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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?"
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.
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
It's an important question because that's the motivation for mod chips... so that you can run games on CDs that are not published by an official publisher. This description includes games copied from Blockbuster rentals as well as your own games that are copied for traditionally acceptable use such as "I want my kids to play from the backup because the original is expensive!"
The DMCA has done much to close that hole in the game-seller's net.
Well let's say you bought a game and make a copy of it for backup. One day you lose the original so you want to use your legitimate backup, for that you need a mod-chip.
Your backup is "legal" since you bought the game and made a copy only for yourself, but you need something "illegal" (ie. the mod-chip) to play it.
Could the use of a Mod-chip only for legitimate backup be legal ? If so how do you tell if it's a legitimate backup ?
I didn't found something funny to put here.
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 (somewhat rhetorical) question is, did they raid those homes to find *one* mod chip or whole bunches of them? You don't need to have hundreds of mod chips to play back your own backups, after all. Unless, of course, said mod chip owners want to claim those mod chips were all backups of their *original* mod chip...
Visit http://ringbreak.dnd.utwente.nl/~mrjb/growingbettersoftware to download your free copy of the book
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.
I have a modchip on my Nintendo DS. I don't use it to play games. I have NEVER played a game on it. So why do I have it? So I can run Linux on it. I have no interest playing games, but I do have an interest in a unique hardware device. Should the FBI raid my house?
If they did raid my and drag me into court, I would ask my legal counsel why small portable computers with good battery life is non-existant, while gaming consoles with much more features are. Something is wrong with the market in my opinion. Should it be illegal for me to have the technical possibility of running a rogue game? Should they give me 20 years in FPMITA Prison for it?
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.
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!'
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.
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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.
i don't think your question will get any response other than a dismissal as irrelevant. Dissatisfaction with the market does not act as an excuse to break the law. There is nobody stopping you starting our own computer hardware company, and making the device you describe. The people making the device you modded have done so on the assumption that they can sell complimentary products for it (games). We all know this. They designed, financed and made the product, it's up to them to determine the terms under which they offer it for sale. If you do not like the terms, don't buy one. Punish restrictive practices through the market, not by breaking the law.
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
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.
The "motivation" for mod chips kind of depends on the person, wouldn't you say?
I bought a Nintendo Wii on launch day when I was living in Japan, and bought 4 or 5 games for it while I was living there. I just returned to the USA about a week ago, and now I want to buy more games, but I can't, thanks to region locking. The only options I have are 1.) Buy another Wii (not really an option, as I've sunk money into the Virtual Console games), or 2.) Install a modchip. The games I want to play on my Wii are indeed published by an official publisher, just from a different region.
Does this mean I should be raided / arrested / tried in court?
I realize that a lot of people who use modchips are only out to copy everything in sight, but hasn't this kind of thing been covered in the past (Sony Corp. of America v. Universal City Studios, Inc.)?
Bogus question indeed, sirs.
More Twoson than Cupertino
it's up to them to determine the terms under which they offer it for sale
Scope to determine terms is not and should not be unlimited. Once something is sold, it's not theirs any more. That is right at the heart of "selling". If they didn't want people to tinker, they shouldn't have offered the device for sale. It's not our responsibility to shoulder the cost of a crummy choice of business model and it's unjust for the law to try and push it onto us.
Punish restrictive practices through the market, not by breaking the law
Bullshit. They're writing the laws. Obedience to unjust law is a fool's game. While copyright and patent exist, a free market doesn't.
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.
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.
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?
If you do not like the terms, don't buy one. Punish restrictive practices through the market, not by breaking the law.
Say what? Are you saying "It Is A Violation Of Federal Law To Use This Product Inconsistant With Its Labeling?" Is it also against the law to combine vinegar and baking soda in the kitchen? Is it against the law to use a screwdriver as a hammer? This government is really starting to annoy me if its telling me I can only do what was labeled on the original package.
If I buy a Gamecube or whatever then it is my gamecube. Contract law IMHO is being severely abused by corporates. All they have to is put a f***** contract on EVERYTHING to see to it that nobody ever has a shred of rights again. Buy a bottle of barbecue sauce? You agreed to a contract. No rights. Period.
The grandparent isn't pirating games. He's using his own personal private property as he sees fit and under no ethical theory that I can think of does it cost Nintendo anything. If contract law can be twisted to preclude such things then I say it is our sacred duty to violate it at every opportunity.
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.
Wrong answer: Department of Homeland Security Immigration Services, Customs & Immigration Enforcement.
:-)
It's been brought under the DHS umbrella. From their website: " Created in March 2003, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is the largest investigative branch of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). "
Nice try, but no cigar for you.
I am not merely a "consumer" or a "taxpayer". I am a Citizen of the State of Texas
complain that its a police state because you cannot play pirated xbox games
There are reasons to use a modchip beyond playing pirated games. There is always the possibility of playing third party games (where do you think new companies come from?), using the hardware for something other than a gaming console (myth tv/cheap handheld/etc), or just tinkering with it. The label on the back of the system says the warranty will be voided by playing with the insides, as it should be, but that is not the same thing as saying "opening this box is reason for your arrest".
Apparently our government (this is sadly not limited to the US) has not yet realized that a majority of the tech companies in existence today got their start tinkering with previous products.
You are suggesting that sellers of all products be prevented from setting any conditions on the sale of their products
.. to promote progress in the science and arts by offering a TEMPORARY monopoly which then expires and your work enters the public domain.
Yes. Call me old-fashioned, but I like to actually own the copy that I bought and that includes the ability to modify it. There are already laws in place by society (such as Copyright) which limit what I can do with that copy in terms of distribution. If additional conditions are required (such as NDAs) then these agreements must be established before the time of purchase. Shrink-wrap licenses or EULAs should not be acceptable nor enforceable.
I guess you would also mean that a EULA should be unenforceable, and thus abolish copyright when it comes to allowing you to make copies of digital products?
What does EULA have to do with Copyright? Works, digital or otherwise, are just as protected by copyright without EULAs as they are with them.
If I invent product X, who are you, or the government to dictate the terms under which I profit from my invention?
It is in the best interest of society that knowledge not be held hostage in the silos of their so-called inventors. This is precisely the original reason for copyright
If you don't like it, go invent your own product and stick a big "mod chip friendly" sticker on it.
I'm feeding a Troll aren't I?
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mod chips...illegal assault weapons, drugs, pedophiles, and carjackers next door
Jesus... what the hell is going on in your neighborhood?!
Actually, that raises another good issue in this case.
With the law clearly infringing upon an owner's right to perform non-infringing activities with his own property illustrates that the law itself is a bad law.
It's a rarely identified fact that when a case is being heard in court, it's not just the defendant that is on trial, it is also the law itself that is on trial. A verdict of "not guilty because the law is bad" often sets interesting precedents and serves to help correct bad law. It's a part of the checks and balances system that are rarely used and either hidden from the public or simply forgotten. (For more information, search on "the powers of a jury" which, incidentally, is a great way to get yourself disqualified from being on a jury as knowledge of these facts of law often gets you dismissed.)
no. get some perspective. hammers and screwdrivers do not have an end use licence agreement. yes of course it is up to the seller to determine the terms of the sale. its called a contract.
Perspective? Why should a blank device with NO COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL have a license agreement? Should a movie projector have one? A pair of glasses? Why should my Nintendo that I want to put MY OWN DAMNED SOFTWARE on it have a license agreement? I don't want it for the games, I want it for the ARM microprocessors and displays, not for the any included software. The first thing I did was wipe off all that crap software off it, because I didn't agree with it. Is that good? Or did the manufacturer squeeze in some FEDERAL LAW that says my door is going to come down one day because I didn't subscribe to their business model?
Slashdot is not the place to argue if a sticker on a box counts as a contract, though. If a company wants to license a product so that it is only used in certain ways, then the contract should be negotiated, up front, before the purchase. After I have purchased the device, I may decide to cut through the cardboard box, rip through the paper that was going to be a license, and then compost the paper without even looking at it.
Who is Dell to say I can not install Linux on a computer I buy from them, they sold it to me right?
Who is Ford to say I can't put after market air filter on my car, I bought the car.
And, to make a direct parallel to your argument, why can't an auto maker force me to only use their car for street driving instead of racing? They would have changed twice the price if they knew I wanted to drive on a track/off road/anywhere else. It's their product, who am I to simply use it as I see fit after I've already paid them for it.
If GE sold a coffee maker that magically permitted only GE-brand coffee filters, no one would give you a moral lecture for using a workaround and using non-GE filters. It's your coffee maker. If GM sold cars that accepted only GM-designed bolts, no one would lecture you for using an adapter or changing out the bolt thingy so you could use whatever bolts you wanted.
It would never occur to anyone to be so damned stupid as to think that GE or GM or any other company has a moral claim to dictate how you use the product you already paid for--unless it's a video game console, or otherwise involves a computer or, God forbid, the internet. These are apparently magical, and are not subject to the same common-sense, well-known principles by which we have conducted business since, well, forever.
You do not have to sign a contract to buy a Nintendo DS.
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...
http://www.mhall119.com
http://www.mhall119.com
In any event, I'm not sure that actually having mod chips is a criminal act, though the DMCA may have made it so under many conditions. And if you're merely violating a EULA, that's generally a civil matter anyways -- not something that the police usually bust your door down for, though the RIAA seems to have gotten them to do that a few times lately. But selling mod chips as a way to run pirated games, that would be illegal.
I'm pretty sure the raids were done on those selling mod chips, not end users. But maybe you're next, you criminal Linux users you!
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.
No I am not a troll. I have a different view to you, and to the guy who called me a 'moron' and accused me of having brain damage. It's what intelligent, reasonable people in the real world call a 'difference of opinion'. Such things can be discussed and debated rationally and sensibly, except on slashdot, where anyone who disagrees with the /. groupthink is hurled with abuse.
Your post is dripping with contempt for the people who actually make stuff. 'so-called inventors' is a great example. Who did invent the mentioned nintendo games console then? you? your mates? How much of the R&D budget for the device did you contribute?
DRM-free indie games for the PC and Mac: Positech Games
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.
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.)
http://www.mhall119.com
As a mentioned in another reply, you don't sign away your rights to build a fence, you sign away your rights to build a fence in the HOA's neighborhood. Furthermore, either you agree to give the HOA the right to decided on that when you purchased the house, or some previous owner did and no longer has the ability to give you that right. Either way, the purchase agreement should have declared that the right to put up a fence was not conveyed to you as part of the purchase. If there was no HOA when you purchased your house, then one cannot come along after the fact and tell you that you cannot build a fence, because you already had that right and did not consent to giving it away.
http://www.mhall119.com
said modchip is illegal under the DMCA, regardless of intent.
which is yet another reason why the DMCA needs to be ripped into little pieces, then ripped into littler pieces, and then burned and the ashes cast into the wind.
upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
but your Nintendo DOES have copyrighted software on it, even without a disk in the drive.
No sir! I now have an open source custom bootloader flashed on it. The first instructions the ARM processors run the uploaded program I installed. Lots of good people in the DSLinux community understood the basic hardware and enjoyed making a complete system from scratch. The ARM7 and ARM9 processors are well documented and so is the hardware on the DS. I don't see why it would be a FEDERAL offense for someone to write their own software. Maybe a judge somewhere will listen one day without taking money.
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
Why do you keep talking as though by adding a mod chip to a ds or wii or anything else the company is losing money on the console?
The game company has the potential to lose but Nintendo has nothing to lose by allowing mods. I still have to buy the console before I put the chip in to it. They shouldn't care what I do with it after I buy it from them, sure they can come up with a way to make it so I can't use a burned disc online to try to make sure I'm not pirating a game. It would end up like PC games, I can pirate the hell out of it and play by myself or on a lan but if I try to go online it says sorry no can do until I put in the real thing. Problem solved for 90% of the people.
The firmware/software are licensed to use. You dont actually get ownership. But that's exactly the point. They're busting people for modding their devices, not for pirating software.
Bullish Machine Tzar
Your post is dripping with contempt for the people who actually make stuff. 'so-called inventors' is a great example.
I'm a Computer Engineer. I design (proprietary) hardware. In my spare time, I'm a Software Engineer. I design (open-source) software. I am perfectly well aware of how difficult the design process is from both sides of the equation, and have no contempt what so ever for the hard-working individuals who work night and day so us geeks can have new toys to play with.
Who did invent the mentioned nintendo games console then? you? your mates?
The aforementioned hard-working individuals did. And you know what? They often hold neither the patents nor copyrights to their work (since their development time has been bought) so I fail to see how the actual developers factor into this discussion. The contempt that drips from me is specifically towards "so-called" inventors. Individuals or groups of individuals that claim incredibly obvious or non-original ideas as their own, and end up owning them due to slip-ups in the way the current intellectual property system is structured.
However, you're steering this discussion away from where we started from. I do not believe that anyone (not the inventor, developer, financer, or any other group) has the right to tell me what I can and cannot do with their product (except re-distribution in the case of easily reduplicated products, but copyright covers this).
If they want to impose restrictions above and beyond those which are already offered by copyright and trademarks (NDAs are very common with commercial hardware development packages), these restrictions must be agreed to and signed by both parties before the time of sale.
If modifying hardware breaks someone's business model, they can 1) adapt with a better business model, such as charging more up-front, or 2) cease to manufacture the good.
For a great example of a very poor business model that's been destroyed by hardware modifications, check out Pure Digital / CVS Disposable Camcorders. You are supposed to buy them (cheap), use them, and return them (for resale). I bought 5 of them and modified them to have USB ports (=added/enabled extra functionality, exactly like the modchips we are discussing here) and have no intention of returning them.
Is it your view that I've done something wrong here? I paid them what they asked for the camera, but once I walked out of the store with it.. it's mine.
DJ kRYPT's Free MP3s!
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.
The reason you disagree is that you don't believe in private ownership and he does. Once it is his it is his forever. Just like a shovel is his and is his forever. The only way to loose it is to have it stolen, given away, or taken away through due process, or it is destroyed. If he agreed to some EULA and then he gives the shovel away (or sells it) he's not obligated to ensure the transfer of the terms of that EULA nor would he. This is precisely what he's getting at.
I did not read contempt in any post except yours. He was simply responding.
The difference between your argument and his is that he's right and you are wrong.
You can lead a man with reason but you can't make him think.
Yes, I do own THAT specific copy of the code. What I don't have is the copyright on that code. However as far as I know, mod chips don't contain copies of the machine's firmware. On to the real point:
First, what law specifies that sellers may create arbitrary, legally binding terms of use on copies of data they sell after they've sold it?
Second, the law that IS being violated here is the DMCA and it is being violated because the mod chips are a "circumvention device" and these people who are distributing them are trafficking in circumvention devices. It has nothing to do with users of said chips violating some license agreement.
And at any rate, third, I never said anything about any law. I wasn't trying to argue a matter of law, I was trying to argue a matter of general ethics. The law will never be changed and will only get worse if people believe they have no rights whatsoever over intellectual property they purchase except those arbitrarily proscribed by the seller. And the mere concept of the seller being able to dictate said rights AFTER the purchase is simply ludicrous.