Ka-ching!

A week ago, it looked like the drama between Sony Computer Entertainment America and infamous hacker George Hotz (aka GeoHot) was all but over. But this weekend Hotz donated $10,000 to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, a nonprofit organization that advocates for individuals' digital rights internationally. The EFF came down on Hotz' side in Sony's suit against him and espouses principles not too unlike the "freedom to hack" movement that jailbreakers like Hotz espouse.

The $10,000 represents the remainder of Hotz's legal defense money, a fund put together out of donations to support him in his fight with Sony. Hotz and Sony reached a settlement just a couple of weeks ago, though the exact terms haven't been detailed by either party. That said, we can glean some interesting clues from Hotz's legal blog, where he's lashed out against Sony.

In something of a micro-FAQ, Hotz says the future of Sony product-hacking won't be chilled. Instead, "if you piss them off enough for them to pull out the legal team and their million dollar checkbook, worst thing that happens is you have to super swear to never do it again," which sounds like it's part of the settlement.

He also says that his days of hacking the PS3 and other Sony products are over. While he doesn't respect Sony, he says he does respect the court.

Hotz goes on to note that the next likely target of hackers would be the PSP2, (known as the NGP, or Next Generation Portable,) Sony's forthcoming portable gaming system. He mocks Sony, implying that it might hold the code in the NGP responsible for containing exploits, litigating it instead of writing secure code.

One thing seems certain, Hotz's settlement with Sony apparently doesn't preclude him from speaking out against the tech giant.