKlo]

captain-obvious, please put down the controllers and learn to spell. I am surprised you spelled obvious right.

[MaxXAttaxX]

They're gonna end up getting sued and no matter how good of a hacker you are, it's not worth this much legal and money trouble.
Dumbasses.

[captain-obvious]

@PHIBALNATION

its the fucking spell check thingy that i have
im on my iphone

[Ducky]

@Coheno

... or maybe that's a clue that this just isn't a case about mere piracy.

[snaz27]

captain obvious... you're kind of proving his point, that you can't spell, by admitting you're using a spell check be it on you're iphone or not! lol... If i were you i'd just stop digging! lmao. only kidding :)

[Sarcasm]

"ylwzx3" has a point.

$13,900 is paltry compared to Sony's lawyers.

[Commander_TK]

Let's face the truth people. We have all hacked something.

[rodeoo]

@young juice

This is the German hacker that Sony is suing. Court case is far from over

[pixelsword]

He doesn't want to pay for games, so he should find a lawyer that will work for free...

Ever since Sony won that injunction, these pro-hacker organisations that did free legal work ran for the hills for the most part.

[zag]

The problem isn't the money or the amount.

It what and how the person has broken the law.

If this hacker has to prove he didn't hack the PS3 then he's screwed regardless of how many lawyers or how much money he has.

as he can't prove he hasn't hacked it what with him self blogging that he's hacked it and then telling everyone he's going to keep on hacking.

After all this hacker is that Graf_Choko dickhead.

What people need to learn is, just because you can do something, doesn't always mean you can do it when ever you like.

[Anon1974]

Coincidentally, that's the exact same amount of money Sony's legal team spends on tiger blood latte's in two days. Mmm...tastes like winning.

[INehalemEXI]

Sony if you where my friend ....you would sue me too. ;) I'd keep the donations and do some time lol. I heard they got PS3 in prison ....

[Vaud-Villian]

Ben Franklin hacked a kite.

[Mr_Objective_]

So this guy thinks he can do what he wants.

OK so I'm going to racist, rob a bank and hit random people because its a FREE WORLD.
^^^Objective comment

[rockleex]

Wasn't this the hacker that said money don't matter to him, and living is not worth it if he can't hack?

[ThanatosDMC]

I could use donations too... It doesnt matter if it's $1 per person as long as there's 13,900 of them.

[tacosRcool]

We are already paying for his mistakes, Sony is gonna cut more features and force everybody to accept more terms of service agreements due to these assholes. He should get a free ride to the clanker

[Dee_91]

IM BEING SUED BY SONY TOO
PM ME FOR MY PAYPAL INFO !!

[Heartnet]

Mm legal or not every hacker knows there is a possibility of being sued and if they dont have the cash to support there addiction then dont do it lol :)

[PimpHandHappy]

13,900 is about 2 hours worth of work for the lawyers you would need to defeat Sony in court

[Leio]

They must come from Xbox fanboys :O

[unknownhero1123]

not to mention his fellow hackers and people who just hate big corporations.

[Mr_Objective_]

Yes the same people who hate people that support Sony, a big corporation, and yet defend MS like their lives depended on it. Contradiction?
^^^Objective comment

[PainisCupcake]

Blad3star. No shit dumbass.

[solar]

ill send him money. hacking isnt illegal. its the morons who steal that cross the line. seems like no one on this site cared...only pointed and laughed until it happened to the ps3.

[BubbleSniper]

how about you send us all some money too?

i could use a nice toasted sub sandwich with some pickles on side an a nice lemonade to wash down...

mmmmmmmmm...

lunch in.

[Anderson8]

if hacking wasnt illegal sony wouldnt have a case

[evrfighter]

@bubblesniper

sure I'll send you some cash. Go piss off a mega corporation to the point where they sue you and I'll donate you 5 bucks.

All of a sudden it doesn't seem so worthwhile does it. I'll donate to this guy once I figure out how. I donated to Geohot as well. I'm anti DLC so I save more money than the morons that drop $15 on maps

@Anderson

who says Sony has a case? you guys? lol

[JD_Shadow]

If hacking WAS illegal, then all those hackers that companies hire to keep their systems safe should all be arrested right now. Think before you troll!

@solar: Yes, I've seen PS3 fanboys act like morons on other sites before about this Geohot thing, but those people aren't wishing physical harm or making homophobic comments about him, and there seems to be a case of people willing to LISTEN to others.

N4G seems to be a unique little snowflake, though. Seems your punished for having an opinion that's not exactly the same as theirs.

@Adva: First off...MORON? I didn't know personal attacks were suddenly ALLOWED on N4G! Of course, you'll probably get a thousand agrees and 3 bubbles back just from that alone!

And secondly...what in the hell was THAT logic? You're acting as though companies are forced to hire them for some odd reason!

Again, if hacking was illegal, then we would have jails overcrowded with them, and we would never see the job openings asking for them! Hell, the EFF would never even EXIST and half of our electronic shit would not even work the way it was intended if hackers were not out there telling us that some things are not as secure as they should be or that they are not as secure as the makers claim the stuff to be.

Again, guys, PLEASE think before trolling!

[email protected] COMMENTS: For the last time:

THE GUY ASKED FOR DONATIONS AND GOT THEM BEFORE THE JAPAN QUAKE EVEN HAPPENED!

I guess, though, this is a new form of trolling: see that someone bit on one person trolling with a particular line, so we ALL troll the exact same way to see how many people will waste their bubbles on answering the same thing countless times!

[Adva]

Hacking is illegal.
As for the moron who said "if hacking was illegal, company's wouldn't hire them." Guess what? It is up to the company to charge the person for damages. Sometimes they do hire them, but only under certain circumstances. If hacking was legal, to this date, no one would have been charged under it.

[morganfell]

The legality of hacking is on a per instance case. You can't just use a broad statement that it is illegal or legal and then idiotically believe yourself to be correct.

In the case of the PS3 it is illegal. Dissemination, and reproduction that result from hacking are certainly illegal. However some persons which to be very specific and are discussing just the act of hacking. Or in legalese, the act is defined as circumvention.

Surprise! Under the terms of the DMCA , EUCD, and agreements under the WPO the very act of circumvention that the above listed address and clarify as being illegal. You do not have to provide code or engage in piracy to be guilty of circumvention.

[Lord_Doggington]

lol, except hacking a PS3 is NOT illegal. It has never been proven to be illegal.

Do you even know what illegal means? It means it has been deemed as forbidden by law or statute.

There is no law or statute being broken. The argument lies in that is Sony allowed to change the DMCA to fit their needs after the person who originally purchased the system agreed to the terms of the original DMCA, which included Linux. It's bullshit that Sony took that out when many people had been using it. It should be Sony that should be sued AGAIN for removing a promised feature. It's not up to them. We purchased the system w/ our own money. Therefore we shouldn't be limited by Sony when it becomes inconvenient to have a certain feature. Whoever supports this, supports any company changing the functionality of anything you buy just because it's inconvenient. We haven't even talked about piracy in this case. It's just a guy putting BACK IN a feature that was originally there in the first place.

What if Sony decided to send out an update that would disable the blu-ray player? You'd be pissed, right? That's essentially what they did and this is why it's not an open and shut case.

Consumers have rights and Sony is 100% infringing on them. And now they're suing people who try to get them back?

I hope Sony fucking loses all their cases in this respect.

With regards to piracy, I'm all against it. But the pirates are NOT being put on trial here. The hackers are. It's a fucking witch hunt.

Therefore, IN THIS CASE, it is not illegal.

Morgenfell, you've been trolling these comments for years. Please leave now.

[JD_Shadow]

The problem with your statement, though, is that the DMCA was changed, via petition and probably influence from court cases, to include smart phones. The reason why nothing else was included in that is because the petition was for smart phones, so other electronics were not considered at that time. Had they have been, I bet you would've seen a good bit of consideration to it. I don't know if the DMCA CAN change again since I've heard something about them only able to consider changes every 3 years or so, but I'm sure there are loopholes that could allow them to change something in a special situation.

To tell you the truth, the term "hacking" is a broad term to describe things that can be both legal and illegal. The hacking YOU'RE thinking of, such as those that lead to identity theft and fraud IS illegal (I can already hear the clicking of keys;the whole threat about PS3 "hackers" doing THAT is just fueled on hysteria over that one file...which we've ALSO gone over). Hacking as a means to provide a workaround to a known issue with a program or hardware (a "kludge"), or to provide additional functionality to hardware or software is, by itself, legal.

The problem, though, is with the DMCA, which has come under fire countless times for being vastly unfair to the consumer by giving companies rights that they shouldn't have. The thing is, the whole issue here is that Sony is mad that someone revealed a flaw in their system that Sony should've known about yet they never intended to do anything about it.

The issue about Homebrew and OtherOS HERE is that people are claiming "oh, I can do those things on my PC, so why do I have to do it on my PS3!" Major problem with that logic, as you're admitting that such programs are legal on the PC, and part of the court case is the argument that such programs SHOULD be legal to use on your PS3. It doesn't matter what you believe about the quality of such games. The bottom line is the thought is if it's legal to do on your PC, then why can't, and shouldn't, it be legal on the PS3 to do?

Personally, the PSP stuff I mentioned, the Trenton quote, and the Linux "guarantee" will be hard for Sony to explain off without revealing that there's an "anti-homebrew" attitude they have had since the PSP stuff began some years ago (they should've been able to find a way to prevent the piracy without making homebrew caught in the crossfire by now if they didn't have such attitude).

And if Sony knew they had a case, then why does the location even matter. Those other people that might've downloaded the hack are not the ones on trial here. It's Hotz! He lives in Jersey. He made the damn thing in Jersey. If Sony is correct in their belief, and they know they can win against him, then they would feel confident regardless of jurisdiction. They either want to win on attrition (which is REALLY tacky, since Sony would then prove NOTHING other than them using dirty tricks to win) or they feel like they can have an easier time with the CA court system (which then I could question who got paid off...conspiracy theorist run wild with that one). If Sony really was that confident in their case, then why should it matter about where the trial is?

Which is why I can't side with Sony on this one!

[lee_ten]

i need some money to pay some bills. mind lending a few bucks?

[zag]

@darkpower

So hacking a bank is perfectly legal?

Yeah didn't think so.

Hacking products is still illegal as it could have backdoors in that product that hand out your details.

no one really knows what is in those CFW released, same deal with the homebrew released no one really knows if that program releases your personal data or not.

The phlishing groups and spammers or virus groups haven't started to make programs for the PS3 that do this stuff yet.

Yet I can tell you they have started to get into the Android program side and rip off games and sell them for a $1 and you get the game plus a backdoor that roots your phone and sends all your data out for your sim and your own data, so they can make copies of your mobile sim and rip you off while doing it.

The bad bad people aren't going to care whether you can or can't do pirated games are they yet happily use all the hacking stuff to get to your data.

[Anderson8]

@everfighter.. if there was no case and they were sure they'd lose then Sony wouldn't take him to court

@darkpower.. companies dont hire hackers to get into other peoples systems and they hire them to hack there own systems so that they can find weaknesses and then improve their system to protect against it..
banks use to hire ex-cheque forgers to help prevent against bank fraud...so by your logic fraud is legal?

..no1s trolling here friend, only you

[Instinct_Gamer]

Why does he need to beg for money?
Is he some unemployed douche that doesn't work for a living?

Thats real good solar go ahead and support your boyfriend. If you have nothing better to spend your money on and are dumb enough to send it to some Russian fagbag then you are already paying the price for your faults by being a sucker.

'There's a sucker born every minute'

[darksied]

I'm considering breaking into a bank someday, can I get some money? Then I will STRONGLY consider it.

[JD_Shadow]

"So hacking a bank is perfectly legal?"

I stopped reading there, since you obviously ignored EVERYTHING I wrote.

But since I have a bit more space, I got this PM from morganfell 7hrs ago:

"PS3
PS3
Hacking the PS3 is illegal. You are in error concerning the DMCA revision. The adjustments to the DMCA, as per the findings of the Library of Congress Court covered devices such as smart phones and excepted them to the DMCA.

However, video game consoles were not provided an exception under this ruling. You can either keep this info to yourself or do the right thing, research the finding, and then post the facts back in that thread. The decision you make will define you as a person.
http://thetechjournal.com/e...

That link is exactly where I got MY info from:

"The news was well received by Civil Rights activists like Jennifer Stisa Granick, civil liberties director with the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), and others who had been pushing for this exemption and others for years now. Stisa Granick told the Huffington Post on Monday “You bought it, you own it” and it seems the Library of Congress agreed."

Not to mention that I don't respond kindly to threats, as the "define you as a person" BS is exactly the type of stuff I'm saying needs to end. You don't have to change your opinions, just the piss poor attitudes. I am not about to put the facts back into this "thread" because I've already made them VERY clear in my other post, and I stand by what I said.

[insomnium2]

@darkpower

Great discussion. The problem with homebrew and emulators on PS3 is that they need to run using Sony's XMB. If you can find a way to run your homebrew and stuff WITHOUT using or even booting up the OS and XMB which are embedded in the PS3 then you would not be in violation. You own the system but NOT the software. OS and XMB are software so that's the problem.

[zag]

@darkpower

And that's why you fail at making your point about hacking.

Because your happy to say it's not illegal yet probably complain if your bank account got hacked and all the money taken out.

Hacking in general is against the law because it causes far more problems than saying this is ok and that's not.

What happens if someone releases homebrew for the PS3 that grabs the PSN account details and sends them out to a phishing group?

Is that good or bad?

Should the PS3 be hacked all over the place so this can be done?

You have failed with this point, why should people be screwed over on the above just so someone can run Linux on a console.

Which overall hasn't really happened has it as you can't boot up linux by itself on a PS3 it's always via a Sony owned loader.

As for that news item, it has this line.
"now legal to ‘jailbreak’ your cell phone in order to install any legal applications you would like according to the law."

Which if you read it correctly it states you can jailbreak an iphone only to install legal programs you'd own not for pirated files.

What you don't understand is that Geohot's hack allows pirated files to be installed and it's not an iphone.

Also the above wouldn't have been tested in court and also doesn't allow for people to use Sony's own PS3 key to be used to sign a PS3 program does it.

[sikbeta]

@solar

I don't want to pirate my PS3, but if you can give money to this loser, wanna pay some legit games for me pleaze? XD

[Lord_Doggington]

The DMCA revision really isn't what's in question here. The reason why Sony's starving out hackers w/ drawn out legal battles is because they believe there is potential for their encryption keys to be distributed which would lead to piracy. Geohotz and Graf_chokolo have never distributed the keys, nor will they because they know for a fact that it will result in piracy. They have kept the keys to themselves(Geohotz even encrypted the keys himself to prevent piracy w/ his CFW). Graf_chokolo was trying to restore linux, which, as long as he doesn't illegally distribute the NPDRM keys, is in his full rights as a consumer. Secondly, Sony has to link an increase of piracy to the discovery of Graf_chokolo. This is where they fall flat. You have to have reasoning behind an agreement, Morgenfell. You can't just have an agreement w/out knowing the consequences. It was clear that the consequence of knowing the NPDRM keys was piracy. These hackers were uninterested in piracy, hence non-distribution of the keys. They were interested in homebrew, which is easily maintained through Linux. He was just trying to, in his own PS3, w/out any plans to distribute software, access Linux for homebrew. But, there was absolutely no intent to profit or pirate.

Unless the courts can prove intent, there's is no reason Sony wins.

Show me one Playstation 3 game that can be run using Geohotz hack or Graf_chokolo's hack. Just one. One. You can't. Because there isn't one. Hacking is not illegal.

By the way, sending that article and then claiming just because The Library of Congress didn't list the PS3 in their revision shows so much of your ignorance. It's crazy.

Here's the ACTUAL law that the article refers to: http://www.copyright.gov/12...

Look at this part, smartie pants:
(4) Video games accessible on personal computers and protected by technological protection measures that control access to lawfully obtained works, when circumvention is accomplished solely for the purpose of good faith testing for, investigating, or correcting security flaws or vulnerabilities, if:

(i) The information derived from the security testing is used primarily to promote the security of the owner or operator of a computer, computer system, or computer network; and
(ii) The information derived from the security testing is used or maintained in a manner that does not facilitate copyright infringement or a violation of applicable law.

(ii) is the part you should be looking at. As long as there is no copyright infringement, there is no problem. Show me how Geohotz or Graf_chokolo broke this law. Of course you can't because they didn't. So instead, Sony has no choice but to starve them out in court be drawing out a legal battle?? NOW do you see why people donated? Because Sony is trying to circumvent the law by attacking the individual financially rather than through the courts. It's sickening.

Why don't you do YOUR research, you fucking idiot.

[MeanOldman]

uh oh looks like dogginton dont know the diffrence of a personal computer from a video game console. to bad that bunch of cut an paste dont mean nothing. watch geohot go down cause what he did is illegal. you do know that sony would never been able to get anywhere if what he did wasnt a crime. as morgan said they just have to prove he did it. they dont have to prove its a crime. this is jus more proof you dont own a ps3 cause you dont the difference between a ps3 a pc an a iphone.

[HolyOrangeCows]

Why would you WANT him to win?
For the right to the operating system installed into the hardware you buy, including the right to tamper with it and redistribute it? Is that what you'd want if it were YOUR work; for anyone to have the right to distribute YOUR work?

People pretend like they support him for some goofy principle of the right to tamper with your console's OS, even though the case is about GeoNotz distributing illegally obtained, copy-protected codes and distributing a copy-protected OS.

For Homebrew? Really? Because you want to play with inefficient programs that would almost definitely work better on your PC?

For OtherOS? (See "For Homebrew?")

No, no, no. These are hackers with serious self-entitlement and e-penii issues.
These are pirates.
These are people who DON'T care about the future of gaming.

[JD_Shadow]

*sigh* PLEASE go back and read the MANY stories about this, and all of my comments and articles about this.

This is because you're, what, the ten MILLIONTH person who has asked those questions, and it would be the ten millionth time we've ANSWERED those very questions? The answers never changed. It's just the wording of the questions got more clever.

Search for Trenton's Homebrew comment in 2007.

Search for something called PSP infrared communicator.

Search for Red Hat's "guarantee" about Sony not touching OtherOS in 2009, and search for what they did with OtherOS in the slims when they FIRST CAME OUT!

My GOD, it's like we've been explaining ALL this OVER AND OVER again!

It's VERY hard to explain these things to a group that never seems to want to listen to the answers to the questions or even respect any other opinions.

Yeah, I know why those questions keep getting asked: we seem to not like the answers.

@radphil: And I've answered that in this very post, even. Again, go back, READ it, then do the searches. Don't be lazy just because you may not like what you find! This whole process is not that hard to do!

But then again, we can't get most of the people on N4G to click on links to view the ENTIRE article BEFORE posting their rage on something they've never even read. Why am I expecting those people to be capable to do what I'M asking if they can't even do THAT much most of the time?

[radphil]

@darkpower

You do realize that crap doesn't hold up in court without legal documentation stating in contract that they had that in design.

Word of mouth doesn't just cut it.

[gamingdroid]

Fair enough, but does that mean the consumer should just accept it?

I see no reason to voice my opinion that I don't like it, and won't support a company that tramples over my rights. I believe my wallet speaks the loudest when it comes to voicing my opinion and I encourage others to do the same.

So I will be happy to donate to any hacker I feel haven't profited from. In fact, so much so that I wouldn't mind foregoing a game to donate to this cause. Unfortunately, game purchases are a little out of the questions right now....

[zag]

Sony's T&Cs allow them to add or remove a "feature"

Yet OtherOS wasn't an advertised feature bar in japan, that's why none of the US and Euro class actions will win, it has to be advertised as a core feature to the product like it can't work properly without it.

Hackers and people can say what they like but that's the truth about the OtherOS advertising try and find an US PS3 TV or poster etc AD with OtherOS in it and you won't because it's not a core feature for those countries.

Then the judge will be asking all these people in the class action why do they want OtherOS on this product and what do they use it for, whats the reason for having Linux on a game console.

[radphil]

@gamingdroid
Nope. That's why we have to work smart, not hard in terms of brining the messages to the companies. :) Thing is there's other ways to do it instead of superficial ways of "putting it to the man" by doing something outside the boundaries of law. Most of these guys aren't Robin Hood, or have those intentions.

@darkpower

It's ironic you talk about other people "raging" when you made it very evident in your edit of the post. If you're going to show hostility in this discussion, then this might as well be the last message for you.

[radphil]

*bringing

[gamingdroid]

"Nope. That's why we have to work smart, not hard in terms of brining the messages to the companies. :) Thing is there's other ways to do it instead of superficial ways of "putting it to the man" by doing something outside the boundaries of law. Most of these guys aren't Robin Hood, or have those intentions."

... albeit I don't pirate any games and don't mod any of my consoles, I am exceedingly tempted to do so. Especially since I can't play any of the newer games.

I see no reason to support a company that has abandoned me.

These hackers as far as I can tell hasn't profited from these activities, nor do they encourage piracy. They are merely enabling a feature I *strongly* feel Sony stole from me, legally or NOT!

[tehReaper]

I can't believe this. Here I am trying to create a social networking website for gamers with absolutely no support, and this guy reaches this in 2 days?

I don't get it. Do I need to hack a console and get sued for donations?

For what it's worth, the name of the site is KHooLz, and I don't know how much longer I can afford to keep it up.

If it's still up then, beta starts 25th.

[RioKing]

"Agreed, 13,900 thats a lot of money, why would you make others pay for your mistakes, it's Pathetic."

Noone's "making" you pay for anything, that's why he's ASKING for a DONATION. More power to him for getting that in 2 days, but yeah he's gonna need more than that haha. Btw I'm anti-hacking.

[MNicholas]

It makes it easier to claim that he's profiting from the illegal distribution of intellectual property that he does not own.

[RioKing]

He's not really profiting if the money's going to his legal fee's.

[RioKing]

^

[jeeves86]

But he is...He's getting money for it, which he is allocating for his legal fees.

[the_manson_charles]

shm...don't really understand why anyone would want to support this hackers.

[lil Titan]

im about to put up an donation pool and said i hacked the PS3...i dont know about yall but $13,900 would pay off alot of my bills. its honestly ridiculous that people support these hackers smh