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Australian Federal Court Finds Mod Chips Not Illegal
Friendless writes "In contrast to the story earlier this week about the Ottawa man who was jailed for selling and installing mod chips, the the Australian ABC reports that the Australian Federal Court has found that installing mod chips is not illegal, because Sony failed to prove that a copyright protection measure was installed in the PlayStation in the first place. Here is the full judgement."
It is called civil disobedience, and it is often the only way to get injustice corrected (and the DMCA is extremely unjust).
If enough people are arrested for outrageously stupid reasons, public awareness of what is happening will be raised. I remember telling a non-technical friend of mine, who is a pilot for a major airline and served in the airforce (and saw combat in Yugoslavia), about the arrest of Dmitry and he was outraged. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen him as angry as he was that day. He took that injustice very personally, as do most people who believe in the ideals of democracy and not the rule of corporate oligarchs, cartels, and monopolists.
The more lay people that are made aware of these injustices the better, and this guy is going a long way toward accomplishing this. The excesses of copyright have only succeeded these last decades because the awareness of what has happened (chronic copyright extentions, and now fundamental changes in its nature from a civil to a criminal law, and from a largely commercial regulation to a profoundly invasive personal one) has been absent. Copyright law, in its current form, will likely not withstand public scruitiny very well, which is something that would be good for every one of us (returning it back to its pre-1970 duration, if not repealing the notion altogether and replacing it with a gentler, non-monopolistic regime for compensating authors and artists, but that is a discussion for another day).
Raising public awareness of these issues is probably one of the most important things we can be doing, and if we as technically knowledgable people do not do so, no one will. This guy should be applauded for stepping up to the plate and putting his personal liberty on the line for the greater public good.
If we had more people willing to do this sort of thing when the despots seize personal liberty after personal liberty we would live in a much better world. He is a man who clearly feels strongly enough about software freedom to risk jail time, up to 5 years, which is a hell of a lot more grave than the $17,000 fine mentioned in the article (I wonder why they played that down. That makes his actions even more impressive).
Why should copy protection matter? Once you buy the hardware, you logically should be able to do what you like with it, since you own it.
...
This will undoubtably apply to palladium hardware too then. I wish
The trouble is that just because something is sensible or correct, doesn't make it legal.
Here is the perfect example - mod chips are legal in one country, and illegal in another. A bit like EULA's in Europe vs USA.
You can't predict the law based on what seems sensible.
Michael
There is no cryptographic solution to the problem where the intended receiver and the attacker are the same entity.
As quoted in ABC story:
> Sony launched legal proceedings against a Sydney man, Eddy Stevens, for allegedly selling pirated games and also providing and installing modification chips.
He was selling pirated games as well, so it is a valid analogy.
The story about the guy convicted in Ottawa has a very misleading title. He was convicted because he was selling 400+ varieties of burned Playstation games. He happened to be a mod chip seller and installer as well because such things go hand in hand. If he was doing only mod chips, the authorities would probably have passed him by. But selling illegally duplicated software for profit ($30k gross in his case) is another matter entirely and will get you some legal penalties.
There are many ways even the awful recent laws could be interpreted out of existence, so to speak. To really get what they want (which is impossible, but regardless), the big media industries not only need these draconian laws and worse, but they need very "conservative" enforcement in the courts.
Strictly speaking, I tend to agree with the Australians; security on the consoles (and proposed security in other systems) is far from being "primarily" a tool to prevent theft. It has many other purposes, stated and unstated.
We often call fair use a victim of the media industry's war on customers (or perhaps a war on civil liberties, or on sane contract and criminal law). Region coding aside, one thing in particular that frequently gets swept away in the "copy control" race is the notion of backups.
Yes, just simple backups. I'm in the habit of keeping things backed up when I can, and you should be too. Of course, don't take my word for it. You'll be a believer after you lose your first important batch of data, just like I did.
The media guys just want the backup issue to go away. They ignore it at every opportunity, and they hope you will too. But why can't we make backup copies of our CDs, DVDs, and, yes, playstation (etc etc) games? They get scratched, they wear out... even if you buy into the most apocalyptic notions about time shifting and space shifting, backups are still legit. And not only us, why can't _libraries_ and _rental places_ make backups? 100x as important for them as for us; they get a lot of wear and tear.
The "security" systems, as exemplified by the PS2 and other consoles aren't just for preventing theft. They're for preventing backups. You damage "your" property? Buy another copy. But is that legitimate?
This debate is filled with similar examples. Where's the "security" in region coding? It's entirely arbitrary! And the list goes on.
You see, there's a continuous conflict here, between big media's power grab, and fair use (making backups, quoting, time shifting, space shifting, etc), basic freedoms (like privacy, for DRM systems which "happen" to report what you do back to HQ), and elementary contract law (parties explicitly agree, implied contracts, no "surprising" fine print conditions, you own what you buy, etc - actually comes pretty close to the rule of least astonishment).
They want to abolish fair use altogether (along with getting special status for contract law and enforcement, etc) - that's the only way they can try to stop all theft. While they're at it, they're going to get fringe benefits that far outweight the value of their stated goal - control over all media devices? Carte blanche to dictate any kind of terms they want whenever they sell you anything? The ability to asses and collect taxes? Yet right now all the pieces aren't in place yet, and if you have to rule on the law, you still have the option to look objectively at the facts and conclude that mod chips and other game copying tools have legitimate uses and must be legal. I don't even think it's a stretch.
Until they explicitly eliminate fair use at the legislative level (which they might - who knows! anything's possible, apparently), that's always a possibility. Of course, controlling the courts isn't impossible either, perhaps... One thing the last few years should have taught us is that when it comes to corrupting influences in politics, politicians have a unique appreciation for the power of those who control the media.
We're on the road to Tycho.
A long time ago, when I was innocent and mostly unaware of DMCA, I got my PSX modchipped. This was one of the earliest mod chips (this becomes important later in the story). I was in Virginia working for my cousins software company (a defense contractor) and they had this cool video game store there that sold a lot of imported games. Well, they had just gotten in Samurai Spirits 1 & 2 for the Playstation. I bought it and brought it home, and tried to use the "swap method" to play it. (The swap method is where you prop the Playstation open while keeping the closed button under the lid pressed down. You then put an American game in your Playstation, and after it starts to boot swap it with an import.)
Well, this was a failure, so (long story short) I mailed my Playstation to a friend of mine and had him install a modchip. I finally got my Playstation back and spent many happy hours playing Samurai Spirits.
Well, a while later Sony got Capcom to tweak their software so it wouldn't work in modded Playstations. I found this out after buying two games. The first was Rockman III, a very expensive game that I can only play using Bleem! (I'm unwilling to rechip my Playstation with a newer "stealth chip" and I certainly won't ever buy another one.) The second was the American version of Dino Crisis! I solved that problem by getting my friend to ship me a patched CD-R of Dino Crisis, which worked fine in my modded Playstation.
So, essentially, Sony had convinced Capcom to tweak their software so that legitimate copies of their software wouldn't run on my chipped Playstation, but "pirate" games would work fine.
After this experience, I decided Sony was run by the Devil incarnate, something which was only confirmed by their later behavior.
All the creatures will die, And all the things will be broken. That's the law of samurai. (Jubai, 1605)
Not True.
If you gain a mod chip for a PS it generally does three things for you:
1) Allows you to play non-'original' disks. (A semi-dodgy area, fair use says a backup is permitted)
2) Allows you to play discs from other regions (No illegality here.)
3) Allows you to play DVDs from other regions. (Perfectly legal)
One of the selling points on a PS2 is that it plays DVDs, and hence you can factor in that cost of a DVD player when buying a PS2, and as pretty much ANYBODY in a country that does not fall into region 1 knows DVDs are somewhat more expensive there... Not mentioned the staggered release dates, region 1, then 6 months later the rest of the world.
Games are also 'zoned' in a similar manner, brought out eariler, different pricing, and in fact different games (well features I guess)..
Why companies playing in a global market should attempt to segment, purely for the purpose of increasing profit... If you import DVDs from the states to the UK you still pay the VAT, and hence the tax arguement doesn't really cut it with me. Some items really are value added for the zones, but so far I've only noticed this on cars, not Computer related items.
And so to sum this up, there are perfectly legal and legitimate reasons for installing / purchasing a mod chip. I'm not saying that everyone has these goals in mind when they buy or sell them, but I am saying that to tar everyone with the same brush is a little harsh, and wrong.
To reply to the quote in the parent: This was totally unrelated to the first sale principle, it was the selling of mod-chips (oh and those copied games). Once you have bought the hardware there is nothing illegal about altering it. Sure the DMCA may come into force if you circumvent copy-protection, BUT I'm not sure if that applies if you don't distribute the 'crack'. At least nobody will know since there will be no publicity.. If you buy a ps2, crush it and use it as a doorstop, you can, and there is NOTHING Sony can do about it, even if you publish it, hell that probably violates the DMCA since the copy-protection is circumvented... Hmm I wonder what happens to scrapped machines??
Sony (and Sega, MS, etc) want to stop this because traditionally Europeans (and other areas, sorry about the view - I'm from Europe) will tolerate much higher pricing than their American counterparts, thus better profit margins..
Z.
P.S. I believe PS2 Games are zoned, although I'm not 100% sure.
This isn't off-topic, although it might sound that way to begin with.
Lots of posters have waved their arms about with "it's my hardware, I can modify it however I please" - besides being completely beside the point of the article, is plain simplistic.
In most parts of the world, I can't re-arrange petrol (sorry, "gas"), glass bottles, torn rags and a box of matches into makeshift grenades and stack them in my garage, because posession of such weapons is illegal.
I can't even let junk pile up in my garden in case rats infest my place, and threaten my neighbours' comfortable enjoyment of their own property.
If you follow that through, it's easier to explain how I can't alter a Playstation in order to allow me to deprive Sony of money, if that's what I end up doing with it.
It's all about balancing the rights of others with selfish acts (I use the word non-perjoratively). That's why we have laws in the first place!!
disclaimer: Down with Sony, anyway, I say.
"If you create user accounts, by default, they will have an account type of Administrator with no password." KB Q293834
A while ago, a Sony executive said that he believed that one of the reasons why the Playstation became so popular was when people modded their Playstations, they could play pirated games, thus dicovering more game titles than they would be otherwise. Sometimes piracy is a good thing. Anime studios look the other way when their work is fansubbed worldwide, and series like Rurouni Kenshin were lisenced in the US partially because of their immense popularity with hardcore fans. When will companies realize that the more chances people have to sample their wares, the more likely their sales will increase?
"Tabemono, tabemono, arimasu ka? Nai desu ka? Arimasu ka?" - Ed
Ya ya ya. This might be true for 95% of the time, but the idea that the modchip itself should be illegal is wrong. There are other legal uses for a mod chip (such as to play valid copies, or even so you can run your own games/programs on it).
What if they decided to implement this type of method in PCs so you can only run what the company wants you to run? Sure, it might help with piracy, but it would seriously limit the box as well as hurt private and 3rd party programmers. Wait a minute.....Palladium....Microsoft....NOOO!!!!! *drops on the floor and shakes violently*
"I bet I'll get blamed for this." --Mayor Quimby
If I break my disk I should have to buy a new one? I'll accept that IF the cost is for the new disk, and not for the game that I already paid for. That is I send a broken disk to Sony with a check for $1.00 ($0.30 for the disk, and $0.70 for postage, both of which are high estimates) and 6 weeks latter I get a new disk in the mail. Oh, and this offer is good forever, 40 years from now when I get out my old playstation for nostalgias sake and discover the disk has suffered bit-rot I expect they will still send me a copy. (price adjusted for inflation if nessicary, but still dirt cheap)
Perhaps the evidence wasn't there. Maybe this Australian is just better at covering his tracks, or maybe Sony just had the wrong guy.
my old sig used to be funny, but then slashcode ate it and now it's not funny anymore