By encoding the libraries into non-human readable code, Nintendo has effectively created an "access control".
The only thing required to get a GBA game to boot is a valid header, and reproducing that is fair use under Sega v. Accolade. From there, most homebrew GBA games just use newlib (a Red Hat libc under BSD style license) or something.
Stealing the devkit to make your own games is illegal too.
So why should making your own devkit be illegal?
Of course, there are other ways to deem a game illegal.
I know of only a few, such as using somebody else's copyrighted cartoon character, using somebody else's copyrighted music, using somebody else's copyrighted story, etc.
It's not very hard to get VGA to NTSC anymore. Most cards, even the cheapy ones support it.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to pick which video card to put in my Dell computer two years ago. What inexpensive video card do you recommend as an upgrade from an NVIDIA TNT2?
would you really want to run it on a TV? The answer is no.
Would you really want four players to crowd around a 17 inch VGA display? The answer in my circle of friends is no.
TV (NTSC) is not useful for your every day computing needs. Mainly because text would have to be rather large to be [readable].
Which is why games designed to run on TVs have big 20-point text.
And since when is reverse engineering illegal, if I may ask?
Since you were born without money. A console maker can sue you for anything, and if you don't have the money to show up in court and defend yourself, you lose by default.
If you want to run Linux on an Xbox, build a $200 PC and you get better.
Do I get NTSC TV output for that price? A 25" TV is cheap; a 25" computer display is way out of my price range.
And what if I want to write software to run on a $70 handheld device? No Palm device has the graphics power or battery life of a Game Boy Advance system.
Lik Sang still has MBV2; Game Gizmo has GBA flash
on
Lik-Sang Back Online
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· Score: 5, Informative
Parsing headlines is like parsing Chinese; with no articles, the reader needs to use a bit more context.
"Car cellphone bans" == "Restrictions on mobile phones in cars". (Any kind of restriction is called a "ban" in headlinese.) "Driving Bluetooth" == "Encouraging the development of Bluetooth technology". Thus, this story is about the fact that restrictions on mobile phones in cars have encouraged the development of Bluetooth technology.
When a fellow talks on the phone while driving, even with a headset, the conversation still reduces his concentration to the level of a driver at the legal limit for alcohol intoxication.
The market for people who want to see older movies on the big screen is pretty limited, alas.
Really? I gather from previous Slashdot discussions about movie piracy that there exist lots of people who would still want to see movies on the big screen even if they are available otherwise. My own adoptive parents are two of them. Not everybody has a four-figure home theater rig.
So you are saying that specialty items should cost less than equivalent mass market items?
Because I don't work for a major record label, I don't claim to know first-hand why cassettes cost so much less, other than that people will pay more for CDs.
when does the 24-hour window begin? After paying the rental fee or after successful download of the film?
According to others in this discussion who claim to have actually implemented a system like this, the 24 hours begin when the user first presses Play. Then, after the movie expires, the user can whip out a credit card and get another 24 hours, sort of like Circuit City Divx.
why not make the experience more appealing? Headphones would be nice
Theaters already do that. They play the soundtrack on very low-power FM radio because some viewers may have hearing aids that are more compatible with their radio sets than with the theater's THX setup.
What is the big screaming deal about regional lockouts for movies?
The reason for region lockouts is that copyright law differens from country to country. For instance, Peter Pan and The Time Machine are still copyrighted in the EU but public domain in the USA. These works are still copyrighted by the Bono estate in the USA but public domain in Australia. Sometimes a studio has to release a movie in one market and use that market's box office revenue to pay the up-front royalties for licensing derivative work and public performance rights in another market.
changing the date on your [PC's clock] fixed [older shareware] pretty handily.
However, newer shareware often downloads ads from the Internet (see Opera) and becomes freeware. Either that, or it goes online and checks for cryptographically signed timestamps that ultimately originate from the official U.S. time.
your TV isn't big enough to show the movie as it was originally filmed, you have to go see it in the theatre!
Well, the movie that I want to watch isn't currently in theaters. And it won't be until the studios set up digital cinema so that theaters can dedicate half their screens to something other than recent releases.
Slashdot Mirror
What was once legal is now illegal.
But how can you prove that a simple checksum constitutes "effective access control" that the DMCA requires to kick in the ban?
By encoding the libraries into non-human readable code, Nintendo has effectively created an "access control".
The only thing required to get a GBA game to boot is a valid header, and reproducing that is fair use under Sega v. Accolade. From there, most homebrew GBA games just use newlib (a Red Hat libc under BSD style license) or something.
(short answer: DMCA)
(not in Canada)
(untested in a court of constitutional law)
(the DMCA is concerned only with effective access controls around a copyrighted work, and the Game Boy Advance doesn't have those)
Stealing the devkit to make your own games is illegal too.
So why should making your own devkit be illegal?
Of course, there are other ways to deem a game illegal.
I know of only a few, such as using somebody else's copyrighted cartoon character, using somebody else's copyrighted music, using somebody else's copyrighted story, etc.
It's not very hard to get VGA to NTSC anymore. Most cards, even the cheapy ones support it.
Unfortunately, I didn't get to pick which video card to put in my Dell computer two years ago. What inexpensive video card do you recommend as an upgrade from an NVIDIA TNT2?
would you really want to run it on a TV? The answer is no.
Would you really want four players to crowd around a 17 inch VGA display? The answer in my circle of friends is no.
TV (NTSC) is not useful for your every day computing needs. Mainly because text would have to be rather large to be [readable].
Which is why games designed to run on TVs have big 20-point text.
After a bit more searching, I found a GBA compatible 64 Mbit flash cartridge with a linker for only $50 + S&H at Success Compu.
And since when is reverse engineering illegal, if I may ask?
Since you were born without money. A console maker can sue you for anything, and if you don't have the money to show up in court and defend yourself, you lose by default.
now you can't run illegally copied games, boo hoo.
Would you consider homebrew software to constitute an "illegally copied game"?
What TV can you purchase now adays which is not "XBox Ready"?
How about a TV that pukes when it sees the 524-line (as opposed to 525-line) image that many consoles output?
How about a TV that reacts poorly to Macrovision encoded signal?
How about a TV with only RF input as opposed to composite video input (yeah, I still see those)?
How about a TV that cuts too much off the sides and corners of the image?
Any of those four might introduce a compatibility problem between a game console and a television set.
If you want to run Linux on an Xbox, build a $200 PC and you get better.
Do I get NTSC TV output for that price? A 25" TV is cheap; a 25" computer display is way out of my price range.
And what if I want to write software to run on a $70 handheld device? No Palm device has the graphics power or battery life of a Game Boy Advance system.
In the GBA Develop and Backup category, Lik Sang still has the MBV2 cable.
If you want flash memory cartridges and writers for GBA, CDworld and Game Gizmo still have them.
How could a theatre owner know which movie (other than the big classics) would make money if she booked it?
Likewise, how does the owner of a TV network know which movie (other than the big classics) would make money if she booked it?
In the theater's case, why not have a suggestion box?
Parsing headlines is like parsing Chinese; with no articles, the reader needs to use a bit more context.
"Car cellphone bans" == "Restrictions on mobile phones in cars". (Any kind of restriction is called a "ban" in headlinese.) "Driving Bluetooth" == "Encouraging the development of Bluetooth technology". Thus, this story is about the fact that restrictions on mobile phones in cars have encouraged the development of Bluetooth technology.
has nobody heard of hands free headsets?
When a fellow talks on the phone while driving, even with a headset, the conversation still reduces his concentration to the level of a driver at the legal limit for alcohol intoxication.
The market for people who want to see older movies on the big screen is pretty limited, alas.
Really? I gather from previous Slashdot discussions about movie piracy that there exist lots of people who would still want to see movies on the big screen even if they are available otherwise. My own adoptive parents are two of them. Not everybody has a four-figure home theater rig.
So you are saying that specialty items should cost less than equivalent mass market items?
Because I don't work for a major record label, I don't claim to know first-hand why cassettes cost so much less, other than that people will pay more for CDs.
when does the 24-hour window begin? After paying the rental fee or after successful download of the film?
According to others in this discussion who claim to have actually implemented a system like this, the 24 hours begin when the user first presses Play. Then, after the movie expires, the user can whip out a credit card and get another 24 hours, sort of like Circuit City Divx.
why not make the experience more appealing? Headphones would be nice
Theaters already do that. They play the soundtrack on very low-power FM radio because some viewers may have hearing aids that are more compatible with their radio sets than with the theater's THX setup.
What is the big screaming deal about regional lockouts for movies?
The reason for region lockouts is that copyright law differens from country to country. For instance, Peter Pan and The Time Machine are still copyrighted in the EU but public domain in the USA. These works are still copyrighted by the Bono estate in the USA but public domain in Australia. Sometimes a studio has to release a movie in one market and use that market's box office revenue to pay the up-front royalties for licensing derivative work and public performance rights in another market.
but your latency is horrible :)
It's better than the latency of waiting for the movie to be played on basic cable (years, possibly infinite).
changing the date on your [PC's clock] fixed [older shareware] pretty handily.
However, newer shareware often downloads ads from the Internet (see Opera) and becomes freeware. Either that, or it goes online and checks for cryptographically signed timestamps that ultimately originate from the official U.S. time.
The only way it would ever work is if they partner with the ISP to host data on their internal network (or a dedicated link to their own network).
You mean like Akamai's core service? Apple already does this with QuickTime movie trailers.
your TV isn't big enough to show the movie as it was originally filmed, you have to go see it in the theatre!
Well, the movie that I want to watch isn't currently in theaters. And it won't be until the studios set up digital cinema so that theaters can dedicate half their screens to something other than recent releases.
But why do CDs cost much more than cassettes??
Higher demand for CDs than for cassettes leads to a higher price.
Are these sites RIAA supported?
Yes. As I stated, eMusic and Rhapsody have licensed the catalogs of major American record labels.
Cds are still in the 16-20 dollar range
So? Dollars are cheaper now.