iPhone hacking teen rewarded with a car instead of jail
By Sean P. Aune
Remember the old days of computing when hackers got sent to jail? Now they’re given cars!
George Hotz, 17, was the person to come up with the first hack for the iPhone, and he is now reaping the rewards. Originally he had planned to auction the hacked phone on Ebay, but pulled it after he suspected the bids for $10,000 to $20,000 were fraudulent.
Terry Daidone, founder of CertiCell, a company that refurbishes old cell phones, contacted Hotz about the phone and proved his legitimacy. Holtz is trading his now infamous phone for a Nissan 350Z roadster and three brand new 8GB iPhones.
In other aspects of his new tech fame, he will also be doing consulting work for CertiCell and Puremobile, all while attending the Rochester Institute of Technology. According to his blog, his next goal is to add GPS to the phone using triangulation from cell phone towers.
Seriously, does anyone else remember when hackers went to jail, or is that just me?
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Read more entries by Sean P. Aune.
Stumble It!
August 28th, 2007
Too bad what he did was not illegal, or maybe he could have gone to jail. The kid was not out for fame, just tinkering, minds like his are the reason that gadgets such as the iPhone even exist. Think about it.
August 30th, 2007
Why would the guy go to jail? If he bought the iPhone, its now HIS phone. He can do whatever he wants with it.. Even destroy it… Of course, Apple reserves the right to void the warranty of the product, but they can’t do anymore than that.. When the phone was bought, it stopped belonging to apple, thus apple lost its rights over what can be done with that specific phone – simply because they don’t OWN it anymore, the guy does.
Looks like you’d like to see phones with DRM like mp3: you buy them, but you can only use them the very specific way the manufacturer allows you to.
September 19th, 2007
it was his phone whatever he does it belongs to him
September 30th, 2007
Sean P. Aune Your a Retard !!!
JokerBluh
February 27th, 2008
If you’re looking for a new phone anyway, why not buy it already unlocked? That way you’ll save yourself the hassle of getting your phone unlocked later.
November 15th, 2008
if he had say hacked into the irs or fbi, yeah he would go to jail, the whole shabang. But he hacked a phone. HIS phone. If I buy, say a game, and I hack it (mod) i dont go to jail.
Big difference between hacking government or corporate computers and a simple commercial device.