This is not actually a question of the law, but of ethics. Geohotz did not break any Federal law in doing what he did. If you know that providing something (the root key to the PS3) will enable massive piracy, should you do it? Here is his original post regarding the supply of the root key:
"
~geohot
props to fail0verflow for the asymmetric half
no donate link, just use this info wisely
i do not condone piracy
if you want your next console to be secure, get in touch with me. any of you 3.
it'd be fun to be on the other side.
...and this is a real self, hello world
although it's not NPDRM, so please wait to run...
shouts to the guys who did PSL1GHT
without you, I couldn't release this
first piece of homebrew you can run
put in service mode, put on usb stick, boot"
So, in that initial post, he does not solicit donations (although he had before and does after). He then announces that he doesn't "condone piracy", then he solicits employment from the three major console manufacturers. What reason would they have to employ him? What he's doing just enables homebrew software, right? They don't really care about homebrew now do they? No, they care about piracy. So what he's really conveying here is this: "I just enabled massive piracy on the console that so far has been hardest to crack. I don't approve of it, but I know that's what it will actually be used for. Hey, why don't you give me some money so this won't happen again?" Sounds like extortion and accessory to theft to me. But our laws don't really work out that way. Yet. I don't want our laws to enable that. I want people with Geohotz' skill to be responsible and actually work with companies like Sony. Is it partially Sony's fault that he didn't? Maybe, but that's a tenuous conclusion at best (does anyone know if he ever privately gave this information to Sony? or if he even attempted to?). On the other hand, it's patently obvious that he knew exactly what his work would be used for, and released it to the masses anyway.
You're not addressing the issue of ethics in any way. What he did enabled theft. Theft is unethical. He enabled theft, so he is unethical. Want open hardware? Don't buy closed hardware. Don't want companies to close their hardware? Don't enable theft.
What's hard about this? Do you not understand that companies will lobby very hard and very successfully to enable laws that are so strict that it will not only make what geohotz did illegal, but what the (admirable) kinect hackers did illegal as well?
The Laws that can and will be made as the result of his craven greediness, stupidity, and arrogance will not be favorable to any real hacker, because laws are not a precise enough instrument for enforcing ethical standards. We must enforce the ethical standards. Geohotz should be a pariah, not a hero, for anyone other than the piracy enablers that will make a fortune from his work.
" ~geohot
props to fail0verflow for the asymmetric half no donate link, just use this info wisely i do not condone piracy
if you want your next console to be secure, get in touch with me. any of you 3. it'd be fun to be on the other side.
...and this is a real self, hello world although it's not NPDRM, so please wait to run... shouts to the guys who did PSL1GHT without you, I couldn't release this
first piece of homebrew you can run put in service mode, put on usb stick, boot"
So, in that initial post, he does not solicit donations (although he had before and does after). He then announces that he doesn't "condone piracy", then he solicits employment from the three major console manufacturers. What reason would they have to employ him? What he's doing just enables homebrew software, right? They don't really care about homebrew now do they? No, they care about piracy. So what he's really conveying here is this: "I just enabled massive piracy on the console that so far has been hardest to crack. I don't approve of it, but I know that's what it will actually be used for. Hey, why don't you give me some money so this won't happen again?" Sounds like extortion and accessory to theft to me. But our laws don't really work out that way. Yet. I don't want our laws to enable that. I want people with Geohotz' skill to be responsible and actually work with companies like Sony. Is it partially Sony's fault that he didn't? Maybe, but that's a tenuous conclusion at best (does anyone know if he ever privately gave this information to Sony? or if he even attempted to?). On the other hand, it's patently obvious that he knew exactly what his work would be used for, and released it to the masses anyway.