George “Geohot” Hotz, the hacker who breached the PlayStation 3’s security, is now asking for donations to help in his legal fight against Sony.
Writing on his website, Hotz said he had already run up a $10,000 legal bill and that donations would be used to bolster his defences, claiming that Sony was using him as a scapegoat as part of a wider campaign to deter users from tampering with their systems.
“Sony has five lawyers, I have two,” he writes. “I’d like to level the playing field and really get some hard hitters in there. I am not being sued because of something I have that Sony wants, I am being sued in order to send a message that Sony is not to be messed with.
“If I actually win this, we have the power to send a much stronger message back. That consumers have rights, and we aren’t afraid to stand up for them.”
Hotz also denies he is in any way responsible for the widespread cheating in the online component of the PS3 version of Modern Warfare 2. Developer Infinity Ward has blamed the problem on the breach in PS3’s security which Hotz and hacking group fail0verflow triggered late last year.
“No, I’m not [to blame],” he writes. “I have never played PS3 online ever. Frankly I'm amazed by the apparent ease with which these cheats were created, security 101, why is the security in the client anyway?
“I had no idea this would happen, and am in full support of the cheaters being permabanned from PSN.”
Hotz said any funds left over after the case concludes will be donated to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, who he says have offered him legal support.
Source: Geohot