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Xbox Runs Its First Legal Homebrew App
PineGreen writes: "As Michael Steil, the Xbox Linux project leader says:'On the Xbox Linux website, you can download "linuxpreview," an
application that runs on modded Xboxes and is completeley legal, because
the XDK was not used for development, and it does not contain any
Microsoft code.'. See the X-box logo and Tux on the same screen.
More information here."
So, do they win the $200, 000 Award?
Xboxes, like other disc based consoles, check the discs they run to make sure they aren't pirated copies. Otherwide, anyone with a DVD-RW could make a copy from a local Blockbuster (or download an ISO off the net but blockbuster is more convinient). Unfortunately, this means that programs that you make and burn to disc won't run because it won't pass the check.
Mods remove the copy checking so that you can run backed up or copied discs.
-no broken link
Yeah, the USB ports is standard, so you could also plug in digital kamera, printer, mouse etc.
I think the x-box would be great for schools with linux on.
There is a EULA on the OUTSIDE of the xbox package. It forbids you from running unauthorized code. And they defend this EULA in the courts because it is plainly viewable to users before/as they are buying the unit, rather than being only visable after you open the box.
Bummer.
"Never, never suspect the dreams within the dreams of dreaming children." ~The Amazon Quartet
You're missing the point. The spiral is actually in the other direction. Unless the duplicator motor goes backward the result will be different. Very different if the reader doesn't go backwards as well, as the media can't even be read properly in the normal direction of rotation. Remember, this isn't concentric tracks, this is a spiral of data.
I'm an American. I love this country and the freedoms that we used to have.
Obligatory Preface: I am not a lawyer.
How exactly does the DMCA not apply here? Modders (of all console systems) are bypassing technological measures designed to stop illegally copied software from functioning. That it allows you to run Linux on it is irrelevant in the eyes of the law, as the case against 2600 magazine, which they themselves gave up on, establishes the precedent for. See also the Elcomsoft case, but less so. DECSS has no bearing on the actual copying of DVDs, it gives anyone who puts out a DVD the mechanism to control what their media will play on, and the courts have upheld the DMCA's blanket protection of such mechanisms so far as completely constitutional.
The things that an Xbox mod circumvents is such a technological mechanism. The actual purpose of those doing the modding is irrelevant, just as it has been in the Elcomsoft and 2600 Magazine cases, they courts ruled that the circumvention, for any reason, is the illegal activity, not the intent.
Not that I mind that people are doing it, but if you believe that those creating and distributing mod chips for the Xbox are on any kind of solid legal ground, you are fooling yourself. I expect Microsoft has a team of lawyers working hard on creating a case for this, whenever they determine they want to go to trial over it.