The Escapist has a cool piece on PS3 hacker Geohot, who asked for and quickly received money from the internet in his defense against Sony:
Geohot, aka George Hotz, firmly believes that he has done nothing wrong. When he and the hacker group known as fail0verflow posted the PS3 rootkey online, allowing saavy consumers to install any operating system on the game console, he was not breaking any laws because he paid for Sony’s hardware and doesn’t have to follow their EULA. On his website Geohot claims that Sony is trying to use his case as a warning and has a team of five lawyers ready to rake him in court to send a message to other hackers. He also points out that other hackers have lost court battle not because they were wrong but because they lacked the money to mount a defense. When pressed with legal fees beyond his means, but a large amount of internet celebrity, Hotz’s only recourse was to ask the masses to donate to his cause. Geohot may have underestimated the number of people who support his fight against Sony, as he received enough money for the first phase of defense in about 18 hours.
When your enemies (AKA your CONSUMERS) are able to easily raise money from an anonymous public to fight you, in a case where they’re trying to make your product more useful, you’re doing it wrong.