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Microsoft Shuts Down Lik Sang

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the real-life-consequences dept.

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.

3 of 581 comments (clear)

  1. Score one for Tha Man by EvilAlien · · Score: 5, Interesting
    I wonder if this is viewed as a rightful exercising of intellectual property rights or more fodder for anti-trust from the point of view of the Justice Department?

    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)'
    1. Re:Score one for Tha Man by Anonvmous+Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      "Mod chips, legal issues aside, are one of the "value adds" of the console market... Perhaps they've shot themselves in the foot with this."

      I'd agree with this comment except MS needs to sell 4 games to make up for the loss they take on each system. If people buy XBOXes but don't buy games for them (i.e. they buy them to install Linux on so they can tap tap tap at it all day), then MS doesn't want their business. They lose.

      If MS believed that purchase of an XBOX because it has a mod chip would also mean sales of games, I'm sure they'd go for it. I can certainly understand their concern though, since their lineup of games isn't very strong right now.

      In other words, there isn't much value in the games today, but they need to move the games in order for this whole venture to be worthwhile.

  2. Re:As a general rule by arbitrary+nickname · · Score: 5, Interesting

    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?