David Jaffe Sounds Off on GeoHot | RipTen Videogame Blog

David Jaffe Sounds Off on GeoHot

Published 7:20 PM EDT on Monday, February 21, 2011 by Dave Oshry. 24 Comments.

The always vocal overlord of Twisted Metal has sounded off on the current situation revolving around George “GeoHot” Hotz.

If you’ve no idea who the hell I’m talking about – “GeoHot” is the young iPhone and PS3 hacker who is currently being sued by Sony.

According to Jaffe, it doesn’t matter what GeoHot’s argument is – “If he broke the law, he broke the law, and needs to suffer the consequences”

While Jaffe admits he may agree with GeoHot on a philosophical level - that does not make it ok for him or anyone to break the laws of this great land.

David Jaffe – Model American.

See all of Jaffe’s thoughts on the matter below:

: Jaffe Added this After Seeing Our Article on N4G

Tags: david jaffe, Geohot, george hotz, hackers, Justice, Pirates, Sony, twisted metal, twitter

Posts from Around the Web

Please Recommend RipTen on Facebook

What are your thoughts?

Commenting Policies

Rory

I love Jaffe. He just gets it.
- Dave Oshry
  
  Agreed.
- paul
  
  Guys like Geohot are going to force every company to go the route of ONLIVE. I am going to miss going to the store and picking up the physical media like a new game or movie or album. Geohot is an idiot and anyone who supports him is one too.
http://www.myspace.com/deathstrikevirus DeathStrikeVirus

Civil Disobedience. A bull shit law is a bull shit law.
- D.Vader
  
  The PROPER civil disobedience is to NOT buy a PS3 if you feel their attempts to retain security on their platform is “draconian”.
  
  I think Gamers are entirely TOO ENTITLED. Bunch of spoiled brats mostly. Wouldn’t know what real suffering was until their house fell down. It’s a shame really.
  - http://www.myspace.com/deathstrikevirus DeathStrikeVirus
    
    And what happens when you buy a product and the manufacturer decides to remove features? Boycotting isn’t civil disobedience. The only boycotting that could be considered disobedience would be not buying health insurance when the new Health Care law comes into effect.
?

Yeah quick enough at not saying anything about how Sony have been breaking the law. Nice fanboy developer. Good to see people who don’t know what is going on commenting thinking they do. geohot has not broken the law. The keys were obtained legally in a feature (OtherOS) which was freely available. Where is the broken law? Oh wait maybe it is Sony advertising / selling a feature which they remove. Which could have been easily patched. Oh hell what about the bully tactics towards its customers? Oh while we are on the point of false advertising Sony promised before launch that on launch we would have cross game VIDEO chat not voice chat but video chat. We still have not got cross game voice chat let alone video chat. Sony has it in their head that they are above the law. If you view a video on YouTube they think it is their right to get your personal information. Oh what about the fact they think that after you have spent your money on your PS3 they believe they still own it you are only leasing it. So yeah lets talk about people breaking the law aye…
- idiotstomper
  
  I don’t understand where you people get off saying Sony is doing something illegal. They have the right the alter the software on their system at any time. You agree to that by purchasing their system. Like David said, if you don’t agree with what they do: DON’T BUY THEIR SYSTEM. The fact of the matter here is that these hacks will only lead to more rampant piracy on the system, and the homebrew will be nothing more than emulators which support piracy even further. If you could give me some examples of homebrew that provide meaningful features which people would benefit from that aren’t “getting to play games for free” then I may be inclined to agree with your terribly flawed argument.
- D.Vader
  
  I believe it is you that needs a better perspective and understanding of things.
  
  If GeoHot creates tools that solely benefit piracy (theft) while he may not have broken the letter of the law, that doesn’t mean he is completely innocent. Charlie Manson sits in a prison cell today and he wasn’t a trigger man. Now while GeoHot’s actions are short of conspiracy but if his tools cause damage to a corporation, that corporation is 100% entitled and has 100% rights to defend themselves. A good lawyer has a very good case to make there.
  
  If you marketed a device that would manipulate your power company’s power meter for your house, how quickly do you think you may have a knock at your door from authorities?
  
  What about the Cable scramblers from the 1980s? How many cases did those manufacturers win? You would be hard pressed to find one case. How about the guys peddling the DirecTV access cards? They have been removed from the market for the most part.
  
  To say that Sony has no chance to win this is very short sighted you don’t have any historical perspective on Sony’s legal team (they are quite viscous).
  
  All the whining on part of gamers with there hands out waiting for free stuff doesn’t change the fact GeoHot is mostly on the wrong side of this issue.
  
  Free is good, stealing is wrong (yes piracy is stealing). There is no way to slice it if you think otherwise then your parents failed you.
  - ?
    
    Wow you seriously do not know what is going on do you? geohot (not GeoHot) did not create piracy. That reqiured LV2 which was not in his firmware. His firmware was there for 100% homebrew. Game backups would not work with it. The keys used for all this were freely available in the OtherOS function. Not illegal.
    
    For those asking about homebrew there is a better media player being created at the moment for the PS3. There is also Linux being added to both Phat and Slim PS3 consoles. There are homebrew games being made. There is also work being done on not only having Linux but having OtherOS so you can dual boot.
    
    Of course you seem to think that Sony has the right to sell you features and then remove them as they see fit. That is false advertising. The 10 year life span promotion… oh wait no Sony think 1 year is what you deserve. What if Sony stopped previous games working on your PS3? How about your hard drive not working after a firmware update? Did you know that Sony tracks every bit of your information not just your PS3 but your TV, your personal information, your habits. All this information is transmitted over the internet in plain text that means anyone can grab it. Oh I forgot all that information? That includes your bank details. What do you think of Sony now aye?
    
    Fanboys always seem to quickly jump on the scare tactics of piracy. Do you even know why you have to install games to your PS3 hard drive? Sony didn’t want to meet Microsoft’s terms on them licensing them DirectX that would have made games more compact. If the PS3 was to read a 20gb game constantly it would burn out that cheap Blu-Ray drive. That is why so many 40gb / 80gb models had Blu-Ray drive faults. You seem to think Sony can do no wrong yeah? How about the fact that Sony straight out knew that every game would need to be installed but sold the phat PS3 consoles with such small hard drives? 20gb, 40gb, 60gb and 80gb. Wow yeah that makes sense they would quickly fill up with DLC, installs and game saves.
    
    You do realize there are other reasons than piracy why people like to backup games yeah? For instance you can mod games like Fallout 3 / New Vegas, Just Cause 2, Dead Rising 2, Dead Space 1 / 2, Bioshock 1 / 2 and more. Yes this can be a bad thing in some cases for multiplayer games which is unfortunate.
    
    Like I said before it protects your hardware so the laser doesn’t get weaker and fail. Games also run a lot smoother from a hard drive than a Blu-Ray disc.
    
    So what do you have to say to that?
    - http://www.tawkn.com The_Con-Sept
      
      You guys never read the terms of service agreement do you? I suggest that you read the terms of service for ONCE in your life because in this agreement it states: services or functions CAN be removed at any time for any reason. Every time you update your PS3 the terms of service shows up and you blindly hit “submit.” Obtaining and using codes to infiltrate the system and using it for piracy or otherwise is considered a breach of contract. GeoHot is going down. He did not read deep enough into it.
      
      So stop dreaming fanboys on both sides. GeoHot is going down. No if’s and’s or but’s.
      - SHAFTUCANTHANDL
        
        Those terms of service were not given to me until I turned my machine on for the first time… after I had already purchased the system.
        Maybee you were the one person who had the terms of service on the outside of your box.
SHAFTUCANTHANDL

You are all missing some serious stuff here.. Jaffe is practically an employee of Sony, and even though he wants people to think he is some rebel without a cause, the fact is he does have a cause.. keeping his job. Lets not worry about Jaffe’s comments, and think more about the Sony case.

What is really at stake here is consumer rights. Sony is claiming that things you purchase should only work for the time that is defined in their warranty. Their 1 year warranty. This goes directly against how Sony advertised the device. Sony claimed a 10 year life cycle.

When I bought my system it cost me $600.00, and I weighed that price against the fact that I could put linux on the system and use it as a personal computer along with the ability to game, play music, watch blue-rays, ect.

600.00 to use those abilities was worth the price when I believed that I would be able to have a functioning system for 10 years. If it had been explained to me that after 1 year all those functions would be taken away then the system would and is not worth that price tag.

I know some of you might state that they did not take away all those functions, but you would be missing the fact that Sony’s argument is that they do have the right to take away all functions of the system if they so choose. In the name of security. Well, a system that no one can use sure is secure.

Sony argues that there is no privy between them and the poeple who bought a ps3, mainly beacuse people did not buy a ps3 directly from sony, but rather though a retailer.

In an opposite case Sony is stating that bescuse people participate in updates that come directly from Sony that there absolutely is privy between them and people doing updates (Everyone who ones a ps3).

Lets not be blinded by the fact that there are two cases going on here. Sony is stated opposing views and will use whatever argument suits them best.

I know this is a little off topic from what is discussed in this article, but please people, don’t be fooled into focusing on weather GoeHot did something legal or illegal.. rather lets focus on what really matters.. Consumer rights.

Do you have the right to use what you bought or not?.. does a corporation have the right to take something back that you paid for?

Those questions must be answered before we worry about an individuals actions.
- D.Vader
  
  @SHAFTUCANTHANDL
  
  No this is piracy in the guise of “consumer rights”. Your rights as a consumer of the Sony PS3 are: to buy the unit or not. Features and items available to the users are solely at the discretion of the manufacturer. There is no open policy regarding the PS3 as there is with a computer. There is no implied open policy with the PS3, these hacks are obviously being done outside of the T&C as well as the Warranty.
  
  If these hacks solely opened the PS3 an allowed for non-signed software to run for homebrew ONLY purposes then I would say GeoHot’s views have merits. While some of the homebrew for PSP is compelling, much of it was tossed together to support the fragile notion that the PSP hacking community was not doing it just for free games. WE KNOW OTHERWISE. So did the developers and many of them stopped making games on the PSP as a result. All this “community outreach” on GeoGot’s part is ONLY because he is in trouble. While he is a smart guy, I would argue his intelligence is shadowed by his ego and narcissism. Meanwhile whiny gamers with their hands out for free games have lifted this guy to D-Star status.
  
  Of course you continue the drumbeat of “WAH I WANT MY LINUX BACK”.
  
  As a matter of fact this very passage wreaks of copy and pasted talking points…
  
  “When I bought my system it cost me $600.00, and I weighed that price against the fact that I could put linux on the system and use it as a personal computer along with the ability to game, play music, watch blue-rays, ect.
  
  600.00 to use those abilities was worth the price when I believed that I would be able to have a functioning system for 10 years. If it had been explained to me that after 1 year all those functions would be taken away then the system would and is not worth that price tag.”
  
  I have had the PS3 since day 1 too. I know many PS3 gamers, I used to write for various PS3 sites. To this day I still have not met 1 person who actually used their PS3 to boot Linux. I am not saying they don’t exist, but the PS3 is a game machine. I suppose if there was a feature that made some systems catch on fire that was removed you want want Sony sued over that as well?
  
  WAKE UP PEOPLE… CORPORATIONS ARE NOT ALWAYS EVIL… INDIVIDUALS CREATING CRACK POT CAUSES TO AVOID SHELLING OUT $60 PER GAME GENERALLY ARE EVIL AND SELFISH.
  
  It doesn’t matter what altruistic guise you would like to give GeoHot, he is creating tools that encourage theft. If it wasn’t for these tools Sony wouldn’t have a case at all.
  
  “Sony is stated opposing views and will use whatever argument suits them best.”
  
  OF COURSE THEY ARE LAWYERS! DUH! Next are you going to reveal the sky is blue? Thank you Capt. Obvious!
  - SHAFTUCANTHANDL
    
    @D.Vader…
    
    It seems to me that you believe that ps3 is a gaming system.. well I will give you that.. but you are missing that the same arguments sony is using to validate them taking away the OtherOS functionality could also be used to take away the gaming function.
    
    One question you should ask yourself…
    
    Why did sony put the OtherOS function on the ps3 in the first place?
    Because it has value..
    and to take the functionality away is to take away value.
    
    Apparently you have no problem with a corporation selling you something of value, only to take it away after a year.
    
    If you were to buy a sony tv, and after the year warranty was up sony decided that it would be more secure if the tv no longer showed the color blue.
    That would be ok with you because clearly blue was never your color or a function that was ever yours. Blue was always sony’s.
    
    This is an exremely slippery slope.
    
    As I stated before, try not focusing on what one individual did, and instead focus on the bigger picture..
    - D.Vader
      
      @SHAFTUCANTHANDL
      
      Dreaming up crappy analogies doesn’t help your argument. Not allowing the TV to display blue effects the primary function of delivering moving pictures into my home. Not allowing me to load Linux on my PS3 in no way effects the gaming aspects of the system.
      
      I want to point out (and this is very telling), that your argument immediately shifted from “I was once a PS3 Linux User” to “hey Sony shouldn’t take out OtherOS”. You are making my point about this “community movement” it has nothing to do with an open PS3 and everything to do with trying to get games for free. This altruism is just a freaking guise and a piss poor one at that. Put the bong down and get a job then you don’t need pimple faced heroes like GeoHot because you have become the commander of your own destiny.
      
      Sony is at liberty to alter the value of the PS3, they have done it before by removing PS2 emulation. Were people mad? Yes, did anyone win any court cases over it? No.
      
      Feel free to post up another flimsy argument that extolls the virtues of a PS3 ripe with piracy!
      - SHAFTUCANTHANDL
        
        @D.Vader..
        
        Have you ready any of the court documents?
        
        try reading the documents before you come on here yelling that this argument is about piracy..
        
        The court papers discuss the removal of functions, not piracy.
        
        ps. my ps3 still has backward compatibility.. that function was not taken away, it was just never sold in future consoles.
        
        I am done discussing this with you becuase you obviously don’t understand that if you give sony the ability to take away the OtherOS function, then you also give them the ability to take away any other function they want. Even gaming!
      - Jawknee1
        
        @SHAFTUCANTHANDL
        
        You’re done discussing this because:* you know you lost the argument.
        
        Want a tissue?
wtfwtfwtf

Jaffe is NOT biased. He sticks up for what he believes is right and he is very smart. People may disagree thinking he is smart just because he throws around insulting things to the people he responds to but he is very intelligent and basically any thing he sticks up for is worth sticking up for.
lol

@ D.Vader

“It doesn’t matter what altruistic guise you would like to give GeoHot, he is creating tools that encourage theft. If it wasn’t for these tools Sony wouldn’t have a case at all.”

Why aren’t weapons manufacturers getting sued then they are surely creating ‘tools’ that encourage killing? The world is run by big business they get what they want 99.9% of the time by exploiting and manipulating people… but that time will be coming to an end very soon and people like you will see how foolish they have been trying to defend these tyrannical, greedy, power hungry corporations.

“WAKE UP PEOPLE… CORPORATIONS ARE NOT ALWAYS EVIL… INDIVIDUALS CREATING CRACK POT CAUSES TO AVOID SHELLING OUT $60 PER GAME GENERALLY ARE EVIL AND SELFISH.”

I’m sure they love you very much for saying so, they would most likely choose you as a model citizen with the idea of every citizen being identical just like you, that would probably get them salivating like a pack of hungry wolves.
D.Vader

@SHAFTUCANTHANDL

It depends on who’s court papers you are reading, much of the material you have been exposed to is very 1 sided. Sony’s filed documents have to do with the root key (which is the Rosetta stone to piracy on PS3).

“I am done discussing this with you”

That’s good, because you didn’t provide much of a basis for your argument beyond “Wah I can’t use Linux”.

“becuase you obviously don’t understand that if you give sony the ability to take away the OtherOS function, then you also give them the ability to take away any other function they want. Even gaming!”

Ok I am going to invite you to re-read that statement and take a moment for you to decide why it’s completely ridiculous.

Ok I will give you a moment to ponder.

Ok here it is. Sony would never take gaming away from the PS3. Why? Because that would be retarded, anyone suggesting they would is retarded too.

@lol

Oh my I see you have some very well thought out arguments here. Let me have a look see!

“Why aren’t weapons manufacturers getting sued then they are surely creating ‘tools’ that encourage killing?”

Well the #1 purpose of guns is security, unfortunately that includes killing a sorry SOB on occasion. That is the #1 purpose of a gun. There is no guise otherwise (unlike GeoHot on his High Horse). Gun manufacturer’s make it quite known their tools are quite dangerous if not handled properly. In most cases you have to wait a period of time before you can purchase a gun.

Ok can we both agree that your point there is absolutely useless and off topic? The only thing it accomplishes is letting everyone know you are anti-gun, but if you play FPSes (and enjoy them) you are an anti-gun hypocrite IMHO.

“The world is run by big business they get what they want 99.9% of the time by exploiting and manipulating people…”

That may be true in China or other countries where you have state controlled media, but generally that sh!t don’t fly in the US. You have far too many “journalist” with an axe to grind about corporations for any of them to freely fuck people as you imply. Very few if any corporations act without any media scrutiny. We are not living in the dark ages.

We can all agree corporations are out to make money, but to imply that Sony removing a small mostly unused function from the PS3 is equivalent to corporate big-wigs manipulating markets wreaks of drama-queen and is very much “the sky is falling” standard cry-baby rhetoric.

“I’m sure they love you very much for saying so, they would most likely choose you as a model citizen with the idea of every citizen being identical just like you, that would probably get them salivating like a pack of hungry wolves.”

Oh you know me quite well do you? I have a job and earn my keep, I pay for all my games and I don’t wait for some jackass like GeoHot to come along and make my life complete with the prospect of a free gaming panacea!

Before you make these accusations about me, take a walk in my shoes. Discover one of your talents and put it to use. Maybe if you are lucky you can create a product that people want to buy. If you are really lucky some pimple faced geek won’t come around and reverse engineer it and eat into your profits, which keeps food on your employees tables. Oh corporations are so evil. Providing people with paychecks so they can establish their own destinies and walks of life! How dare they!

“but that time will be coming to an end very soon and people like you will see how foolish they have been trying to defend these tyrannical, greedy, power hungry corporations.”
- Jawknee1
  
  Well freaking said D. Vadar. You just took these morons to the woodshed and fed them their own asinine logic for breakfast, lunch and dinner.
zzz

If he did something illegal then you would have a sound argument here. BUT HE DID NOTHING ILLEGAL! Hacking is perfectly legal! Stealing on the other hand is not, although sharing is perfectly ok.

Gawd dam morons!
- Jawknee1
  
  Seems to me you’re the moron who doesn’t understand copy right law. Now take a walk.