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Microsoft Shuts Down Lik Sang
An anonymous reader writes "Microsoft has taken legal action, shutting down popular import gaming site Lik Sang for distributing X-box mod chips. Lik Sang is a popular import gaming site based out of Hong Kong. The full article (MSNBC) can be found here." Several people have pointed to the same story on news.com.
Mod chips, legal issues aside, are one of the "value adds" of the console market. Cracking down on this will drive Microsofts target audience away. Perhaps they've shot themselves in the foot with this.
perl -e 'print $i=pack(c5, (41*2), sqrt(7056), (unpack(c,H)-2), oct(115), 10)'
Aren't most XBox mod chips basically BIOS replacements? Probably containing significant portions of Microsoft's original XBox BIOS?...
So it'd be a simple case of copyright infringement.
Everything else Lik-Sang sold, including GBA 'backup devices', PSX mods, and perfectly legit consoles, games, and accessories, were probably perfectly legal in most countries. Maybe they made a genuine mistake by stocking the XBox mods - not knowing they may have contained Microsoft's code?
Ahh so kill em all and let God sort them out? Whats that you want to back up your games, well screw you because little Billy down the street is a theif so you probably are to...
No. You're referring to what people call the "razor blade" business model, and it's perfectly legitimate. But should the LAW come in and close down other businesses which might conflict with someone's razor blade business? Sorry, but no. What's good for GM is good for America, right?
.. a couple years back, lik-sang had a similar run-in with nintendo over the N64 backup devices. They eventually got N to back off after they decided not to ship any units to North and Central America.
Perhaps the same type of thing could happen with MSFT.
Though I wonder if the mod in question, the PC-BIOXX/OpenXbox, counts as illegal. It is, in essence, a blank flashROM.
You attach it to the xbox, and completely replace the xbox' bios with whatever you flash to the chip. So it could be used to run a hacked xbox bios that plays pirated code, it could be used to run the linux bios, or it could be used to run the retail bios (if the one on the mobo got fried).
You could even use it on a PC mobo just as easily, if you wanted to play BIOS hacker. It's just a plain-vanilla 2mbit flashrom for the LPC header.
I mean, is the device itself illegal just because it has some illegal use?
I don't need no instructions to know how to rock!!!!
I don't think you can back up an xBox game anyway, at least not on a standard DVD burner. I had read that the discs spun backwards, precisely so that normal DVD burners couldn't copy them. Is this true, or just a rumor? Or is there a simple workaround?
The recording provision of VCR's is used almost exclusively for piracy. Does this mean they should be illegal? The courts have decided that if they have "substantial non-infringing uses", then they are not illegal. The ability to run your own programs on the hardware you bought and paid for seems to me like a substantial non-infringing use.
My other first post is car post.
You're a brave soul to toss an adult opinion into this den of pubescent hormones. You'll be castigated as if you were pulling the rug out from under Peter Pan and all the little children in NeverNever Land. If you are really lucky, you might attract a nibble from an otherwise coherent grownup who happens to think that open source/free software is a philosophy capable of running the world, rather than an alternative software development model.
Mostly, though, what goes on here is just a bunch of metaphoric foot stomping. E.g.: MS, the DMCA, and the RIAA are all evil. Someone should do something. But not me. I still need to buy my games and my music. Still gotta be a trained consumer doing what I'm supposed to do. Me, me me; mine mine, mine
-- Slashdot: When Public Access TV Says "No"
Here is some background of Lik Sang. It is a small shop that sell console games and accessories sited inside Golden center in Hong Kong. (In case you don't know, Golden center is a very very very popular computer/games/console/software center for HK ppl and tourist) The shop is no bigger than 200 square feet. There are like a dozen more of those small shops in the Golden center that sell similar stuff. And you know what? Every single shop there sell mod-chips and pre-modded console. Hong Kong ppl already used to buy/play private games, since the era of Nitendo.
The reason why M$ only go after LikSang is that they are high profile. They sell mod-chips online. There are in fact hundreds of those shop out there in HK sell mod-chip/pre-modded console, they just don't do it online. M$ might be able to stop LikSang sell the chips online, but they can't do shit other than that.
I am not saying buying/play private games are right, but HK ppl are so used to it that it becomes the norm. One thing is interesting I would like to share with you guys. The way they sell private console games in HK is kind of funny. Console games usually don't sell in Golden center, since this is such a popular tourist spot. Ppl sell consoles games usually in some shop next to Golden center. When you walk in to those shops, you see private games on racks. However, you see no sales or shopkeeper. There is a paper basket next to the door with money and changes inside. All you need to do is to pick your game and put money into the paper baskets before you leave the shop. Usually, "shop keeper" either pretend to be a shopper or watching outside of the shop. Just make sure you did put money into that basket or someone will beat the crap out of you if you don't. So, if police or whoever come, they can't do anything since they can't find the shop keeper.
Private console CD games are usually around $3 US dollars each and around $8 US dollars for DvD games.
Guess nobody is questioning this is just a rumor.
Many things to be questioned:
1. Hongkong's Custom won't give a damn to Microsoft, unless there's solid evidence they are selling copyright infringed products. If you have taken a look at the product Lik Sang has offered, most of the product could be obtained from other sources, which MS did not shut them down. The only problematic product is the OpenXbox's PC-BioXX.
2. From cache of Google, Lik Sang's PC-BioXX did not offer a copy of BIOS included. Thus I would say the Lik Sang won't be that stupid to give MS an excuse.
3. HK is a small place. If Lik Sang is shut down because of that, the news would be on HK's newsgroups very soon, sooner than what you would hear from source outside. There's nothing like that yet.
4. And how come it is "A representative in Microsoft's Australian subsidiary confirmed that the company has taken legal action against Hong Kong-based Lik Sang."??? Microsoft has operations in Hong Kong. It is extremely stupid to get Australian subsidiary to work a HK problem, when they have all the people they needed in HK.
5. HK Custom has tradition to announce any raid on companies selling pirated software. Didn't see that in news from HK though.
It seems to me that some competitors of Lik Sang are spreading rumor during the down time of Lik Sang's server.
A sig is redundant.