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The Lik-Sang Saga Continues
The sage of Lik-Sang has continued with Dan Gillmor's recent visit to the region. He and Alex Kampl met and talked for a while. The comparasions are good ones - and ones that are clearly enough drawn that everyone should see the loss of their rights.
There was a story on CNN over the weekend about them and the suit Microsoft launched against them.
Everywhere we look, all we can see is licensing. Regardless of whether the product be a tangible item (such as a games console), or a service (your phone connection, a piece of software), there are license agreements telling you what you may and may not do with it.
Is there going to come a point where we will not actually own anything, merely own a license to use it? Do we really want to owe our souls to the capitalist companies we work for?
Perhaps I'm exaggerating here, but I think it's a future that, currently, is coming for us, and one that I certainly don't want to live in.
Like car accidents, most hardware problems are due to driver error.
"The issue is front and center in an obscure but important legal battle under way in Hong Kong. The three major video-game console makers -- Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft -- have used the courts against a seller of hardware modification chips, often called ``mod chips,'' that give the boxes more capabilities than the makers allow when sold off the shelf."
I wonder how the amount of money spent on legal fees compares to the $$ lost from just allowing mod chips? Is this just a principle thing?
I wonder just how big the issue of "piracy" is and if it's even feasible to spend the amount of money they do with finding ways to encrypt software, or region encode them.
Have they even evaluated just doing worldwide releases and saving the cash? I mean really, the days before macromedia didn't kill off the movie industry, and the easily available radio shack macromedia disabler didn't kill em off either.
I would hope that they re-evaluate their perspective on this sionce no matter what they put out, some person in the world will circumvent it, and teach others how to do the same.
I mean really - Sony spent how much on their last encryption? And it was disabled by a ten cent marker?
_ _ _ Go for the eyes Boo! GO FOR THE EYES!
A lot of these prosecutions seem to hinge on a modification being marketed in a fashion that leaves its intended purpose open to interpretation.
While lawyers will of course always oil the wheels of litigatation regardless of commonsense, morality, ethics, or the laws of physics, one should at least make it a little bit harder for them wherever possible.
For example, in the case of the Xbox mod chip, if a company created and marketed a device with the single and sole purpose of allowing Linux to be booted natively on powerup, and supported this purpose with Xbox Linux distros on its website plus all the relevant FAQs, and with extra features in the bootstrap making the purpose plain (eg. kernel boot parameter storage) as well as displaying a prominent intended-use disclaimer, this would make litigating against the company significantly harder than at present.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
The article talks compares this to auto makers authorizing repair only at specific places. Such a practice will be shot down immediately. But in case of the e-world, the big cartels have hyped this up as a specific domain where rules are different. And the law makers are also beginning to see this as such. Unless we break this mindset of the e-world as something different and obscure such practices will go unnoticed. This will keep happening until the common man, the silent majority does not start using infotech in daily life. For example if such a practice came in a budget automobile, there would be an outcry, because many many people use it, but in case of DVD, a small percentage of the users will ever go to Europe to Buy DVDs. We need to go a long way.. and going by the incresing restrictions on internet.. this will take a long time. No matter how hard the detracters try, this revolution will come and nobody can do anything about it :)
My Aurora : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o91ZsGwJYyg
FB : https://www.facebook.com/TanveersPhotography
for a mod chip for my xbox.
I want to get a mod chip bought I'm still wary of buying things from online retailers. You'd think that if CompUSA sold them they'd sell one with every Xbox sold. If I had a store I'd do it. I don't see how MS could argue the premise "If I buy hardware I get to do whatever I want with it."
I wish someone in the states would do it, just so they could subpeona Bill Gates in court. "Say Bill, is it okay if I lock my xbox in the closet and never take it out? Well what if I hit it a few times with a 3 lb. sledge? Can I put wheels on it and ride it on the sidewalk? Are you saying that it should be illegal to run Linux on an Xbox? What's that? Linux should be illegal?
Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
"The sage of Lik-Sang" I wonder if he's anything like the sage in Final Fantasy One that gave you the rod to go kill Lich?
This is my sig. Its pathetic.
I agree with you about cheating being wrong on online games, but as a developer I could care less about how people cheat on single player games I make. Sure I put lots of time and effort into that game content but you know what? That's why they pay me for it, if a gamer wants to cheat and shorten his experience, hey its not my $50 he spent...
But also consider the other applications here. I've never owned or created a bootleg of a console game, but I own 2 mod chips, one for my Playstation and one for my Sega Saturn? Know why? I import games. I like playing games enough that I'm willing to sit down with my rudimentary japanese, a good Japanese-English dictionary and puzzle through them.
You should really save your self-righteous fury for an issue that matters, and unless you make video game content please step off the soap box about the moral implications of cheating. Most developers put "cheat codes" in their own games for internal testing because when they want to test a certain aspect of the game they don't want to have to go through the whole damn thing on their own. They also know that people outside the company do indeed get the codes, thats why they make them interesting, like warcraft 2... Ever play that with the "Make it So" code? hell that will give you and an opponent armies like mad in mere minutes. Makes for good fast bruiser battles and a true test of multitasking skills.
"If I were bound by all laws everywhere I'm sure I would have committed a capital crime somewhere."
The car analogy at the beginning of the story is more true than the writer knows. Car manufacturers did attempt to lock car buyers into extra-pricey dealer service, and the US Congress did react by passing the Magnusson-Moss act. Not only did this "unlock the hood", it also fixed things so that you wouldn't violate the warranty just by doing your own oil change.
It's more about playing region locked games, being
able to install linux, and having the right to do
with your hardware what you want because you PAID
for it. By all means, please perpetuate the FUD
though. Your corporate masters love it.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
Imagine if someone invented a device that you could plug into your MPAA-approved-but-we-don't-hate-them-this-week DVD player that would automatically cut out all 'objectionable' content from movies.
Hey, that's a pretty cool idea. You don't have a patent do you?Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
Imagine if someone invented a device that you could plug into your MPAA-approved-but-we-don't-hate-them-this-week DVD player that would automatically cut out all 'objectionable' content from movies. The Slashdot community would be up in arms!
While the idea you are trying to form to push the buttons of the community are a valiant effort, the example is fairly flawed. For one you mention that "could" plug the censor device into your DVD player. Obviously you think it's an option and your point if moot. Not going into the technological problems companies could have designing such a thing, the only way anyone would go to arms is when a device like that is standard and runs activated when you buy it and the feature can't be turned off. A company who made this would shoot themselves in the foot releasing something like that.
I'm not into piracy, however I think people should have the option to cheat at their games. Let's face it, not everyone is gifted at being a joystick jock. They don't have the time or patience to hone their skills (and don't even say "well they shouldn't play video games if they don't want to do it well" With that mentality everyone would be at home staring at a wall) but they still enjoying playing. Insert a cheat device (Gameshark, etc.) and away they go. It's sad that these devices can let pirate copies function as well, but that's not what the intention is behind these devices.
As for the label you put on those who use such devices (you know, the subhuman ADD-stricken creatures have minimal social skills at the best of times, and prefer robotically entering a long stream of hex codes via their joypad than gaining any enjoyment from life), maybe you should go outside and see the sun more often. And I'm not talking about that sunset background you have on your desktop.
Didn't read the article did ya? :)
It's not about a single thing you are talking
about.
The most important thing any republican needs to know.
The Japanese software/hardware thing aside, there are other uses for cheat devices. Personally, when i buy a game (my favourite genre being RPGs), i play it as a challenge, an interactive story that desires my hand in completing it. However, once i've beaten the game, and got the satisfaction of completing it myself, i may want to play it again. When i play Final Fantasy VIII for the six hundredth time, am i playing it to relive the billion annoying random battles that i had to spend hours on defeating insignificant enemies? No, i'm playing it to relive the story. Using a cheat device here to maybe boost my attack strength, or give me all the spells, or give me quick level gain, is not disrespecting the developers. I paid my money, i got the satisfaction of beating it once. Now i want to relive the story, and i don't want to be bothered by the less-than-stellar parts of the game.
Besides that. This isn't the way i would do it it, but if someone felt so inclined to purchase a $60 video game and cheat the whole way through, fine. Let them. They paid 60 fucking dollars for it. Maybe the people that are ultimately "behind" the game will object, saying that that's not what it was intended for... but to Nintendo, Sony, Square, Sega, etc., IT'S JUST ANOTHER 60 DOLLARS.
As for piracy... there's two sides to this. Mod chips != piracy. More often than not, they do, yes. But this is like the whole RIAA thing and disabling CDs on computers and all that jazz. Just because some people rip the CDs that they buy and distribute them to millions of people doesn't mean the legit people like me, who rip their music to play on their PC because they don't feel like swapping through hundreds of CDs, should have to pay for that. The same goes for pirating. Just because there's a bunch of pirates out there ripping off Sony for their games doesn't mean i shouldn't be allowed to buy an import game and play it in my modded PlayStation. The money goes back to Sony anyway, why does it matter?
You've picked up some misconceptions about mod chips, ace. Not everybody is a bad guy.
Lik-Sang has more than mod chips, GBA dev kits and such. They also sell the afterburner internal light for the the GBA and the excellent Gamepark GP32. This little handheld game has a much bigger screen than the GBA, has a 113Mhz ARM 7 CPU and uses SMC cards instead of cartridges.
Yes, a Linux port is under way. Anybody know of an existing Linux SMC driver?
Actually, it's rather easy. In one case you are being granted rights that you otherwise wouldn't have. That's the GPL. It's like saying I'll give you free reign in my house if you promise to clean up after yourself. You come in and don't clean I have the right to bitch.
The other case has companies trying to artificially remove rights that you already have under current law, that being the right to use something you've purchased however you see fit. That includes breaking out the soldier and a flash-rom you bought and having fun.
To summerise - I give you extra rights with some conditions and you break them == justified bitching. You try to take away rights I already have == justified bitching.
jello.
aka aron.
... but it doesn't. Companies have used their power over the legislative process to get the best of all worlds... for them. So now we can neither (legally) copy our own software/music NOR get the kind of backup and exchange service you mention.
So I think I can understand why the original poster was a little disgusted with licensing.
Sean
The analogy given in the article of a car manufacturer dictating where the car may be repaired is fairly good, but maybe this analogy would be even better.
The primary purpose of a DVD player or a DVD/CD-based games console is to play media. The primary purpose of a car is to transport passengers.
Consider then the uproar that would be caused if a US car manufacturer only allowed US nationals to be transported in its cars, only Japanese nationals in Japanese-manufactured cars, and so on. That is the direct counterpart to DVD and game regionalization. It's wrong, regardless of the economic reasoning behind it.
"The question of whether machines can think is no more interesting than [] whether submarines can swim" - Dijkstra
But with that said, making backups is important. Especially with kids. Although I preach til I'm blue in the face to my kids on keeping care of their CD's, they never fail to get scratched a little. I've been lucky so far that they haven't completely ruined a CD yet, but I imagine it will happen sometime.
The sage of Lik-Sang has continued with Dan Gillmor's recent visit to the region.
This has gone too far!! I have never before heard of the sage of Lik-Sang, but I am sure he is a member of a venerable monastic order. Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo should stick to the world of electronics and leave the sage alone.
Ooh, unless this is about the herb. Then I don't care what they do.
*Sigh* I'm gonna have to read the article, aren't I....
Wow... Should I even bother to mention that Lik-Sang is neither a hardware manufacturer, nor do they sell only "piracy/cheat" devices, as you call them? They sell many things; you should actually visit their site sometime. Also, you are insanely stupid and everything you said was clearly wrong.
"That is the stupidest argument anyone has ever tried to use to justify piracy. Regardless of whether it is true or not, doesn't legitimize anything."
He wasn't justifying it, he was saying that its's the *AA's own fault. People are always looking for opportunities, and the *AA created a market for it to be profitable to pirate. If they'd treat their customers fairly, 'piracy' wouldn't be an issue.
Listen, only two consoles have EVER been sold at a loss, the xbox and the dreamcast.
The cost of building a console, especially when it is new, is much more than the mere cost of parts and labor involved in its manufacture. Under one way of looking at it, the first unit that rolls off the assembly line is always sold at a loss because of the cost of research and development and the cost of promotion on major television networks. Even if you spread R&D and the initial ad campaign across the first three months of console sales, you may still total a loss.
Will I retire or break 10K?
is that I can't find game demos anywhere for the [Nintendo GameCube] system.
There's always blockbuster. Or do you live in a country where the copyright law lets the publisher ban rental on console games, like the USA does for PC games?
Will I retire or break 10K?
As mentioned previously... aren't you going to be slightly pissed when your 6-8yr old kid scratches his one month old DVD slightly, but just in the right spot so that it doesn't play anymore? I keep all my PC games on backup. When I go somewhere with them (e.g. LAN parties, etc), I am ensured that
a) My originals don't walk
b) The don't get scratched/damaged/screwed
It's bad enough to have to worry about the kids not breaking the $300 console, without worrying about a little scratch rendering a $60+ game worthless too. You can back up the games, stick them in a closet, and let the kiddies play on the copies. Trust me, it's a very legitimate use, and one that parents tend to greatly appreciate without being labelled immediately as pirates.
Gamepark GP32
It's not available at USA brick-and-mortar stores (Wal-Mart, Meijer, Toys "Ya" Us, Best Buy, Circuit City), and it's not advertised on USA national TV. Thus it won't have any brand recognition in the average American gamer's mind, not near what the name "Game Boy" evokes. Because it doesn't have the brand recognition, none of my neighbors will own one. And if none of my neighbors own one, I won't be able to play multiplayer games.
And how good are its official titles?
This little handheld game has a much bigger screen than the GBA
But its video is a dumb frame buffer, which means you have to do 2D in software, unlike on the GBA where you get hardware acceleration for 2D and simplistic 3D graphics.
And how long do eight AA cells power the GP32? Eight AA cells will power the GBA for 40 to 60 hours (4 x (2 x AA) = 4 x 10 to 15 hours), or even longer for "battery-friendly" GBA software such as Tetanus On Drugs that loads itself mostly into the system's 288 KB of work RAM instead of taking the power-drain hit of constantly accessing the cartridge.
Will I retire or break 10K?
Lik-Sang is neither a hardware manufacturer
Actually, Lik Sang does manufacture a few devices such as the excellent MBV2 cable, which connects a Game Boy Advance system to a PC in much the same way that Nintendo's cable connects a GBA to a GameCube console. The MBV2 cable lets you run homebrew software on the GBA by copying a binary from the PC into the GBA's 288 KB of internal RAM. But because proprietary commercial games are 2 MB to 8 MB in size, the MBV2 won't let you play those on a GBA. Thus, Nintendo turned a blind eye turned to the MBV2 cable and let Lik Sang continue to sell it.
Plug: Tetanus On Drugs, a homebrew falling tetramino game for GBA. Works with MBV2 cable.
Will I retire or break 10K?
In this case company M sells product X, N sells GC, and S sells P2. Another company L-S comes up with enhancements (MC) to these products which allow competitors to use the products for their own purposes. Note that this is entirely reasonable; for example, consider someone from Stanley buying a screwdriver from Black & Decker and using it to open their mail. No harm there, but they're using the tool for something other than its intended purpose. This is the way Property Rights work: once you buy something, it's yours to do with as you wish.
According to standard theory, company L-S would compete with all the other company 'L-S's for control over the MC market, until the supply and demand curves meet. That is, assuming there are enough company 'L-S's and enough demand, enough supply will be generated so that the marginal cost per unit for the MC market will equal the marginal price, and a free-market condition is reached.
Unfortunately, this is not what's being allowed to happen. Companies M, N, and S are conspiring to use technological means to thwart competition. They see other people (like 'console hackers') who threaten to subvert their product into a tool of their competitors. Company M's suit, in particular, threatens to keep a rival group's product in another market, the 'OS' market, off their hardware. (Didn't we just go through a court case designed to stop this sort of behaviour?) They are attempting to use technology to control the market, instead of allowing the market to make its own decisions about the technology.
I hereby proclaim and declare companies M, N, and S to be willfully anti-free-market and anti-competitive, and they should be penalized into oblivion for what they're doing.
This post expresses my opinion, not that of my employer. And yes, IAAL.
Every console has a Magazine for it with these cute little things called Demo Discs. They come with demos of new and soon to be released games. Sure, subscriptions to the magazines cost about $29.00 (US) a year, but so what? You get to play demoes and find out if you like a game or not without shelling out $49.00 (US) for the game itself. My subscription to XBox Magazine has saved me a lot of money in games I didn't end up buying, and has turned me on to games I hadn't known about.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
If you don't like the restriction of the liscence, don't buy the damned things! We're not talking about PCs, we're talking about consoles. Systems intentionally built with a limited amount of flexability. You don't like the fact that MS doesn't allow you to boot Linux on your XBox, then you shouldn't have bought the XBox. You should have saved your money and gotten a computer.
Boobies never hurt anyone. - Sherry Glaser.
I scratched my CD to GTA III. If I download a replacement copy, I'm a pirate. I wish the licensing system worked better.
I find it laughable whenever someone indicates that they trust corporations to look out for our best interests.
One only has to realize that the one and only goal of a corporation is to make money for it's investors. For right or wrong corporations are motivated by greed. How many CEOs would risk losing their job by doing something that, although was in the best interest of the public, lost money for the stockholders? (Well unless they could heavily pad their own bank accounts in doing so.)
The problem is exacerbated by the fact that corporations are treated like something that they are not. Individuals. No corporation should be allowed to have the same rights as an individual and no corporation should be allowed to donate money to a political campaign. ALL campaign contributions should have to be made by real people individually using their own money.
If you have ever talked to a politician, off the record just person to person, you probably realized that they are really not all that well informed about the issues. Most have only one thing that they really want and that is to be re-elected and gather more power to themselves.
Given the three points above: 1. Corporations only want to make money, 2. Corporations are allowed to donate HUGE amounts of money to political campaigns and 3. Politicians really only want to keep their jobs, it's not hard to figure out that, in order to fulfill their goal to make money, the corporations will donate enough money to self-serving politicians to ensure that their interests are first on any political agenda.
The real answer here is to remove corporate influence from politics. However being that our lawmakers benefit from not letting that happen it will be an uphill battle.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!
I think to be competitive we would need to manufacturer custom chipsets. With out mega bucks that's not going to happen.
Some effort should be put into making games that run natively in Linux. My real concern in this area, however, is that Microsoft bought some of the rights to OpenGL. It may be an ace in the hole to kill future efforts.
The race isn't always to the swift... but that's the way to bet!