George Hotz gives a little more detail on his post-settlement plans and what he’s going to do with th money he raised to fight Sony.
First off, he never plans to buy another Sony product again. A consumer can only vote with his wallet, after all, and George Hotz stated this week his intention to boycott Sony in addition to the “permanent injunction” that he agreed to as part of the settlement. But what about the gobs of money that Hotz raised from hackers across the world for what many thought would be his long legal battle with Sony? Several donors are pissed that the cash they gave is now useless, and might end up padding Hotz’ pockets. Hotz hasn’t revealed everything, he says he legally cannot due to the wording of the settlement, but he did provide a few hints on his website Geohot Got Sued.
“As of 4/11/11, I am joining the Sony boycott. I will never purchase another Sony product,” Hotz wrote yesterday. “I encourage you to do the same. And if you bought something Sony recently, return it.”
A few commenters took the opportunity to blast Hotz for backing down without much of a fight. “A lot of people who donated because they thought you were going to take this as far as you could to further fair use & consumer rights will be disappointed,” said Paul. “Why did you settle?”
Another user known as Night Breed was more direct. “So basically you settled for a job and took people’s money giving them a false hope of settling for their rights? What do you plan to do with the money that was donated to you to provide a cushion for the legal battle? I hope you will be paying all those people back since you obviously didn’t live up to your word.”
Many commenters brought up a previous post from Hotz which stated what his demands would be in a potential settlement. “I want the settlement terms to include OtherOS on all PS3s and an apology on the PlayStation blog for ever removing it,” he wrote.
George Hotz responded to the comments with as much clarity as he could. “The terms of the settlement agreement are ‘confidential’ and the matter requires that they be ‘confidential,'” he said repeatedly. “By contract, I cannot discuss the Action or my views regarding the Action.
“I will address the donations in a forthcoming post, and I think people will be happy.” He also pledged that he’s not making any money with this deal or off of donors’ funds. “I promise you none of your money will end up in my pocket.”
After many commenters said that Hotz must have been offered a job at Sony, he went off. “Hilarious that anyone would even consider the idea that I would consider working for Sony. I wouldn’t work for someone I hated, no matter how much they paid me,” he said.
But even though Hotz couldn’t say exactly what the implications of the settlement would be, he felt free enough to speculate. “I believe there is a war coming that extends much much further than ‘Is jailbreaking fair use?’ and Sony.”
A commenter by the name of WoW wasn’t satisfied with the settlement and used a football analogy to describe Sony and Hotz. “When I pay to watch my favorite team play soccer, I give the club the money and I expect the team to go out there and do their best. What I hate to see is them rolling over and giving up before the final whistle.”
“That’s one way to look at it,” George responded. “Another way is that they are saving their strength for games where the refs aren’t biased and that actually have much more importance to the rest of the season.”
Hotz promised more information would be forthcoming, but he asked everyone to trust him for now. “It definitely was not a waste, I assure you,” he said. “I am fighting your fight, in the best way I know how. You’ll just have to trust me.”
Source: Geohot got sued
