Only a short time ago, PlayStation jailbreaker George Hotz (GeoHot) was asking for donations to help cover his legal fees in his fight against Sony, who are suing him for hacking the PlayStation 3 console and opening it up to pirates.
But now comes a report from Everything HQ that says a good source for the site has stated that Microsoft have helped out GeoHot by providing a huge amount of money to cover the hackers legal costs.
The news comes after GeoHot managed to get enough funding to cover his first round of costs in just 2 days after his original post asking for donations, a pretty quick turn around unless he was given a large donation by someone.
This isn't the first time that Microsoft has got itself involved with the hacker, recently asking him if he would like to receive a free Windows Phone 7 device to hack away on to his hearts content.
Microsoft has been responding well to hackers recently, initially they wanted to press charges against the Kinect hackers but quickly changed their minds. They are now supporting Windows Phone 7 hackers as well, maybe they have finally decided that it may be more beneficial to everyone to help foster innovation in their devices rather than fight it.
Sony meanwhile, has been fighting tooth and nail to stop hacking on their console. Just a week ago they released a statement saying that they will ban any user who has used circumvention devices and pirate software on their machines.
If the report turns out to be true, it is quite a kick in the teeth to Sony in regards to the hacking of their console and it would be interesting to know how a company like Microsoft would have responded if the shoe was on the other foot.
Update: We have reached out to Microsoft for a comment on the story, but as it is the weekend, we have yet to hear back.
Update 2: Popular PlayStation hacking site psx-scene are stating on a forum post that they have confirmed with GeoHot that Microsoft did not donate any money to his costs. Nothing about individuals at the company donating was mentioned though though.
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