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Sony Crushes UK PS2 Mod Chip Developers
SukebePanda! writes "UK mod chip developer Channel
Techonology finally had their day in court with Sony, and lost big time. This judgement could have far reaching implications, with the judge implying that even playing original imports was illegal. This
also wipes out any chances of seeing home brewed software on the Playstation 2 anytime soon, as well. "
So why is PS2 letting us fiddle with Linux based PS2's if no one is allowed to modify the normal PS2? Who is it hurting if I purchase one extra game from overseas and play it with a mod chip attached to my US PS2? Oh that's right, it makes baby DMCA cry.
Why can't I legally play an imported PS2 game (which I probably paid a goodly premium for) on a modded PS2? I've voided my warranty if I mod the PS2, Sony still gets their money from the original software sale, the reseller gets their money from the sale to me, and I get to try to decipher the hirigana and kanjii in a vain attempt to understand just what the heck it is I've bought. Seems like everyone gets what they want in this circumstance.
Now, modding my PS2 to play CD-R games is a bit of a different matter. Most of the games are coming out on DVDs these days, anyways, so I don't know how big of an impact this would have.
I wish I had a kryptonite cross, because then you could keep Dracula and Superman away.
It's a typical judgement for the UK courts to rule to the absolute letter in cases such as this. Problem is, the judges don't appear to have a firm grasp of the implications caused by these rulings. Most law has always been one step behind technology, but the problem we have now is that tech is a truly global market.
Marketing suits have been trying for years to stifle shopping internationally, in case people begin to realise that their countries are being screwed in comparison to others. This case affects games importing (because we aren't allowed to buy what we want say the suits) but DVDs as well (because it would absolutely *crush* the movie sector, say the suits) and anything else the marketing guys want to stifle. It's not like dealing contraband, it's off-the-shelf products.
My worry is that this trend will continue, even though it, in some cases, directly contravenes law. Here in the UK, our car prices are drastically higher than on the continent, and certain car manufacturers make it very difficult to buy your car abroad. This is despite the face the EU trade laws explicitely say otherwise. If companies are flauting the *law*, how exactly can we stop them?
Sony still gets their money from the original software sale
Sony of Japan Inc does. Sony of America Inc doesn't.
Most of the games are coming out on DVDs these days, anyways, so I don't know how big of an impact this would have.
Stripping away the movies helps shrink most games down to under 700 MB.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Stop, stop, stop. While I believe there are people who legitimately want to play Japanese games and backups using their mod chips, this isn't what the overwhelming majority of people intend to do with it. The real reason these devices are popular is because people want to play some mediocre game, but don't want to shell out $50 for it. Considering that Sony DOES make a profit on the console, mod chips are a great way to keep pumping the numbers of PS2s out there. MS has already tipped their hand with the HomeStation. It's not about games anymore, it's about whose hardware is in the most homes. If successful, they could end up driving PS2 sales down.
I can't read minds. This to me looks like the Judge actually favours the rights of end consumers to use purchased goods any way they like. Granted the judgement in this case goes the other way, but the judge is hampered by existing laws and must rule as they say. This is an overly strict reading of the laws and most of us are cringing. I think that is what the judge wanted.
It looks like a T-ball setup for a great public outcry and movement to get the politicians off their buts and give back some rights to end users. Or maybe just a great appeal case to go up the judiciary path. The quicker this judge makes his ruling the quicker it gets up the appeal path.
keeping people from playing games, it's about keeping people from illegally pirating games. True, many people in the Slashdot community have the respect for the artists and companies involved in video game production to pay for the games they play, and curcumvention devices such as mod chips are used as GOD intended, to view the work in it's original Japenes, etc.
Unfortunately, illegal copyiers force companies like SONY to take these steps to protect the profits of their company and the artisits that produce games. I am unahppy that this action was necassary, but untill the piracy stops SONY and others will take steps like this to keep it to a minimum.
Just my 2 cents.
'Customers' who pirate games aren't really customers, and I doubt Sony give a flying frogstar fart about alienating THEM.
The main reason anyone ever fits a mod-chip is so they can pirate games. And all consoles follow the Gillette model. Sell them the razors, and they'll buy the blades from you for years to come.
"Information wants to be paid"
from the website: 'Judge Jacob stated that Sony licensed games for the territory that they were issued, the licensing of these games did not allow for their use in other territories, therefore whether they were imported for private and domestic use by personal purchase for instance via the internet, or purchased abroad on holiday, they were not allowed by Sony to be played outside of the licensed territory, this argument should be upheld.' Ok, so now I am not allowed to leave where I live and play my games where I travel to? I don't understand this. Maybe I am just being dense, but could someone please show me where it says you aren't allowed to move somewhere and play your game? Also, how big are these territories he's talking about? Anyone? Bueler?
Sent from your iPad.
This also wipes out any chances of seeing home brewed software on the Playstation 2 anytime soon, as well.
PS1 has the largest installed userbase of any console in the world, besides game boy.
Mod chips for the PS1 cost almost nothing, are widely available, and are installed in many units.
The Yaroze was released in the US by Sony- essentially a PS1SDK.
There are countless emulators for the PS1, allowing you to play burned and/or copied software on your computer
Despite all this, I don't think I've ever seen a homebrew PS1 game, ever. Has anyone else?
Isn't crap like this covered in the warranty? Like, if you screw with it, you void the warranty. It's the same as GM telling me that if I decide to put an aftermarket stereo in my car then it's my own problem if it shorts out the whole electrical system. They don't really care what I do to the car because they're no longer obliged to fix it for me once I've voided the warranty. If I'd been warned before purchasing my PS2 that even though I *purchased* it, I had no right to do with it as I saw fit, I probably wouldn't have bought it. This isn't about software or IP or any sort of difficult grey area, this is a tangible product. I buy it, I own it. That's how it's always been, and I don't see how they can change that.
do not read this line twice.
Actually, I live in the US, and I speak Japanese, and enjoy Japanese games. I modded my PS1, and I have many foreign games, but no pirated ones. Not because I'm particularly moral, just that none of the games my friends have pirated really appeal to me. So some of us really do just want to avoid region-coding. Now if there was a way to do this without allowing piracy, do you think Sony would allow it? IMO, probably not.
1. Back-ups of games that you currently own. Especially if you have kids this should be a neccesity.
2. While not legal changing the region of your DVD to play foriegn movies should be.
3. Playing Japanese and other language imports. Alternately taking a German or French system and allowing it to play american games. (note, this is what me and the roommates modded our PS1 for. You cannot get a lot of games in america.)
Anybody who is going to go to the big ass hassle of modding a playstation probably has bought a plethora of games as well. So yes, Sony is alienating thier most die-hard customers.
Pithy, yet ultimately meaningless, phrase expressed with gusto!
Sony has *always* been big on proprietary devices! What they're doing now with PS2 is pretty consistent with what they've always done.
Look at their digital cameras, for example. While everyone else in the market standardized on one of two memory cards, Sony had to be different and require their own "Sony memory stick" instead.
When it comes to camcorders, they do things differently too. Everyone else sells DV capable camcorders that use "DV tape". Not Sony. Instead, they sell DV camcorders using Hi8 tape, and write to it in a proprietary fashion to achieve the same results. (Granted, they allow backwards compatibility *playing* normal Hi8 tape, so you don't feel too non-standard.)
People who used to sell home and car audio can attest to their tactics too. Quite often, Sony will go out of their way to use a proprietary connector or cable to attempt to lock you into using only Sony authorized accessories.
They get away with all of this for one big reason; the stuff is good quality. When it comes down to it, Sony sells all manner of electronics and does a damn good job of it. If you try to boycott Sony, you only shoot yourself in the foot at some point. Often-times, they have the best product for a particular item and price-point.
And all consoles follow the Gillette model. Sell them the razors, and they'll buy the blades from you for years to come.
That highly spread misconception really annoys me. First off, it's not ENTIRELY true.
Everyone likes to think game consoles manufacturers make ALL of their money on software sales, and ALWAYS take a loss on the system. It quite simply isn't all there is to it.
Normally when a system debutes all of the real profit comes from software sales, this is true. The system still "Costs" more than it sells for because the R&D revenue hasn't been made back. The first two years of console sales tend to make that back. After that, continued sales tend to lean more and more towards the profit side, simply because the costs of manufacturing fluctuates and most companies that make a whole lot of something are constantly trying to cut costs in one form or another.
So while software sales ARE the most important factor in the end, the company STILL generates a lot of it's revenue from hardware sales as well because when selling systems you also get the bonus of selling controllers and accessories which have very high profit margins.
If console manufacturers didn't make profit on the consoles, there wouldn't be any console manufacturers. They would ALL be concentrating on software like Sega did.
It took two consecutive lost battles (32x and Saturn) to weaken Sega enough that they were in a state to give up so quickly on the Dreamcast. Had they been able to endure another year, they could've easily been profitable while making consoles. However, with the Gamecube and XBox adding to the Playstation 2 threat, Sega didn't have much hope.
But don't think it's because there's no money in hardware, that simply isn't true. There's PLENTY of money in hardware, even Nintendo claims they never take a loss on hardware sales (though that's hard to believe considering the Gamecube only costs $199). I think it simply stands true that while there is money in hardware, there is MORE money in software, and that will probably always be the case.
"Everything you know is wrong. (And stupid.)"
Moderation Totals: Wrong=2, Stupid=3, Total=5.
'Customers' who pirate games aren't really customers, and I doubt Sony give a flying frogstar fart about alienating THEM
No, but it should be worried about alienating customers who love the product so much they'll pay extra to import games from Japan as soon as they're released, and rave to friends about how good they are, generating more sales when the games are released in Europe.
Any brand-oriented company in a commodity market knows, you piss off trend-setters and early adopters at your peril. Especially if you're competing against other very strong brands who can do most of what you can, and more of their own.
While you license the software, you still own the physical manifestation of it. I.E the media and box and such. This would likely be enough to qualify you for protection under this law.
The technical reason for the decision being based upon the fact that a game that is run without permission makes a copy of copyright material in memory, this copy is 'infringing' because it is an unauthorized copy argued Sony.
So its ok to have the imported game, but the act of loading the game into the PS2's RAM is where the actual illeagal copying occurs. So I can make n copys and distribute them to all my friends, but the "real" copying (and infringement) doesn't occur until the disc is copied once more, but this time into the RAM of the PS2. Isn't this just semantics. This doesn't make sense.
Yes but every time I try to see it your way, I get a headache.
Having outright ownership to the product entitles you to do with it whatever you want, up to and including making hundres of copies of the product (a PS2 game, in this case) and freely distributing it at no charge.
No it doesn't. That is already illegal under copyright law. The licences on software merely impose further restrictions on you, they are not the copyright holder's sole protection.
Cheers,
Tim
It's official. Most of you are morons.
I can't see this as being good for PS2 sales
Agreed!
The reason the PS became the best selling console in the UK was because people could easliy pirate games onto a CD and play them with a mod chip.
No way could you easily pirate a Nintendo/sega cartrage.
Any market will have a stall selling dodgey pirate games, and any (indipendent) games shop will happily chip a PS for you.
In stopping this illegal trade, Sony are harming themselves not helping themselves!
Anyone quoted by a reporter knows how little they understand
Don't believe what you read is the truth.
While I see your point 2 and 3 are different. There is a large difference between breaking copy protection illegally (a la DMCA) to play a out of region DVD and Modding a system to accept out of country games which I believe is still legal. My understanding is that the reason the american ps1 could not play japanese games was due to hardware incompatabilities and not a region coded lockout. Which should make importing a japanese game legal while a japanese movie would be illegal.
Pithy, yet ultimately meaningless, phrase expressed with gusto!
So? It's NOT the business of the government or of me to guarantee any particular business a profit, or indeed that it stay in business.
But it IS the business of government to see that, when a person or organization has played by the government's rules and has something of value, they do not lose that value to someone who has NOT played by the government's rules.
You may have an argument with the rules - whether they're proper, or whether they're consistent with the rest of the rules - especially those that override lower-level rules. But that argument is not with Sony, but with the government: With the legislature (for constructing the obnoxious rule), or with the courts (for not resolving the inconsistency with other rules of the same or higher precedence).
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
No, the American PS1 could play Japanese games just fine. Sony put a hardware lockout that checked the region code of a CD before booting it to prevent console onwners from importing games. A mod chip disabled this lockout, allowing original Japanese and European games to be played on a US system.
In fact, there exists a mod chip for the PS1 that only allows original imports to be played - NOT copies.
Whether this is any different is left as an exercise for the reader.
"I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it."
- Evelyn Beatrice Hall