George Hotz, famous American Hacker, known as Geohot, was arrested for the cannabis possession past week in Texas.
22-year-old Geohot, known for unlocking iPhone, allowing the phone to be used with other wireless carriers, contrary to AT&T and Apple's intent. He was also noted for hacking PlayStation3 and subsequently sued by and settling with Sony.
So, Geohot was on his way with his friends to the SXSW convention in Austin to give a speech "The Final Frontier of Reverse Engineering", when he was stop on a border patrol checkpoint in Sierra Blanca, Texas. Department of Homeland Security used K-9 dogs to search the cars. Hotz's car was barked at.
The fact that Hotz had a medical marijuana prescription from California didn't stop the border patrol from arresting Hotz. In the glove box in his car Geohot kept 1/4 oz of cannabis and a "cannabis chocolate bar" equivalent to less then 1/8 oz. Such a small amount of the drug typically only warrants a citation, but the local sheriff valued the the whole weight of chocolate as $800 instead of $15 Hotz allegedly paid for it.
Young Hacker was booked for a felony and posted $1500 bail. Hotz's lawyer will try to to get the felony charge reversed as well as the bail refunded.
Picture of George Hotz
