Only a pirate would turn a game console into a general purpose computing device. - by lost_soul
lost_soul on 4/8/2009 at 22:04
Quote Posted by Kuuso
Modifying consoles is illegal over there? We have companies doing it for money over here.
Apparently so. They've also managed to brainwash the masses. One time I went to a hardware store to find a screwdriver that would fit a Gamecube. They told me "But I thought you aren't supposed to open that". The machine was having trouble, crashing 10-20 minutes into a game, so I thought it may be overheating. I, (being an evil communist bastard) wanted to clean the machine out, rather than buy a new one.
Phatose on 5/8/2009 at 04:35
While I understand it's a slippery slope....let's do be honest, he wasn't doing this so people could run linux on a ps3, and we all know it.
van HellSing on 5/8/2009 at 08:12
I betcha he also modded PS2s for use in nukular missiles, terrist basterd :mad:
EvaUnit02 on 5/8/2009 at 08:19
Quote Posted by Al_B
From the article it sounds like he was modifying consoles for money (or selling modified consoles). If he just did it for his own use I very much doubt he would have been arrested.
Aigh, he was.
(
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/game-console-jailbreaking-arrest/)
Quote:
Crippen, in a telephone interview with Threat Level, said the purpose of the jailbreaking was not for illegal piracy, but to allow patrons to use decrypted copies of their own DRM-laden gaming software. The DMCA, however, is not on his side, especially because he is accused of profiting from his hacks.
“This if for your legally made backups. If you’re talking about piracy, I’m not helping you out,” he said.
With the Xbox360, he said, “It’s a given that any game will be scratched in that system. ”
The Entertainment Software Association tipped the Immigration and Customs Enforcement branch of the Homeland Security Department that Crippen was allegedly running the circumvention outfit from his house.
“Playing with games in this way is not a game, it is criminal,” Robert Schoch, an ICE agent, said in a statement.
The authorities said they seized a dozen consoles. Crippen said he charged about $30 a job.
The defendant suspected a former neighbor alerted the Entertainment Software Association. Federal agents then went undercover. “They got two systems done,” Crippen said.
Potential customers were alerted to him, he said, by “mostly word of mouth.”
“There was no advertising. There was none of that shit. I’ll tell you that much,” he said.
The DMCA, the law under which Crippen was charged, says, “no person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.”
Crippen appeared in Los Angeles federal court late Monday and was released on $5,000 bond.
He said it took about 10 minutes to jailbreak a console.
Where did he learn the skill?
“Google, man.”
Xenith on 5/8/2009 at 09:16
Pesky neighbors sticking their nose in other peoples business. :nono:
Ostriig on 5/8/2009 at 12:14
Quote Posted by Xenith
Pesky neighbors sticking their nose in other peoples business. :nono:
Reminds you of those stories of the "good old days", eh?
Don't like your neighbour? Report him for trafficking foreign currency modding consoles!This DMCA shit kinda sucks. Yeah, this guy was really asking for it, making a business out of an illegal act, but, technically, even the single act of modding your own console is criminalised. And that's without the necessity of actual piracy or other forms of copyright infringement occurring. Whether or not the authorities actually follow through with tracking down and raiding owners who've modded their own consoles, the simple fact that you're prohibited from fucking with your own property regardless of subsequent intent or action sucks serious ass.
EvaUnit02 on 5/8/2009 at 13:15
Hmmmm, what's the American legalise hard line on region-modding DVD players and replacing the firmware of portable music players?
demagogue on 5/8/2009 at 14:05
I remember reading all these books where some famous guy (e.g. Richard Feynman) goes on and on about how they took stuff apart as a kid and tweaked them -- tv's, radios, cars -- to make them better, that that was their first tryst into technology, and they said every kid in the world should be encouraged to do that sort of thing.
Now we have a whole generation of kids coming up with the message that it's wrong to crack open the cover, much less to make it better, and they'll grow up thinking it's effing sacred magic or something. That's the part I don't like. The whole important thing about liberal democracy from the start was that companies couldn't claim a kind of special status that makes their way and their gizmos sacred and untouchable. I realize protecting IP is a dilemma for publishers, but going to these lengths also rubs me the wrong way.
steo on 5/8/2009 at 15:45
Quote Posted by Evil Hacker Dude
“This if for your legally made backups. If you're talking about piracy, I'm not helping you out,” he said.
With the Xbox360, he said, “It's a given that any game will be scratched in that system. ”
He's got a damn good point. Even though it's obvious that he was making money from allowing people to play pirated games; by fucking him in the arse, the law is saying any modification to any hardware which potentially allows you to circumvent DRM is illegal, regardless of whether or not you actually do anything illegal with it. The only difference between what he was doing and no CD cracks and backup/virtual CDs is that there's hardware involved. God forbid they ever make programs like Daemon tools or Alcohol 120% illegal, because they're so bloody useful for when you don't want to carry around a hundred CDs.
Tonamel on 5/8/2009 at 17:09
Quote Posted by EvaUnit02
Hmmmm, what's the American legalise hard line on region-modding DVD players and replacing the firmware of portable music players?
As I recall, one of the main points of the DMCA is "It's illegal to circumvent DRM." Even on a product you own, for personal use. That's why there was all that hoopla about playing DVDs on Linux being illegal.
One of the more hilarious points in the original bill, that thankfully has since been phased out (I hope) was "Any tool that can be used to circumvent DRM is illegal" which criminalized things like felt-tip pens and scissors.
