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Geohot seeking donations for legal defense against Sony.

geohot.com

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Re: Geohot seeking donations for legal defense against Sony.

#12

Post by chris11 »

kindaworks wrote: post #9
[deleted] wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

The system is largely based on precedent, so if there have been enough verdicts in favor of the defendants in this kind of case, it should become easier and easier for them to defend themselves. Maybe corporations will even sue less of them, knowing they're likely to lose.

Exactly. For example a judge in Texas recently ruled that plaintiffs in piracy cases should file against individuals. This means that each lawsuit will cost around $350 in filing fees. It isn't financially attractive to spend six figures to file lawsuits over a few hundred people watching pirated movies. So I doubt we'll see any more of those mass bittorrent lawsuits in Texas if this precedent holds.

Re: Geohot seeking donations for legal defense against Sony.

#14

Post by [deleted] »

kindaworks wrote: post #9
[deleted] wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

The system is largely based on precedent, so if there have been enough verdicts in favor of the defendants in this kind of case, it should become easier and easier for them to defend themselves. Maybe corporations will even sue less of them, knowing they're likely to lose.

[deleted]

Re: Geohot seeking donations for legal defense against Sony.

#16

Post by cookiecaper »

He mentions that the EFF isn't taking on the full load of the case, but maybe he'd get more donations if EFF acted as an intermediary and managed the donations for him. He mentions several times questions like "Why should I trust you?", and his answer, "I'm very ethical", is not that reliable in and of itself. If the EFF sets up a fund, we wouldn't have to worry about suspicions about the use of the money and Geohot wouldn't have to worry about whether certain things qualify as "legal expenses" or outright temptations to misuse the fund.

He may also be able to circumvent PayPal fees, ultimately giving him more money, and he won't have to worry about transferring the remainder to the EFF at the end of it all.

I think that if the EFF won't assume such an important case completely, they could at least help out with some payment processing.

Re: Geohot seeking donations for legal defense against Sony.

#17

Post by orangecat »

rymngh wrote: post #7

im also donating, this fight will determine the future of console systems

And it's more than just game systems. Phones and tablets will likely be replacing traditional PCs for most uses in the next several years, and according to Apple and Microsoft those devices are "consoles" too.
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