George Hotz: I Didn't Flee, I'm on Spring Break

"SCEA learned that Hotz had deliberately removed integral components of his impounded hard drives prior to delivering them to a third party neutral and that Hotz is now in South America, an excuse for why he will not immediately provide the components of his hard drives as requested by the neutral,” Sony said in its court filing. "Hotz's attempts to dodge this Court's authority raise very serious questions."

Fans were surprised to hear Hotz, who has remained calm and collected thus far, might be running away from Sony’s lawsuit. However, it appears all is not as it seems and George was not fleeing the country. Nope, he’s just celebrating spring break.

In a blog posting published to his website, Hotz explained that he paid for the trip long ago and assured fans that none donations to his legal fund were being misappropriated. Further, he has promised he’ll be back, if only to get his hands on an Xperia Play (aka the PlayStation Phone).

“Apparently, I have fled the country. ROFL

Factually, it's true I'm in South America, on a vacation I've had planned and paid for since November. I mean, it is Spring break; hacking isn't my life. Rest assured that not a dime of legal defense money would ever go toward something like this. And of course Townsend loves the idea of painting me as an international fugitive. I have been in contact with my lawyers almost every day; I would not let the case suffer. That said, I also won't let this ridiculous lawsuit run my life either. Then the fearmongerers win.

I will be back, I hear it's hard to come by the Xperia Play down here.”

Jane McEntegart works in marketing communications at Intel and was previously Manager of Content Marketing at ASUS North America. Before that, she worked for more than seven years at Tom's Guide and Tom's Hardware, holding such roles as Contributing Editor and Senior News Editor and writing about everything from smartphones to tablets and games consoles.