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.

Comments

Draconian society, etc.

[Alien54]

I am waiting for the day when not only do they say you don't own what you own (the present day) but they come along and say something like:

"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.

How Sony is screwing themselves a la Nintendo/Sega

[BIGJIMSLATE]

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.

Region coding first, piracy second

[bbk]

Playstation Modchipping is the only way to get around the region coding that Sony puts on every playstation game. It's basically same as the DVD regions, except only 3 - one for each of Japan, America, and Europe. If you want to play imported games, you either import consoles from each region or modchip, which removes the region coding from the Playstation.

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

Anti-Piracy Measure

[Chrimble]

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.