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Federal Agents Raid Homes for Modchips
Lunatrik writes "Invoking the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998, Federal Custom's Agents have raided over 30 homes and businesses looking to confiscate so-called 'mod chips', or other devices that allow the playback of pirated video games. This raises an important question: Are legitimate backup copies of a piece of software you own illegal under the DMCA?"
Why is it an important question? Legitimate backup copies have nothing to do with pirated software.
The DMCA doesn't prohibit having a backup, just creating, obtaining or distributing the tools to make or to use one. That's the risible position that the DMCA puts us in.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
It is interesting that they say pirated games cost the industry $3 billion a year. Since most systems, I mean Microsoft, is pretty good about blocking online play (or online connection) of modded systems and copied games, they can not claim that as a loss. *If* I download a game today, I am fairly confident that A) my system will be banned B) the game will not work online.
So really, Microsoft is doing pretty good about creating a system that is always online. If a few years from now your console HAS to be online, the copied games industry will shrink even more. Sure, people will be able to change the packets, blah blah blah, but where we stand today compared to 4 years ago the software companies are far better off.
I am going to have to say no... The reason is.... Media degrades over time, and get scratched to hell and such. I own over 500 DVDs, however some of them are "unwatchable" either from storing them in those cheesey folder cases or just letting them sit around on my desk... Some of them are backed up some I bought anew... But I think making personal backups of software SHOULD be legal.... the companies that make this stuff could make money off this by selling an option to make backups for say... a dollar per backup and has to be registered to yourself with a separate backup serial key... DMCA goes too far sometimes....
-- Josh
"Whoopie! Man, that may have been a small one for Neil, but that's a long one for me!" - Pete Conrad
I guess it's back to stealing games the old fashioned way - under a shirt.
Seriously. Persecution of the hackers only makes them stronger.
Is not life a hundred times too short for us to bore ourselves? -Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzsche
If you could make a perfect 1-to-1 copy of a DVD, and have it run, that would still be legal. But since that doesn't work, because commercially available DVD are neutered, you have to crack the encryption - which is what is illegal.
Have you been touched by his noodly appendage?
The fed doesn't seem to want to raid businesses for hiring illegal aliens, but they spend their time raiding businesses and homes for having mod chips. I thought this line was especially funny. [quote]"Illicit devices like the ones targeted today are created with one purpose in mind, subverting copyright protections," Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for ICE, said in a release. "These crimes cost legitimate businesses billions of dollars annually and facilitate multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering."[/quote] There may be a tenuous connection to smuggling (i.e. bootleg video games disks), but how in the hell do modchips facilitate money laundering. This is just laughable, if it wasn't so pathetic.
---- "XML is like violence. If it doesn't fix the problem, you aren't using enough."
Prohibition in the Roaring Twenties. "Bootleg" discs, Elliot Ness - like tactics. It will never work, it will just alienate an entire nation again.
Do not mock my vision of impractical footwear
This is great! that means they have won the war on terrorism!
If they are using federal agents to raid homes for modchips, then that means they have captured all the terrorists out there and the world is once again safe.
the Feds would never do somethign frivilous such as waste american resources on such a silly task when the entire country could be blow up at any moment!
YAY! no more terrorism! I'm scheduling my afganastan 3 week luxury tour right now!
But oh wait... comparing them to the Commissariat of Homeland Security (KGB), Bureau of Security (UB) or Securitate, I should be thankful they're not participating in mass murders... yet.
The creatures outside looked from Alt-Right to Antifa; but already it was impossible to say which was which.
Since the original Katamari Damacy isn't available at all in the UK, I had to import it from Japan and use a PS2 modchip to play it. The follow-up game was released in Europe months after appearing in US/Japan, so I also imported that one.
The fact that I could do this at all shows that there is no technical reason for the region coding in this game - it's purely an illegal tactic to control market prices.
Rich.
libguestfs - tools for accessing and modifying virtual machine disk images
The mod chips themselves are a pretty violation under the DMCA:
This raises an important question: Are legitimate backup copies of a piece of software you own illegal under the DMCA?
I believe the more important question is: what's happening to our liberties?...
If we're not losing them in the name of fighting terrorism, then it's in the name of copyright laws. Between Hollywood and the middle east, liberty is bleeding.
"All great things are simple & expressed in a single word: freedom, justice, honor, duty, mercy, hope." --Churchill
how in the hell do modchips facilitate money laundering.
Perhaps because people with mod chips are so engrossed in playing their pirate games that they don't empty their pockets thoroughly before dumping their clothes in the wash.
When our name is on the back of your car, we're behind you all the way!
This raises an important question
Don't you mean, begs the question?
Firstly, in the case of PC games (or indeed any system where games are installed to a hard drive), it should not be obligatory to have the CD or DVD in the drive to play them once installed as this creates totally unnecessary wear on the CD/DVD drive and the disc itself scratches a little more every time it's inserted or removed. Whilst I don't like the "spyware" concept of Valve's Steam, I do accept that being able to load my games on any PC I like without the disk is a good thing - though all praise to Stardock for just letting you get on and play Galactic Civilizations II without the disk once you've registered your product code with them. If every games company trusted me like Stardock does, I'd feel less inclined to rip them off at every opportunity (and, no, I don't work for Stardock).
Secondly, if your original CD/DVD goes faulty, the games company charges you for a replacement. This strikes me as wrong - if they won't let you back it up, then they should provide replacements (within a reasonable amount of time) for just the cost of postage.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
Since those same Federal Agents are financed from the taxes of US citizens, then the games companies who will be benefitting from additional sales due to the crack down on mod chips & piracy should therefore be taxed at a heavier rate in order to recover those taxes.
Gentoo Linux - another day, another USE flag.
What use is your right to a backup copy if you cannot use the copy, ever? You have to break one law to make use of your rights guaranteed in another law, and that is ridiculous.
Mod Chips have sufficient legal uses like using backups of originals you purchased but which are not replaceable anymore, demos, games or demos of games you have programmed and which, you hope, might be a foundation for your future job in the video game business, and installing Linux of course.
Someone used the FBI mod (and your tax money) to molest people with incompetence. In a free country a decent lawyer should be able to fix this.
Yeah I've heard the stories about the US legal system. Thats why I like it so much in my inferior country.
init 11 - for when you need that edge.
Troll much?
The DMCA goes hand in hand with Fair Use principles which have time and again been upheld by the US Supreme Court. It criminalizes tools necessary to implement freedoms upheld by previous USSC decisions. The law goes so far as to not only make telling anyone that a Sharpie can beat Sony's copy protection, but make the magic marker its self illegal. It makes the ability to gain a backup copy illegal, and thus in the great 4th grade tradition: 'You have no clue!'
In Soviet Russia Julie L. Myers dossier handed to you.
Great to see they needed 'help' from the "software association and other industry members."
Ask about movies and games outside Region 1/A in the USA and its "show your papers".
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
I guess while they're out saving the world from mod chips in game consoles maybe they could grab a few of the illegal assault weapons, drugs, pedophiles, and carjackers next door?
It's only a matter of time before Homeland Security gets in on the act, too, raiding the homes of 11-year-old importers looking for WMDs.
WMDs... Weapons of Mass Duplication
But that's the point. The media industry HATES fair use, always has. They tried to make it illegal in the late 70's and got their asses handed to them in the courts. So they found a way to eliminate fair use by making an end run around it. They found a way to make it illegal to create the backup that you can legally own.
This space available.
AFAIK, "Fair Use" isn't a right, but a "legally defensible position" in that the court will accept "fair use"-class usage as a sufficient excuse. As such, you actually do not have a right to have a backup copy. Furthermore, fair use requires such a backup to be made by and for the owner of the original media. Since DMCA blocks you any way to do so yourself, this basically implies any and all backups of copy-protected media is illegally obtained either because you didn't make it yourself (not "fair use") or used illegal means to make it (DMCA). The heart of the problem is that "fair use" usage isn't a legal right, otherwise publishers would've been obligated to provide means for the people to excersize that right.
Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
You're the one with no clue.
Let me know how you can play your backup copies without a mod-chip or "magic disk".
The right to copy anything that's no encrypted is moot if everything is encrypted. If it WAS possible to create a 1:1 copy of a game, copy protection and all, it would be quite ok and in sync with fair use. What makes the DMCA break the right of fair use is the fact that exactly that is impossible for most content.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
What about imports? Now I'm told that at least the PS3 is no longer region-locked, but the PS2 was and so were a heck of a lot of PS1 units. (Although more loosely into PAL and NTSC regions.)
I'm in Europe which is mostly PAL, and which also didn't get half of the PS1 games available in the USA in NTSC.
So here's the deal: half the game I owned were US imports. None burned/"backed-up", all original CDs, with manual and box and everything. Sony got my money for every single one of them. Money which they otherwise wouldn't have gotten at all, since they never released those games down here. Yeah, that's the kind of an evil pirate I am: I went and gave Sony some money against their will.
Sony also always acted as if imports are piracy. Again, we're not talking about burned CDs, we're talking units sold. Apparently the fact that I bought some games from them, which they otherwise wouldn't have sold me, counted as piracy to them. Apparently it's soooo much of a similarity between an inconvenience like "yeah, but it screws up our marketting data of how much units were sold in each territory" (which is all that game imports ever did) and pirating that game.
Where I'm getting at is: it's not as simple as "modchips == piracy." There are perfectly non-piracy uses of modchips. One is mentioned in the summary (you'll ideally want your little kid to play with a copy, not to scratch the $60 disc) and another one I just gave you now.
Plus, there's the whole moral issue of criminalizing people for owning a tool, as opposed to actually committing the infraction. If you still don't see the problem, think this: if you're a guy, chances are you have all the equipment you'd ever need to be a rapist. It doesn't mean you're automatically one. How about looking for people who actually committed a crime, instead of those who would technically have the means.
And it seems to me that that's the whole problem here: the summary mentions raiding for mod-chips, not for burned DVDs.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
the department of homeland security is not the same thing as the homesec division of ICE. can't believe you got modded up for this.
You are correct. You may own as many backups as you would like as part of 'Fair Use' which the DMCA explicitly states it is not meant to interfier with, and the MPAA & RIAA lawyers argued in front of congress as being acceptable fair use. However, the DMCA does make creating, selling, distributing, and importing the tools to make backups illegal. Additionally, mod chips, which would allow you to use your legal backup - made with illegal tools - are also illegal. So, you are perfectly within your rights to own a backup, so long as you don't posses the tools to make it or the tools to actually use it.
So, while the DMCA explicitly states that your fair use rights are not to be hindered by the DMCA, it simultaniously blocks your ability to impliment those rights by outlawing the tools required to do so.
> Are legitimate backup copies of a piece of software you own illegal under the DMCA?"
The question doesn't make any sense. If they're legitimate, then they're legal by their very nature. If they're illegal, then they're not legitimate. It's like asking `what happens if an irresistible force meets an unmovable object`.
Sorry, but they do raid businesses for illegal aliens
That's just one story. I'm trying to find the stories about the mass raids here in Georgia that went after illegal farm workers. Boy, were the farmers pissed!
Some are going home anyway with the slowdown in the construction market anyway, do I guess the ICE guys are getting bored and justifying their jobs?
I prefer Flambe as apposed flamebait.
you need to be playing the backup copy all the time and use the original as the source of any future backup copies. Else why is a backup copy made? You don't use it until the original is gone and when that happens, you say you don't have a right to use it.
An this has got to be bogus for another reason: if the are selling a LICENSE and not the product (else how can they put restrictions on your property) as they keep saying, then the license wasn't stolen, just the physical object. You still have that license.
OK, so the FBI has just gone and raided a whole bunch of places looking for mod-chips. Presumably they would be looking for installed chips in consoles they raid at homes. How are they detecting these mod chips? Are they running a program to detect modified hardware (I would have thought MS, Sony, et al. would be doing that already). If not that, then they must be physically opening the cases to find the chips... Which brings me to my ultimate point: what happens if their information proves to be faulty, and the console is found chipless. Is the owner compensated for bother? Wear and tear? Damage? Loss of warranty after the console has just been opened? One would hope that the apology would extend to some sort of written proof that the console was opened for legal purposes, so that if that 360 red-rings, they can send it back without MS complaining.
The practicality of the issue, is _nothing_ to do with the law.
All of these companies that want to prevent backups should be required BY LAW to provide multiple backup copies of any content to the consumer with no questions asked and free of charge. Then there would be no need for the consumer to make backups. If I buy a DVD and I want a backup an hour later; dial a 1-800 number and the company should have one in the mail right away.
It is put up or shut up time for the content industry.
the asses who enacted this DMCA crap? Hang your head in shame, voters. A pox on both your houses. This was once a free country, so I hear.
Now that the FBI is handling this, everyone that knows their neighbor has a CD burner, mod chip, or unlocked DVD player should call and report them. After all, these things can ONLY be used to facilitate piracy.
Maybe after a few hundred thousand calls they'd lay off. Shouldn't the FBI be doing more important things anyway? Like say, busting drug rings, killin' gangsters, thwarting terrorists, and making sure that all those school teachers don't have any child molestation charges?
I don't see how busting people for having mod chips is going to help society beyond MAYBE a few video game purchases. Most of them probably got the mod chips in the first place to back up what they have or to avoid paying $59.99 for a piece of shit game full of bugs..I sure as hell wouldn't buy any more games for that generation if I couldn't make backups like I had done with all of my old ones, and I wouldn't start buying the games knowing that half of them will turn out to suck despite the hype/previews anyway.
Busting a drug ring can save many lives, buttloads of money, and make society safer. Standing on top of a pile of cash/drugs/criminals and having your picture taken is a lot more glorious than busting some 19 year old in college because he pirated Madden '08.
Job? I don't have time to get a job! Who will sit around and bitch about being broke and unemployed then?
I think the bigger question that needs to be answered definitively is "What can I or can I not legally do with hardware I purchased?"
Installing a modchip should be a violation of warranty, not a violation of law. Where is the line drawn? May I install a sticker on the case of my DS? Is that the limit of modifications I'm allowed to do? May I take it apart and look at the circuit boards? May I install an LED that blinks when certain memory registers are hit (thus potentially changing a game to include something extra?) May I have a modchip that allows homebrew but NOT piracy (they do exist)?
Going broader, can I install a non GM approved radio in my car, even if it allows me to play mp3s I obtained from questionable sources?
Where is the limit to what I can do with my own hardware?
Yet another article on how the public is the enemy of corporations with money. The public is always stepping all over their "Rights." Of course we should buy three copies of every game the produce. We are not guaranteed fair use rights, so we should just fork over the cash now.
Modchips are partially a side effect of game publishers greed. People don't want to pay for something twice. Copy technology progresses, and people are going to use it. Do we pay twice to have a spare copy of our taxes? How about that lecture that we recorded so we can listen to it again? So why does the some industries feel that they are any exception.
I would be willing to bet that mod chips affect the game resale market is more heavily than the game publishers. If someone is not willing to pay full price for a game, they are more likely to buy it used, borrow it from a friend or steal it. Maybe the gaming industry is just getting out of hand like the movie/recording/TV industries all have become. Charging $500 for a game system to play games at $60 a piece gets pretty expensive. I guess it's no different than buying the box set of Friends when you can just watch in on TV anyway.
First off, I sure hope they got legal warrants to do that because if they start doing that to an average citizen in the US, it's a breach of constitutional protections afforded to all Americans.
I can see this if they are going after "producers"; ie people who are marketing the chips, and such especially if it's intent it to circumvent copyright protections.
But that is a big issue. Some of these manufacturers want these software mediums protected such that if it becomes non usable then you have to send it in and get it replaced. This too is an ok platform until the manufacturer begins to determine how long they will do that, and at what cost. Then what happens to a product after it's lifespan has ceased? No more replacements or updates???
"Sir; your product was discontinued last year and we have not yet seen your software disk returned to us. Send your disks back in to us now or face the penalty of the DCMA!"
Just a thought.
All content in this message is copyright (c) 2008. All rights reserved. RIAA is prohibited here.
...contradictory legislation is passed. You have a right to make personal back ups under "fair use laws" but if someone encrypts or protects the product you can't break the protection without "breaking" the law.
;who more often than not go by the letter, not the spirit of the law.
Politicians who pass laws don't care about the realities of what they do because their job is done (wash hands, all absolved, problem taken care of). It is then left to judges to sort through the mess
Every time I see a debate about backups, I end up seeing one of the pro-backup people saying that the reason he needs to be able to play backups is that he can't afford full price for games, so he trades them with friends, or something like that.
I think actual backups ought to be legal, but it seems to me that the well's been poisoned.
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You'll actually SEE in black and white something like "you can make one backup copy" in almost ALL software agreements. There is a section in the US's copyright law that SPECIFICALLY allows a single archive copy to be kept. So you DO have in the US a legal right to make one backup copy. You can use that backup copy by copying parts of it (which you have no right to do) but claim that is allowed under "fair use". That this use of your backup copy (or, indeed, the original) is not a "right" but a "defense" doesn't mean that you have no right to make a backup.
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I think the lack of information here is letting our imaginations run wild. I seriously doubt that we're talking RIAA-Nazi style "let's pick a few kazaa users at random and drag them to court" raid, my impression is that they're arresting internet & ebay resellers and professional installers of modchips, and the people that sell the modded XBox hard drives with hundreds of games downloaded to them. We're likely talking people that deal in several thousands of chips per year, not a peon kid who thought buying a random modchip to import / download / Linux-ize his system would be cool (so relax).
And the question posed of owning a legitimate backup is a classic catch-22... if you own a legit backup, its legit. But if you made it and have to use it by breaking copy protections, that is a violation of the DMCA. How you can make a legit backup without cracking copy protection is the catch-22...
What really kills me about this is the fact that my tax dollars funded these raids. So I'm paying for FBI agents to kick in people's doors and, OMG! stop them from breaking copyright law! I think I'd rather the President repurpose the FBI copyright squad to fighting terror, thank you very much. I think the RIAA and company should have to pay for their own enforcement efforts.
Modchips can be used for more than just playing copied games. I have a modchip on my XBox for the sole purpose of being able to run XBox Media Center. I bought a piece of hardware -- shouldn't I be able to modify it as I see fit?
The article poster said "raises the question!" You got it right!!!!
Thank you for not mis-using the phrase "begs the question."
Mod Chips are illegal?
If I want to crack open my PSWii360, voiding the warranty and muck with the innards, since when can they stop me? This is news to me. Does this apply to old radios I used to open up and tinker with? Just silly.
I wonder if that's only in USA...
You two would be cute together.
Typical of Microsoft praising thier ability to develop crap machines that scratch our discs, and void our warranty if we repair this defect. Oh and not only that they can raid the house of the person who sells a piece that fixes this defect. I've always made copies of every music CD I bought along with every Game I bought. More often than not I've taken it a step farther and gotten the no CD crack. It's extremly annoying having to stuff your noisy CD drive when you play a game. I bought a mod chip for my xbox so I could copy my games and play them on the road off the hard drive rather than swapping CD's. I pay for it, I should be able to use it in the matter thats consistent with my comforts.
This raises an important question: Are legitimate backup copies of a piece of software you own illegal under the DMCA?
False question. You don't own the software. You have purchased a license to use, nothing more.
I'm much against IP and such, but it is not helpful, at all, to rely upon this very weak, false, argument. You do not own the software!
If you can't figure out the distinction, let me give you an analogy. Pretend you are a stripper. Someone pays you $40 to give them a lap dance. Do they own you while you are giving them the lap dance? Or are they simply borrowing your time?
Now, replace "borrowing your time" with "license to use in a particular manner" and you have your answer. If you owned the software, you could change the license. Who owns World of Warcraft? Not you...Blizzard does. You merely have a license to use, in a particular way. I can't fathom why that is such a difficult concept for so many people.
"...sale and distribution of illegal modification chips"
Note the words SALE and DISTRIBUTION.
People producing / selling chips, not users.
There are legitimate uses for mod chips beyond making legal backups. The console makers want us all to beleve that these uses are also illegal, but they aren't.
1) Playing import games. Playing imports has been popular for quite a while. The console makers hate it because it ruins their ability to control prices (even though the import scene has no effect on pricing) but it is perfectly legal.
2) Homebrew games. Many platforms have a decent homebrew game scene (going back to the begining of consoles.) It requires a mod chip to play these games on newer platforms.
3) General experimentation. People like throwing Linux on anything with a CPU. Consoles have some unique features that could be exploited for certain non-gaming applications.
Pretend you are a stripper. Someone pays you $40 to give them a lap dance.
Best. Analogy. Ever.
As long as there will be "security", anti-copy, DRM and whatever, preventing me from using my right to copy my own stuff, i will develop, copy
and distribute software allowing me to use my "legal" freedom and right to copy whatever it is i bought. This attitude, i beleive, i the one any citizen of any country should adopt: defend your rights at all costs to protect what was built (the laws or the entire country) by those who previously died for it (the ancestors).
Preventing someone from using his right to live (aka killing this person) is illegal. Preventing this same person from using their right to copy the stuff they own is illegal too, however remains unpunished. We have the right to copy, the RIAA and co. do not have the right to prevent us from doing so. They are not justice, they are not the law. Just an organization. And now it is time for them to pay for their threats and their crimes.
Above post should be labeled -5 for moronic.
There is no concept of offering a hardware object for SALE under terms. Once you have bought this object, you OWN it. That means you can do what you like with it.
Software can be licensed, hardware can be RENTED, in all these instances usage terms can be enforced. But for a SALE, you can only make terms BEFORE the sale. For instance, I can refuse to sell something to a person in certain states. But once that person buys my product, I cannot take it from him if he moves to one of those states.
If you cannot tell the difference between BUY and HIRE, I suggest you do not make incompetent posts on the subject.
Per Milton Friedman, companies have no morals (and I would extend that to the people that run them). However back to the point. If GE or GM or whomever can get the Government to make a law that you can only use their filter or bolt or whichever part then you are in a bad position. These companies then can say it is not their "fault" but the Government said it is so, a very circular argument.
Along this line, I believe that the auto manufateurers one time attempted to get a law passed to make it illegal for person to work on their particular brand(s) unless trained by them. The reasoning they tried to push was that environmental and safety considerations could not be met. The rest of the story would be that you could only get trained if you worked for them or their authorized dealers and you would have to sign an agreement not use this information elsewhere.
I bought my Xbox in 2001 I believe. To be honest it was an amazing console. I loved that I could insert a CD and rip it to the xbox into a media library that could then be played in my games. What i didnt like was the CD's didnt at the time connect to the CD Database and named them for me. Therefor I learned to hate that feature very quickly. Using the dashboard to type in the CD names and song titles was wretched. Also the miniscule 8 gig drive filled up. With no way of adding a bigger drive...
Later that year I discovered a mod chip that would simply plug onto the motherboard and one screw to secure it to the board. All of the sudden I could drop in a 60 gig drive, later a 120 gig drive. Amazingly now I could store my entire CD collection on my Xbox, 60 CD's in all. I believe about 12 gigs worth of MP3. Add in Xbox Media Center (player back then) and I could pretty much play all my MP3's to my home theater system complete with playlists and visualizations.
Now because of the much bigger drive I copied some of my (Legally purchased) games directly to the hard drive. AMAZING load times were much faster. No more waiting forever to play Mercenaries. My Xbox became the center of my living room with it's feature rich entertainment possabilities. So far the uses mentioned are legal, well aside from this DMCA making it illegal to circumvent copyright.
My POV is simple. MS designed and gave us a game console with quite a bit of power and expandability. The mod community made this better and locked me into using the Xbox. I BUY games for it still to this day (The exception being if there is a PC port). I use my Xbox to play tunes when I dont feel like waiting 15 minutes for my winXP system to boot up and load all that garbage and do checks and stuff before the OS becomes usable.
Microsoft didnt fully "realize" the Xbox potential and underground groups brought that to light making something good better. Is there really anything wrong with that? I love mod chips and really believe they should stay. Modding Cars, Game consoles, houses pretty much everything is what people want, make it so.
(for comparison, look into the Car modding scene, it's HUGE. Now look at the Console mod... small due to litigation.)
Mod Chip Makers vs. bin laden, what a movie that would make.
Morning Edition July 2, 2007 Some 62 illegal immigrants in Beardstown, Ill., who worked for a company that cleans a pork processing plant, are preparing for deportation following an immigration raid. One family anticipated problems and has a house waiting in Mexico. Illegal Immigrants Anticipate More Raids
Do you want to hear a recital of all the stories like this that can be found in a one-minute search through Google?
As the largest investigative arm of the Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is primarily a law enforcement agency. In addition to the core law enforcement occupations, there are also hundreds of professional and administrative functions that support the ICE mission. ICE has approximately 15,000 employees working in 400 offices nationwide and over 50 locations internationally. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)
Why does it always surprise the Geek that law enforcement multi-tasks? That the game of life hasn't dealt him a "Get Out Of Jail Free" card?
1. Modchips are not "backup copies", legitimate or otherwise. They are, arguably, circumvention devices under the DMCA. Whether some of the games that some people play with them may be "legitimate backup copies" is a different issue.
2. I suspect the number of people using modchips to play "legitimate backups" is small compared to the number using modchips to play pirated copies.
3. If a particular copy is illegal (under the DMCA or otherwise), it is not a "legitimate" backup.
4. When a coordinated raid like this is done, its usually (there are exceptions) done based on evidence of some kind of coordinated enterprise. Even if people use modchips to play backups (technically illegal or not) of games they own legitimate copies of, I doubt very much that that's the focus of these raids.
I agree that corporations have no morals. They'd be killing homeless people for their organs if it was profitable and they could get away with it. My argument was that we should not allow this level of obligation, not that comapnies don't want it.
Democracy apparently doesn't do us much good anyway. When all the politicians and lawmakers are owned by corporate interests, you don't really have a vote anyway -- it's always going to a guy who wants to screw you over.
You'd think "Immigrations and Customs Enforcement" agents would be out looking for illegal aliens and smugglers, not playing copyright rent-a-cops. From the looks of things, its just easier for them to hunt down people who might have the technical means to infringe someone elses rights than it is to hunt down people who have actually committed crimes.
TFA doesn't have any details. Who did they raid? What did they confiscate? When did they do their investigation? Where were these "homes and businesses" located? Was there any _real_ criminal activity going on?
for Pretendo, Sony-Bony, and Micro$haft systems anyways? Why not use Open-Source games on an open source platform instead? Far superior and the source code can be manipulated at will, giving the player far more control over their game and system. Since there is no Digital Restrictions Management to worry about and it is free in not only speech but also root beer 'I can't stand beer ;)' the DMCA would never apply.
Again, what is the need for closed source games and closed source systems?
"There is nobody stopping you starting our own computer hardware company, and making the device you describe. "
If you bought the game system, why can't you open it up and do whatever you want to it? You don't intend to offer it for sale, you just want to tinker.
And that's illegal?
Who does that really help in the end?
> Are legitimate backup copies of a piece of software you own illegal under the DMCA?"
The question doesn't make any sense. If they're legitimate, then they're legal by their very nature. If they're illegal, then they're not legitimate. It's like asking `what happens if an irresistible force meets an unmovable object`.
That's not quite a fair comparison, but the question is still interesting. I say the the "unmovable object" is destroyed in its place by the "irresistible force."In some areas medical marijuana is legal. If you have a handful plants, you're OK. If you have 500, than maybe you're not in it for the medicinal qualities. There aren't any details here, but in the past when the feds have done raids, its been agaisnt people making and selling the mod chips, not simply using one.
If brevity is the soul of wit, then how does one explain Twitter?
'The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.'
When government fears the people, there is liberty. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny. - Jefferson
Yeah, pirating is pretty common in the states and everyone has easy access to it with a descent internet connection. People can download ROMS and emulators for basically any system. Sure, you won't be able to play some on-line games, but it won't stop the determined. Try going to the Philippines and looking around for a game or a movie. You won't find a legal copy before you find a pirated version. North America and Europe aren't really the best place to look for rampant piracy.
This sig isn't original enough, it's time to come up with something witty...
Freedom versus the Illusion of of Freedom and all you are losing now is your illusion of freedom. Welcome back to the Gilded Age where all the rights belong to the business interests and where your government uses it's police powers not to find Osama Bin Laden, but to find the kid who has a mod chip in their Xbox so they can play those hideously illegal imported Japanese games. It's not for the common good, it's not the best use of limited resources, it's the use of those limited resources to help protect poor downtrodden Microsoft. It's the use of your government resources for whoever pays your Congressman the most money. Not for you, not yours. Your rights to unionize have been taken away, your jobs have been outsourced to other countries where slave labor wages can be paid and you've been led by the nose to believe it's for your own good and to 'compete on the world stage' and only now is there a tiny bit of noise when your Engineer and IT jobs are being outsourced to India or through those work visas. It ends up sort of being a Nazi paradise with government for the Corporations, by the Corporations with you and I asked to wave the flags while believing we're all suspects and under surveillance for the good of the country. Long live the fatherland and you there with the Xbox, stop or we'll shoot.
Enjoy your Karma, after all you earned it. Feel your Karma Joe, feel it burn.
>You don't own the software. You have purchased a license to use, nothing more.
Not completely true. You did buy more. You bought a copy of the software also. You own that copy. You didn't buy the software. And you are right, you do not own the software. But you did buy more than a license. You bought a copy of the software, and a license to use it.
Much like a book. You buy a book, you own that book. You do not own the contents, rights or anything else, you just own that book. You cannot do anything with the contents, like selling the story to a movie producer, but you can indeed sell the book.
It was less hilarious when "pirates" (not ninjas, mind you) were compared to communists. After all, ideas of communism and "piracy" are somewhat similar. Now, they are compared to t.s, but it doesn't make sense. You see, communists want free stuff, t.s want to kill people. Most modern pirates just want free entertainment at home. True, the obsolete meaning of "pirate" was something like a t., but still... This is silly. Remember, free home entertainment without the fear of getting busted is one of the pillars of an obedient society. I mean, seriously, you govt people need to ENCOURAGE free entertainment, not ban it!
Disclaimer: I am forced to make this disclaimer by the fact that I am in the US right now: I was just kidding. I believe in capital punishment for anybody that copies even a single bit without written permission by the bit copyright holder.
Where RIAA and Co. get all their numbers
...unless the license to use the book prohibits selling it.
You don't own a copy of the software, you own a cd that has the software on it. If you buy a book, and the publisher somehow had a license that you couldn't resell it, then you could still resell the paper, just not the book. Because yes, you own the cd...just not what is on the cd.
You also need to stop thinking about CDs and such, because if that is what you're going to base an argument on, then your argument is also getting weaker by virtue of the fact that more and more software is, and will be, network-distributed. What will your retort be when you don't even have a physical chunk of media with the software on it?
Instead you should be addressing the underlying issue itself, that of IP. Knocking copyrights and patents down to 10-20 years, and forcing the holders to actually do something with them would be a start...then the Verizon v Vonage thing wouldn't happen, for instant. All sorts of things, really...right now we have a system that does nothing more than stiffle innovation, by preventing people from using the IP.
from copying the dance
telling people about the dance
teaching people how to do the dance
because this is what copyright does that is different from your "lapdance" analogy.
I don't live in a police state :)
I would say that it's a right since it is an exception to a law (i.e., these practises under the Fair Use section are not considered copyright infringement) and the Ninth Amendment.
'Yes, firefox is indeed greater than women. Can women block pops up for you? No. Can Firefox show you naked women? Yes.'
So homeland security was involved in this? Osama Bin Bootleg?
How do you rebut the point that the terms of the contract are not disclosed when buying a console? Should one party have the right to enforce a contract that the other party has not agreed to, and doesn't even know about? That seems very authoritarian of you. It's almost as if you believe that anyone with money and power should be able to dictate terms unilaterally to those of us without. That's not really what you believe, is it?
If game console manufacturers business model depends on limiting your freedom to use the device you purchase, shouldn't this be stated more clearly? Especially when it goes against all expectations about what the sale of an electronic device means? But that would hurt their profits.
So really, this 'business model' that you are defending is based on misleading the consumer. You are defending outright fraud.
- None can love freedom heartily, but good men; the rest love not freedom, but license. -- John Milton
What does this have to do with copies?
Oh, right, yeah. I forgot. Even though all the modchip does is let me use my hardware the way i want it to, its only use MUST be piracy!
Guess I better stop using XBMC and start just copying moviez and gamez!
Mod chips are capable of Substantial Non-Infringing Uses. As such, they should not be banned, should be legal under the Betamax decision, and the federal government has no business protecting corporate profits against legal uses of purchased and owned personal game consoles.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
I think we are indeed talking about physical media, that is what is important here. Once we run over the network, then whoever is licensing the use is also providing a copy to use at that instant in time, so I don't need a backup. They do, I do not. If I can use the software when I want without any physical copy, then there is no problem.
But for now, a copy of the software on physical media is required for me to use the license and the software on the physical media.
Even if the license would prohibit me selling it, I do not think that a license can prohibit me from personally using something I purchased in any way I choose. And the DMCA even distances itself from the backup question. The stickler is that to have a usable backup you may need to break encryption, which doesn't have any fair-use exception as it stands.
You are right that the whole underlying issue of IP is a mess, but this particular problem is caused by the DMCA and its end-run around fair use by allowing backups and prohibiting a way to make one.
...the feds are going to come knocking at my door because I use a mod device to play import PS2 games. OH-FUCKING-NOES. There are so many things in this world that make me angry, the whole wind-up and cool-down thing in between being pissed off is just too much effort, it isn't worth it to ever NOT be pissed off anymore...
Friend: "The NIC is misconfigured..." Me: "No prob, I'll just telnet in and fix it." *Silence*
"However, the DMCA does make creating, selling, distributing, and importing the tools to make backups illegal".
That would include all computers with permanent storage of any kind.
I am sure that there are many other solipsists out there.
A government by, for, and of the corporatist-plutocrats is allowed many inalienable freedoms to prosecute Citizens with government assistance for the profit of the few to the determent of the many.
If you don't like it find someplace better to live that is free of oppression and exploitation of the people.
You can't name one place/country/... any better than EU & US can you. So, why whine when we will always be number one at something slightly better than indentured servitude, providing a far better living standard then anywhere in the whole world, and we are alot better off than those girl/woman slavery countries in Africa, Asia, Arabia (we [in the USA] can even export into slavery our beautiful poor girls for profits, ain't no trade balance problem in the flesh/sex trade). Now who do you think is delusional [AKA: Fycking nuts].
It is so very sad that public square floggings, lynchings, and burnings are no longer an option for weekend public entertainment in the EU or US families and children after attending mandatory religious services.
!HAVEFUN!
Unaccountable leaders are masters, and unrepresented people are slaves. How do US and EU fare?
This argument about backup copies and "illegal" copies is a strawman. The game companies put those "protections" into their systems to control who writes programs for their computers. (yes, game systems are fully operational computers.) It has nothing to due with copyright other than software companies claim their EULAs are valid because of copyright law.
IANAL, but I do not see how under any legal theory EULAs could be considered valid. First off, you generally aren't shown the EULA before you buy the product, in my jurisdiction that constitutes a blank contract which isn't valid. You don't even sign it anyway, so where is the agreement on the part of the buyer? Secondly, the companies say EULAs are enforcable because you have to agree when you copy the software to your system. In a game console you don't copy the firmware at all. Even if it is copied to RAM, it is highly dubious to apply copyright law because copyright law was ment to apply and applies to distribution, not simple copying.
I have a Nintendo DS, and I want to program it so I can use it as a PDA / portable computer and such. I bought it, I own it. There is no legitimate reason for me to be forbidden to use it in such a manner. In fact, the game companies should be charged with deceptive practices and possibly antitrust voilations for putting such "antitampering" "features" into their products.
I can't believe this ridiculously poorly written article ever hit the presses. I've never owned a chipped system, but I'd have bought a chipped XBOX over an iTV or whatever in a heartbeat if it weren't for the risk of this sort of petty nonsense and the fact that the open sourced Neuros OSD hit the market and my living room at the same time I last considered such a purchase. Submitted the following to the Associated Press:
I'd like to submit a correction for the article reprinted here, written by one "Federal Agents Go After Gaming Pirates Discussion at PhysOrgForum": http://www.physorg.com/news105194834.html
Your author not only prominently quotes Myers saying that modchips have only "one purpose," facilitating piracy, but implicitly states the same fallacy the paragraph before. The Wikipedia article and every vendor go to great lengths to point out numerous uses that would have been perfectly legitimate and perfectly legal prior to the 1996 DMCA, and still perfectly moral and ethical and permissible in many other countries.
Modchips enable open source developers with every right under their license to Linux to port that operating system to the XBOX, to create full-fledged media players that beat the iTV to market by YEARS, ala the XMBC. Additionally, these modchips have allowed hobby game developers to do just that for decades. Other modchips do NOTHING aside from disable region code lockouts on consoles and DVD players.
This article is a joke. The incredible disregard shown by the facts of the situation shown by your reporter should have serious consequences - Would it have killed the lazy fellow to Google this term that was so apparently new and foreign to him?
Only in America pirating and file sharing placed above other criminal activities, surly this is a mister meaner, oh sry i forgot America doesn't give a dam about its ppl which is why your social care is one of the worst in the world of the developed nations you have no universal health care, you still support capitol punishment but criticise other countries when they use the death penalty and are run by warmongering capitalists.
Q. how much did the operation cost the American tax payer?
The American dream lives on Sieg Heil Bush.
The Truth Is Out There:
Here in the US, the authorities ignore the public interest and cater to corporate interests, while over in Germany they ignore the corporations and cater to the public interest. un-fricken-believable.
I don't care what the DMCA says, I reserve the right to tinker with, break, alter or pirate my games consoles.
People need to remember that morality is not defined by the law (far from it) and that the laws are controlled by government, which is in turn mostly influenced by large corporations (i.e. movie studios and the RIAA).
This is just another example of why American politics needs to steer itself away from the money-race politicians have for funding, the candidate with the most money to spend on smear campaigns and advertising is most likely to win - and who supplies the candidates with this money? Do you think they might expect something in return, or at least give their support to this candidate (making them more likely to win) because their proposed policies will be beneficial to the financial backer?
The WHOLE POINT of the DMCA is that it does away with the concept of "fair use" copying, for any creative work that's protected by an "effective" (their term) technological copy-prevention system. The "intent" of the modchip manufacturers doesn't enter into it - if the device is primarily designed to foil a copy-prevention system, then it's illegal.
Modchip manufacturers could certainly implement a system where the modchip was linked in some way to the copying system, to prevent secondary copies. That idea has two basic problems:
1. Making the first copy is illegal under the DMCA, so it doesn't actually help their legal stance at all.
2. Eliminating interoperability would take away the primary market for this device - people who want to play copies of games without buying the originals - i.e. "pirates". We all know that there are "legitimate" uses of these chips, but the vast majority of the people who buy them aren't interested in those uses.
Here is a simple solution to the whole problem, QUIT BUYING THE GAME CONSOLES!
If people just quit buying them in protest of this cr@p the maufactures would get the message really damn quick - it would hit them in the bottom line - loss of sales - loss of $$$$.
People do nothing but whine and moan about not being able to "backup" their games, play imports, yada-yada-yada. Show the **IAA, the government, and business you want to be able to do this - it's called choice in competition. Show them things like the DMCA can backfire on them. If the corporations want to give money to the politicians to pass a$$inine laws like the DMCA show them what you think about it - show them how much money they will lose doing these kinds of things.
Simply QUIT buying the consoles, STOP buying the games! Sooner or later they HAVE to get the message...
But, people are too busying sitting on their a$$e$, shoving cheetos in their mouths with a game controler in hand b!tching instead of DOING something about it.
Boycotts DO work if you just stick to it. Don't think you HAVE to have the latest greatest console and game from whatever manufacturer you prefer. If you can't control yourself from buying it, your ADDICTED, just like a crack addict, and it shows they controll you instead of you showing control of yourself.
I quit buying consoles/games years ago, until this kind of cr@p stops - they won't get MY money!
The Truth is a Virus!!!
This is why I keep coming back to /. for the comedy. The "mom's basement" crowd simply does not grasp the concept of licensing. Time and time again, they think that having the 1's and 0's in your possession means that you necessarily "own" something outright. You do not. There's copyright on software, and then there's licensing. You are not buying a copy of a game to own it. You are paying for the right to play the game, or use the software, so long as you only use the software according to the terms of the license.
You people... I swear to God. Stop bitching about DMCA, fair use, etc, in the same sentence as "software you own". YOU DON'T OWN IT, so forget about it. That ship has sailed. They own it. They control use, now get over it.
I just checked the major sites and they're all out of stock!
as long as they have the unlimited use of tax dollars they can waste them as they please.
Contrary to what politicians would prefer folks believe, most situations in life and business are not exclusively A or B. IBP made two changes, each of which allowed wages in that industry to be reduced.
You know backing up is all great and wonderful. But in the end without some trick you cannot play the disc.
Why not invest a couple hundred dollars into a disc buffing system? Honestly there would be no need to keep backups if you kept your discs clean.
Except you reposted to the same P. :) :D
I added them up. Over $1,000 USD spent on XBOX games since we bought our console in 2001. And that was just the discs that I could find. I have discs without boxes, boxes without discs and I know that I purchased some discs that I can no longer find boxes or disc for at all.
But the rough value of what I was able to find and secure through the years is easily $1,000. I added them up. I think I cried a little. Because they were all, ALL of them, irrevocably scratched.
I have children. Children don't do well with shiny plastic. We had trouble keeping the SNES games working, but at least I could order screwdriver bits from Hong Kong, open the cases and brush the food out with vinegar, a toothbrush and some compressed air. The Nintendo 64 was equally difficult to keep operational. When the industry unanimously went to DVDs with the Gamecube, the XBOX and the PS1, I knew we were doomed. But we settled on the XBOX because of Halo.
Five years later, two XBOXes, four power supplies, twenty controllers, four DVD enablers/remotes, four years of XBM with sample DVDs (most missing), and over $1,000 in games, I did it.
I broke the law.
After installing mod chips, I managed to copy some, not all, but some of our dying games up to a Samba share on our network. I spent another $40 on a DMCA device known as a grinder along with some cotton polishing wheels and plastic polish and managed to restore a few more DVD discs to readability. I also destroyed one permanently learning how to do this slowly and carefully enough. We now have about 23 titles "saved" and usable, and at least another 30 waiting for me to attempt to restore them.
Could we go to blockbuster, rent a game, save it and play it forever? Sure, but we don't. Just like I don't run around committing murder with my kitchen knives on a daily basis. We need to teach the industry that capability != intent. You'd think they would figure this out. When our XBOX wasn't working and I was staring at all our destroyed video games, we STOPPED BUYING GAMES.
Now that I have a modded xbox that can make a permanent recording of the games I legally acquire and pay for, I don't mind buying games.
This sort of rationale is why we still play Halo 2 on our modded xboxes. This is why we no longer have an xbox-live subscription (we'd be banned). This is why we have not purchased an XBOX 360. I am very concerned that the next gen consoles will drain my money away through easily scratched polycarbonate game media. It's almost as if they designed them to disintegrate upon contact with children.
I hope someone in the industry is listening. I need a console that allows me to install software, then put the media in a safe place. Without this feature, my kids cannot play for long (some games only lasted one day) and we don't purchase as many games as we otherwise might.
These opinions guaranteed or your money back.
So ICE is trying to crackdown on ICEbreakers. I just had to bring neuromancer into this one.
"Assault Weapons" haven't been illegal since 2004; it's just illegal to manufacture them for public use. Even then, any automatic weapon made in the US before 1986 or imported and registered before 1968 can be sold to private citizens. The only regulation is the background check required for most firearms now and a $200 tax when selling them. There are many shooting ranges that will rent out fully automatic weapons for use at their range.
aye =.- damn proxy
Walk with Music;
Interesting analogy...
After a few minutes the stripper walks away. Everyone knows they have to fork over a few more bills for continued entertainment...
But when one 'buys' a video or software, they get to keep the physical medium and watch it whenever they like -- perhaps more "concubine" than "stripper". Virtually no other household product is like this... If you physically have possession of it, you can do with it as you like. One may not own the software, but they own the medium! So why should they be restricted on their actions toward the medium! Tearing a book in half and giving a half to a friend is perfectly legal. Yet, cutting a Windows CD in half and giving it to a friend probably would be illegal -- (Unauthorized re-distribution of copyrighted software in part).
Of course the trend now is that all software will be rented for a time-limited period... So it seems the software industry is going to the strippers... Thus, Bill Gates is a whore.
Stardock?
That company has the WORST and most restrictive copy protection. It REQUIRES the software to "phone home" to work. If you don't have internet access you are screwed. If a component of your system fails and you need to replace it, your hardware number will change (as calculated by Microsoft). This means that Stardock's software will NOT work until it can "phone home". Personally I only buy software I can load and run without internet access. Stardock fails in this situation.
When I read the title of this /. post I immediately thought.
Damn what an abuse of power, those Federal Agents should just go out an buy the mod chips for themselves, just like everyone else. Every now and then they have the occasional marijuana burn off, but you never see the porn raid or mod chip burn offs.
Even Shakespeare used an Apple, albeit slowler and tastier than todays Macs.
Well, unless we prove we're as addicted to games with crappy laws attached as we are addicted to wal-mart. Maybe now we'll start voting with our wallets and simply stop purchasing anything under the DMCA - now we can go get our entertainment from the "real" world. That's really the best way to do it - let them succeed in their "rights management". Let them manage their rights right into their closets. If everyone stops purchasing their spam-walled products (You know, spam is crap nobody needs, and nobody intelligent wants, but people pay for it anyway or it would go away. DRM is crap nobody needs, and nobody intelligent wants, but people pay for it anyway, or it would go away. Spam-Wall(tm) security through annoying the heck out of the end user), then they would get no profits. Then pretty soon they would realize that DRM is a bad idea. But right now, as long as we're making the choice to consume their spam, they can pretend to pass laws for the good of the creator (of the content we want. The laws are good for the creators of their spam) The only way to stop stupidity is to stop paying for it. So please, stop stupidity.
I wish I had a witty
First of all, Im from argentina, situation here is quite different, but I still think some considerations should be taken world wide on this issue.
:P
:P).
I wont create an account as this is a one time thing for me, mostly scince Im on my way to become a Game Developer myself this strikes me as an interesting issue.
In order to not be considered an anonymous coward (dont like that tag) you may call me NEXUS
I see most people here are from the US and speak of US laws, but as in any discussion about law I think the most important thing is to speak of the concept itself, why does piracy rise up? what would change if piracy was erradicated?
First of all, the more the industry tries to fight piracy the more piracy benefits from it, for example, as a consumer of pirate software, if you can access software for free, only through the cost of a broad band connection, piracy does not benefit directly, you are not paying them, but when lets say playstaion makes nessesary the use of a mod chip to play pirated games, you have to pay for them anyway but the pirates are the ones taking the profit.
Second, any hard core gamer plays at least 20 or more diferent titles a year, like myself, such people are collectors by nature, but not always the pocket sufices the needs of such obsession, Its hard enoughf to keep up with hardware requirements, so mostly they (we) pay only for our most favourite titles, one a year or less, and just for collection, make a copy right away and never again open the box
But some time ago came a group of guys that made a point about why this happens, the CroTeam, authors of Serius Sam, published their AAA title at only 20 dollars, most games go up to 80 or more, I paid for this title scince I loved the game and it was a more than fare price, and I can say for sure, that if every game rounded that price I would have 10 times more original games that I do now.
This is an example that proofs that games and software in general are extreemly overpriced, when a game comes out at 120 dollars (wich in my case is 1/4 of my monthly income) piracy becomes justice at my eyes.
Third, most people that uses pirated games (at least down here) would not pay for them even if piracy was not an option, they just cant afford it, so really the industry isnt loosing that much money, however piracy allows a much wider spreading of the game that would not take place otherwise, making possible a much more popular online gaming, cybercafes paying for the original games, gaming tournaments with lots of advertisement and royalties to the industry and so on, so they accualy get some benefit from piracy.
The best example of this is Microsoft, Windows is as popular as it is, and Billy the Gates is as pornograficly billionare as he is, BECAUSE his system was easy going on piracy, therefore, everyone has it, therefore everyone nedds it, therefore everyone made software for windows, therefore most buisnesses cant live without it and those DO pay for their licences (well... most of them anyways
Another point of piracy I see not so evil, Demos are not always enoughf to know if you will like the game as much as to be worthy of paying for it (when the pockets hurt) scince many games look good the first few levels but when you go deep they are poorly balanced, get monotonous, repetitive and boring or stuff like this, having a tight budget as I do, I wouldnt pay as much as 50 dollars (here a dollar costs 3 times more what it costs to us citicens) unless I am already a fan of the title, piracy makes it possible for me to test the game deep enoghf, know for a fact that i love it, and therefore be willing to pay for it.
Also, about backup copys, Im more than onboard on that point, when paying for an original hurts, having the original scratched and becoming unreadable is a hundred times more painfull, the industry should allow backup copys or give away free replacements of broken originals scince the gamer already payed for it, also, playing with the disc on
Um... I don't see how turning my Xbox into a Media Center is in any way "illegal".
I own the songs and movies I play through there.
I own the Xbox in question, regardless of what some non-legally-binding EULA says.
I own all the games that might be run from the HD.
Okay, so that last one violates DMCA. I still don't think it violates the 'spirit' of the law.
I don't *sell* modded Xboxes. I made it that way for fun and to improve upon the usefulness of the beast.
I also turned one into a Linux File Server... can't tell me THAT is illegal too. Oh the ironic shame. Take that Microsoft.
---
AC is for Cowards...
It is illegal to enforce region codes in Australia.
So remember, next time you buy a DVD player - ask them for the 'unlock code'. If they don't comply then quote the ruling and ask them if they really would like to go to court and pay you $30,000 for violating the ruling on DVD region encoding in Australia.