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Modchip Designer Taunts Microsoft
Thanks to Polygon for posting a follow-up to the article we ran about Australian Xbox modchip designers releasing their schematics to the public. They have a story quoting AussieChip creator Grant Sparks as subsequently saying "It would be a little disappointing if [Microsoft] couldn't sue me. You see, I'm quite happy for them to take us to court, I just want to see it happen under conditions where we win. In order for them to argue they have not agreed to the download conditions, they would have to acknowledge that click-through legal agreements are not valid - which is something that I think would be very funny to see Microsoft doing. There are many other reasons why people want to use a modchip, and only one of them is directly illegal. I'd be happy to stand up and explain that in court."
<RANT>
Firstly I was going to moderate this topic, but being as there was only 2 comments (and they were about being the first post) were there. Common guys, is getting the first post all that great? I mean we an easily display in newest first order. Then your FP!!! will be LP!!!! :-P
</RANT>
Now to my point. I think this is the right kind of attitude towards mod chips. Keep at it until modders get their way. As pointed out above mod chips have plenty of other uses than the illegal ones, we've all heard the arguments before.
What I am most interested is how MS will handle (cause you know they won't sit and take this) the catch-22 that has been set up here. I'm sure they will try and down play it, but its sure to come up. I predict that MS will try to "steamroll" this poor guy into legal oblivion :-(
Ah well information wants to be free so even if this falls apart there will be more mod chips to be had in the future.
100% Crunchier
For a new contender to come into the console market. One that plays burnt disks out of the box, has an MP3 player, plays DVD's and burnt games.
Would they just lose all their money to piracy? I doubt it very much. It would be rampant, but the popularity of the machine would far out-weigh this.
Imagine if Microsoft allowed you to do all the things people are modding it for by default. I would buy one today.
I think the best part is that MS cant get the design without agreeing to the license! Or they can spend a few million dollars to convince a judge that click through licenses arent binding and we are all happy!
This guy is about to get an education in law the painful and expensive way.
How many examples does it take to pound through some peoples' heads that it doesn't matter if what you're doing is actually logically technically illegal. Corporate lawyers and PR people can convince non-technical judges and jurries that just about anything they don't really understand is illegal.
They have unlimited budgets, pannels of payed experts, focus groups and statistical research firms.
You have jack shit.
This vulnerability was posted a couple hours ago on VulnWatch. Here's the summary:
Advisory: XBOX Dashboard local vulnerability
Release Date: 2003/07/04
Last Modified: 2003/07/04
Author: Stefan Esser [se@nopiracy.de]
Application: Microsoft XBOX Dashboard (up to today)
Severity: A vulnerability within the XBOX Dashboard allows to totally compromise the security features of the XBOX.
Risk: Critical
Vendor Status: Vendor is not willing to talk about XBOX vulnerabilities.
He reminds me of the warez sites that have a "disclaimer" to the effect that feds, police, fbi, etc are prohibited from browsing or downloading. I wonder if they really believe that works.
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
I am a commercial game developer, money I make is through sales of games. I think Linux is dandy, yet I find myself using MS products for obvious reasons. Consoles can't be open for anyone to develop on, for the companies such as MS could not afford to produce them, they would not make any money from licencing. Sadly the issue here is quite different. This is about people pirating games. I am all for Mod-Chips that don't allow people to pirate games, such as the Cromwell Linux bios. This guy is selling ModChips that are being used for illegal purposes, thats the beef I and the rest of the game industry have with it. He is making a few bucks and the industry is losing thousands, not a wonderful trade off. Enough said.
"You can't kill me, you can't kill me, you can't k..."
Never, ever lose a file again. Ever.
I'd identify a lot more with the guy quoted if he was making an effort to design his modchip so that it CAN'T play pirated games while still retaining the ability to boot Linux and play import games, something I'm sure is possible. As it is, the only reason he's thumping his chest and thumbing his nose at Microsoft is because he has the [probably reasonable] belief that Microsoft can't touch him while he's protected by Australian law. That earns him no more respect from me than would a punk calling me names on the street while hiding behind his buddy, Mike Tyson.
mod chip provided such an advantage to the consumer
WHAT advantages?
The ability to copy games?
The ability to cheat online and ruin the game for everyone else?
The ability to run an OS on a system that was never designed for it?
Face it - the first two are immoral, the last two are stupid. A $200 computer is going to run Linux way better than an Xbox ever will. The most popular use of mod chips is to RUN ILLEGAL COPIES OF GAMES.
As a gamer, I sympathise with those wanting to make backup copies of their games - but I don't think the argument holds weight. I've never managed to destroy a game CD. I think my original Quake CD is a bit scratched up, but it still works.
As a developer (no, I'm not the same guy who started this thread) - I don't like my games being copied. When you've searched online for what people are saying about your latest game and found it available through Warez the day it hit the shelves, you'll understand. That is not an experience you easily forget, trust me - I know.
I also don't see why this would drive sales of machines. Joe Average Gamer doesn't really care too much about it - he's certainly not going to open his Xbox up. It's not worth pleasing the 10% that might - if they're only going to turn around and swap illegally copied games.
Piracy has already killed the PC gaming market in the UK. Subscription based games are the only ones immune to copied CDs (as people have to go out of their way to commit credit card fraud to get around that) - and I can only see them geting more prevalent as piracy continues.
Only a fool would be for some telling you what you can and cannot do with something you own. Once a product is purchased it is 'yours'. How would you like it if I sold you some food but placed limits on its digestion or preparation? Would you be for me selling your grandfather a pacemaker and then deciding that it shouldn't be used by people over a certain age and remotely turning it off? How about me selling you a bottle of water and then suing you after its used to put out a small fire you created. If I was in court telling you it is not to be used to put out fires, that you should use another brand for that... You would call me crazy. GOD didn't create this planet so you could later copyright its fruits. Corporate Lawyers will be suing him next for defective gene sequencing. If you don't like the way something might be used then don't create anything or don't sell it to people its just that simple. As humans we change anything we come in contact with, Deal with it. Modding a (insert game system here) is not going to kill anybody. It is your entertainment system and you should be able to enjoy it however you see fit.
The way I see it is I spent part of the limited time I have on this earth earning the money to buy your POS system or games, learning how to program, disassemble, repair, or have to go back to return said system. Can you give me my time or energy back? I didn't think so. People always say time is money. What makes my time worth any less in this scenario?
Keep playing games with copyrights people and you will eventually be trapped in the web you weave. Are you ready to kill for your patent on mashing a button on a controller, buying something from a store or downloading/copying a CD? Oh! Sorry! A corporate ideal is always worth more than one persons life.
Reading stupid crap stories like this makes me tired.
this sig is classified..how about yours?
What I want is not schematics for the mod chip insertion, not the 'X Box Secrets' that the mod chips manipulate.
What I want is for crackers to start reverse engineering and releasing the code in the mod chips. I see no reason why we should buy mod chips from mod chip vendors. I have a PIC chip programmer and I could rig up an EEPROM programmer from existing known circuits. Let's liberate this knowledge from the mod chip vendors. It wants to be free!
End of line..
The good old US of A, since they are thinking differently the almost half the country, they are obviously terrorists. There would be no need for court, just arrest them out of their homeland (our laws apply to everyone world wide), and put them in a jail in cuba.
How dare those terrorists mod an xbox!
Xbox Modchip google search yields 81,700 matches You must have much bigger hands than I do.
u know dude when i heard about the xbox coming out with an hdd, i f***ing knew there would be trouble with it, like for instance them wanting to sue people over "small" exploits in their so called flawless design of a console. and personally i like windows xp pro, ive not had too many problems wit it. but i have redhat 9 on my server. and ive never had anything crash, maybe just my like but man my luck isnt that good. i support you guys, go all the way man. stick that ni MS's pipe and have em smoke it. Anonymous =P
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http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/
ZDnet Australia
http://www.zdnet.com.au/newstech/secur
Penny-Arcade
http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.
Sorry guys and gals but I don't know how to make a link.
Never Underestimate A Human Being