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Clock Ticking For Australian PlayStation Chippers
DuncanE writes: "On monday morning it will be illegal to modify playstations in Australia to play pirated games. More info can be found [in
this Australian IT article]. The new law will apply to all electronic devices." This is one consequence of the same Australian law we mentioned last week. Practice? Meet theory. Theory, Practice.
"Failure to purchase at least one of the items presented on this web page is a violation of applicable laws"
or
"You are in violation of the patriotic consumer statutes. Your wages will be garnished to make minimum payments on the credit card charges we are incurring on your behalf. You will also be sent products our surveys indicate that you need to have."
feh. Police state nothing. We need a new word for this governmental dictactorship by commercial interests.
"It is a greater offense to steal men's labor, than their clothes"
You seems to be unfamiliar with the laws in Australia and the rest of the developed countries. It is never illegal to modchip or copy if you use it for backups or other things that falls under 'fair use'.
In a matter of fact, copying or modding is only illegal if it is done for the purpose of stealing.
You can copy all you like as long as you don't steal anyones product.
You know, the first company that DOESN'T go after the "pirates" is going ot be the most successful. The original PSX had WEAK copy protection, and look what happened? Sony's console sold well, while Nintendo's (which you couldn't copy, only emulate) didn't.
VHS tapes are relatively easy to copy, and look how vhs sales are STILL thriving. CDs are easy to copy, and the RIAA has been making more money than they ever have been.
Look at the time when Kalisto and UTOPiA started releasing their boot discs and Dreamcast ISO's. Suddenly, within a few weeks, the Dreamcast consoles are starting to finally SELL, instead of collecting dust on the shelf. I PERSONALLY know of six people who bought a DC at that time, and for that reason. One simple demonstration on how my purchased copy of Virtua Tennis was identical to the burned cdr version was all they needed. But look what happened when Sega started going after these people, and the people with just the INFORMATION on it online. Sega's console sales suddenly drop (and that's WITH some big-name titles being released)!
Besides, backups have become an ESENTIAL part of my gaming life, both console and PC. Anyone who's ever watched their young cousin SNAP Jedi Knight or Quake II in their bare hands knows EXACTLY what I'm talking about.
I wonder when these companies finally learn that, as much as it goes against traditional business practices, GIVING more things away will most likely increase your profit. And with the millions (rough worldwide estimate) of "pirated" Playstation games alone, Sony and all of the 3rd party developers (ESPECIALLY Squaresoft) managed to do pretty damn well from '95-'00 with their PSX sales. Hm...coincidence? I think not.
That's crap. I haven't read the article yet... thought I'd look at a few responses of those that have first, but if it does indeed state this, then I don't see what right Playstation can have (beyond voiding the warranty) to take legal action. Especially if it cannot be proved that piracy is occurring. In fact, the only way I can see them making a legal claim is after someone has misappropriated software (I hate the term pirate), they throw that term/condition at them.
IMHO, once you buy a piece of equipment, it's yours to do with as you wish. This seems similar to the attempts of Digital Convergance to keep people from opening their CueCat... If you don't want someone modifying your product, MAKE IT RIGHT TO BEGIN WITH! Let's face it, chipping a PS2 to play import games is a reasonable modification to an unreasonable limitation. Today's world is just to small not to be expected to pick up an imported game either through travels, on the internet, or by trading games. When I lived in Germany, one of the first things I did was buy a TV that was able to understand both European and the American formats.
So I guess I'm off to read the article. I would imagine it indicates that Playstation has in their purchase agreement that the game system is purchased with the agreement that the user will not modify.... blah, blah....It goes against the American way: Inventor has idea, makes prototype, patents idea; consumer buys product, has an idea, changes product to suit needs, is happy; inventor scratches head, states "hmmm...", improves product.
BTW, the reason I hate the term pirate and piracy, is software misappropriation takes away the glory of being a true pirate! When KeWl Hax@rs start impaling each other with swords and typing code with a hook on one hand, then they can modify the term "pirate." Until then, the user agrees that to be considered pirate, they must brandish steel, wear an eyepatch and have a close, personal relationship with a parrot. Said parrot must have a foul mouth and/or belittle female passers-by, hereafter referred to as wenches.
Ciao
cfeagans
Be advised: by reading this message, you agree to not change it's content by design or accident. Modifications of punctuality and spelling are included in this agreement, though they may improve the overall readability. Modifications to grammer and syntax are also prohibited, as they take away from the original designer's intent. Failure to comply with this agreement is punishable by fine or imprisonment or both.
This also has the side effect of making it possible to play burned copies of games. Oh well.
In australia, I'd bet that the main focus is to get foreign games to play, as australia probably only gets european releases (confirmation?), where far fewer games come out. In america, the main concern is playing japanese games that will never come out here, such as dating sims and music games.
A good technical breif on modchips is availible here:http://www.modgalaxy.com/modchip.htm
BBK
You wrote: The code in the boot block is copywrited.
I shall present this mysterious, "copywrited" boot code for you: SCEA. That's it. Four letters. I doubt it's possible to copyright four letters.
Have a look here for some modchip details. If you look around you can also find the source code for a number of modchips if you're into doing it yourself. It would be trivially easy to remove the alleged "copywrited" SCEA and distribute the source without it. You then could add any boot code you liked and put it in your own machine. (Obviously only the "SCEA" would make any sense.)
Note that modchips also have a legitimate purpose: allowing you to play import games. Asian consoles look for SCEI, European ones look for SCEE and NA ones look for SCEA. If the modchip is inserting these "codes" then the playstation will play discs from any region. Note that anti-piracy modchips are also possible, by letting through the first three letters from the disc and inserting a fourth. This type of modchip only allows one to play import games, but not CDRs. (Figuring out what SCEA stands for is left as an exercise for the reader.)
Enjoy your job, make lots of money, work within the law. Choose any two.
1. Tape down the sensor that checks to see if the disk door is open. Masking tape or duct tape works best. This makes the PlayStation think the door is always closed.
2. Insert a legitimate game and wait for the SCEA screen to appear. At this point, the PlayStation is checking the boot code.
3. Leaving the system powered up, open the door, remove the real game, and insert a burned game. Since the boot code is already loaded, the game will play fine.
-atrowe: Card-carrying Mensa member. I have no toleranse for stupidity.
YOU are full of shit because you choose to ignore the status quo to make your little liberty manifesto logical.
Most people who buy pirated games won't buy games legally, even if they're worth retail price.
And considering how much trouble it is to produce, promote and distribute a game I wouldn't say $50's unfair for a good product.
Flavio
From the article, it seems that this isn't law doesn't specifically have Joe Consumer in mind, it's intended to target the commercial pirate.
Personally, I have no problem with the idea that people who flout copyright law (in the generic sense, not it's DMCA guise) should be punished - after all, the GPL relies on copyright law to keep people honest.
What bothers me is that it fails to take into consideration that chipping doesn't necessarily mean somebody is going to be playing pirated games. What about those "grey imports", games shipped in from other countries like the US or Japan where a release of a game in Australia may never see the light of day? A chipped playstation might *never* be used to play a pirated game.
Although Joe Consumer isn't targeted this time round, it doesn't take a great leap to see how a law such as this might be misapplied in the future.
This story once again boils down to enabling corporate control through a government sanctioned law. A disturbing trend, and one which seems to be applied to more and more situations these days.
Unfortunately, I believe things are going to get worse before they get better. Chipping a DVD player is another classic example. I chipped my DVD player in order to be able to play the new "R1E" format DVDs on my R2 player. I don't have *any* pirated movies, and don't intend to buy any. I just want to be able to watch movies. And don't even get me *started* on DeCSS. Boycotting DVDs is not the answer, if it fails as a format we'll only end up with something worse.
There is one possible glimmer of light, however. And that is that every one of these laws is a house of straw. Legal precedents have yet to be made. I'm not giving up hope yet. People can still be educated. Let us hope we can get there in time.
Read my online journal: http://chris.carline.org
You were doing so well for a second there.
You have no right to purchase devices that facilitate stealing.
I disagree. The problem with making ROM'ing illegal is that it makes illegal more than simply the piracy itself, because lawmakers are working on the same flawed assumption you are. There are aspects of ROM'ing that are both legitimate and legal. One of my friends is really into playing import games. Nothing wrong with that. He pays for the games and then he plays them. I guess he gets a kick out of bad translations. Anyway, to do this, from what I understand, he has to modify his playstation. I don't know technically if he needs to use a ROM chip. Either way, he needs to make modifications to his playstation that aren't going to hold up in court under this law, as I understand it. And that's what the problem is.
Take napster for example. I think that for the most part, anyone with a reasonably convincing/plausible theory about the wrongs of banning napster isn't trying to argue that piracy isn't illegal and shouldn't be prosecuted as such. They're arguing that the means that napster uses to propogate pirated information is also used as a way to propogate legitimate information, and therefore cannot be shut down just to stop piracy. The same goes for ROMs.