Having Collected Sufficient Funds, Geohot Calls Off Donation Request

George Hotz, the “hacker” known to the world at Geohot, had recently asked for donations for a legal defense fund. You’ll recall that Sony flipped out after Geohot made the tools available for everyday people to jailbreak their PS3, which in Sony’s mind is tantamount to piracy. Anyhow, Hotz has called off the donation request, saying that he’s collected enough money to hire “a few more lawyers” for his defense.

Hotz had ostensibly released the PS3 jailbreak tools so that people can once again take advantages of the system’s abilities to run alternative operating systems. Sony removed the Install Other OS option from the PS3 last year, citing security concerns. Funny how Sony has the right to unilaterally remove your ability to use certain features (here, Other OS) while you can’t go ahead and restore that feature, or add other features. I don’t see Apple telling MacBook owners that they’re not allowed to install Microsoft Office or Chrome.

Given the glacial speed of the courts, expect this to drag on pretty much forever. Chelsea will actually win a game before this gets worked out.