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Sony vs Modchips
Cryptnotic writes "Sony
has decided to instigate legal action against companies distributing two new Playstation 2 modchips, the Messiah and the NEO4. Sony has previously ignored modchip makers who made products which were only capable of playing CD-R copies of games. These new modchips, however, have legitimate uses, such as playing original import games or out-of-region DVD's. Aparrantly this is what has angered Sony." If I could read Kanji I'd probably care a bit more ;)
According to TheRegister article, its actually the opposite that has Sony "annoyed".
... free users to use titles from any zone" in regards to playing games and DVDs region free. It continues on to say "However, the chips can also be used to play copied and pirated titles on the console, which is where Sony starts to get annoyed;...".
The article says "Mod-chips
It really doesn't take much to proof read an article quickly before posting a story to make sure everything lines up...
I suspect you're referring to 17 USC 602 (a), which reads as follows:
But one important thing you've neglected to do is to read further. 17 USC 602 (a) (2) goes on to say:There's also exemptions for government use, scholarly, religion, and educational purposes, and for libraries. You should read all of 17 USC 602 (a) before jumping to conclusions about whether it's legal to import games for personal use or to play lawfully imported games.
You don't need a license to use software. You only need to have lawfully aquired a copy of that software. According to 17 USC 602 (a) (2), copies imported for personal use have been lawfully aquired. Also, see 17 USC 117 (a) (1), which specificly makes copies made as "an essential step in the utilization of the computer program" non-infringing. 17 USC 117 (a) (1)'s exemption certainly includes copies made while loading the program into memory, a popular excuse used by those who argue that a license is required in order to use software. Your arguments that either obtaining or using imported copies is infringing or unlawful are at best unconvincing.
The text of 17 USC 602 (a) (2) follows:
There's also exemptions for government use, scholarly, religion, and educational purposes, and for libraries. You should read all of 17 USC 602 (a) before jumping to conclusions about whether it's legal to import games for personal use or to play lawfully imported games.
Sony makes a profit on the PS2 hardware.
I for one think that it was definitely right to go after NEO4. Despite being hyped and anticipated by some PS2 people, it is basically a warez mod. At first I was interested in it, but later I found out that it doesn't work with original PS2-imports, only PS2-warez. PSX-imports work though, but NEO4 would be insanely expensive for that feature alone. If modchip makers don't want to get Sony after them they should make mods that work with original games only. I've seen NEO4 being advertised as the chip that makes all the warez possible, sheesh.
I'll probably get a PS2 next year, and I want to be able to play both PS2 and PSX imports with it. I still haven't seen a mod that would do both, and NEO4 isn't one either. I have several imported PSX games that haven't been released in Europe at all (like some of the best PSX titles including Chrono Cross and Xenogears), and those are the only reason I have mod for my PSX. Sooner or later there will be similar titles for PS2.
As for DVD regions, Region X package for PS2 is both cheap and well-working. I don't see why anyone would want an awkward modchip that costs several times more just to watch import-DVDs.
They're probably more worried about the circumvention of DVD region coding.. if they get known to be distributing a multi-region DVD player, the DVDCCA could be down on their asses and take away their DVD decryption license. They probably already had trouble given the backdoor in the DVD software in the first Japanese revision of the PS2.
Sony do seem to have a bee in their bonnets about game imports.. which is a shame, because customers in Europe tend to have a bee in *their* bonnets about games being slowed down to run in PAL. Sony complained that Tekken 3 didn't sell well in Europe and blamed imports. They might have done better to blame the fact that the European Tekken 3 was slow as a lame dog because of the PAL conversion. What's even stupider is that the DC established that a PAL60-capable console is entirely feasible (and it's no extra work to implement, because the binary for the PAL60 version is usually just the same as the USA one), but Sony didn't copy it.
Also, somebody who should know has told me that the protection system on the Playstation 2 actually makes it harder to make an import-playing chip than a pirate-playing chip. The real protection on the PS2 is the DVD format and nothing has gotten around that yet.
Oh, and if you really want to protest, don't refuse to buy a PS2 - buy one and SMASH IT. Sony actually _loses_ money on selling PS2s which it hopes to pay back with games. If you buy one and smash it, they lose their subsidy, AND someone else can't buy that one. This could be especially good near to Christmas.. (actually, I'm surprised console firms don't do this to each other, but they'd probably get sued)
More actsofgord links. People should read this site---in addition to being funny and evil, he really knows what he's talking about. In this case, console manufacturers typically do not lose money on each console. This includes Sony and Nintendo right now. Only Microsoft is losing money on each XBOX. According to his calculations, Sony is making a pretty penny, too. If you really want to hurt them, buy an XBOX (but do you really want to help MS?), or a GameCube (same applies to Nintendo, really).
They're pretty much all evil, I guess. Maybe I'll visit the bookstore. ;-)
Don't think of it as a flame---it's more like an argument that does 3d6 fire damage
there now exists legal precedent for using the DMCA. Before, it could've been hairy..
Thats all fantastic speculation there, save for the fact this is going down IN ENGLAND!!!!!!!
I cant believe you managed to type so much based on absolutely nothing
autopr0n is like, down and stuff.
As you say, there's no such thing as a free lunch.
If you sell something to me for $10 you can't stop me from going and selling it to someone else for $15, even if that cuts into your intended business plan of selling it for $40.
If you want to sell it to people in rich countries, price it low enough that it's not worth them buying it in a poor country and shipping it over.
The whole concept of "veteran's discount" and such is that stores are giving this away to generate good will even though they know there's no law to specifically support it. A veteran could buy a product from a store for 20% off and sell it to someone for 10% off, pocketing the difference. Stores know this and don't make the discount too large and don't offer it on items that have a nearly 100% resale value.
It's a completely different topic for AMD to test a batch of chips and sell them at the speed they'll all perform at instead of testing each one individually. They're potentially selling more, for less. They're selling an nMhz chips and if yours works at n+100Mhz, you've got no reason to complain.
The only time this becomes objectionable would be if AMD sold a chip that could be overclocked and then tried to sue you for doing so. Luckily though, the hardware companies (with the exception of Rambus whose CEO is about a smart as a stick of warm butter) know that there's no basic in law for this.