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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."
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.
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.
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.
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.
I know two types of people who own an xbox.
People who have modded it and love it: they can play emulated games, upgrade the hd, play mp3s, divx movies xbox movies, ftp content from their pc to the xbox.
People who haven't modded it and hate it: there are too few games for it.
Create a better box, more people will buy. How popular was the Apple with its tightly controlled applications and limited hardware? How popular was the PC with its loose hardware, nonexistant software controls?