The Lik-Sang Saga Continues 138
The sage of Lik-Sang has continued with Dan Gillmor's recent visit to the region. He and Alex Kampl met and talked for a while. The comparasions are good ones - and ones that are clearly enough drawn that everyone should see the loss of their rights.
Re:Software (Score:4, Insightful)
The fact of the matter is, as long as there is a disabling technology (Macrovision et al), there will be a re-enabling technology (Macrovision Disabler) which renders this useful again.
The reason why there is so much money in piracy is because the entertainment industry is creating opportunities for piracy to make money. If DVDs weren't (a) encrypted, (b) so expensive, then there wouldn't be so much of a call for ways round the problem, and these semi-legal* systems wouldn't have to be made.
*semi-legal: Illegality under US law is constantly under doubt; such actions in other countries are often legal.
The root cause (Score:3, Insightful)
The article talks compares this to auto makers authorizing repair only at specific places. Such a practice will be shot down immediately. But in case of the e-world, the big cartels have hyped this up as a specific domain where rules are different. And the law makers are also beginning to see this as such. Unless we break this mindset of the e-world as something different and obscure such practices will go unnoticed. This will keep happening until the common man, the silent majority does not start using infotech in daily life. For example if such a practice came in a budget automobile, there would be an outcry, because many many people use it, but in case of DVD, a small percentage of the users will ever go to Europe to Buy DVDs. We need to go a long way.. and going by the incresing restrictions on internet.. this will take a long time. No matter how hard the detracters try, this revolution will come and nobody can do anything about it :)
Re:Make the Xbox mods *clearly* for Linux use (Score:4, Insightful)
95%, at least, of modchips are used for backing up games/getting around regional protection/playing warez copies, and a defense for that type of usage (esp. warez) would not be feasible imho.
Re:Their 'rights'? (Score:2, Insightful)
But also consider the other applications here. I've never owned or created a bootleg of a console game, but I own 2 mod chips, one for my Playstation and one for my Sega Saturn? Know why? I import games. I like playing games enough that I'm willing to sit down with my rudimentary japanese, a good Japanese-English dictionary and puzzle through them.
You should really save your self-righteous fury for an issue that matters, and unless you make video game content please step off the soap box about the moral implications of cheating. Most developers put "cheat codes" in their own games for internal testing because when they want to test a certain aspect of the game they don't want to have to go through the whole damn thing on their own. They also know that people outside the company do indeed get the codes, thats why they make them interesting, like warcraft 2... Ever play that with the "Make it So" code? hell that will give you and an opponent armies like mad in mere minutes. Makes for good fast bruiser battles and a true test of multitasking skills.
Re:Their 'rights'? (Score:2, Insightful)
While the idea you are trying to form to push the buttons of the community are a valiant effort, the example is fairly flawed. For one you mention that "could" plug the censor device into your DVD player. Obviously you think it's an option and your point if moot. Not going into the technological problems companies could have designing such a thing, the only way anyone would go to arms is when a device like that is standard and runs activated when you buy it and the feature can't be turned off. A company who made this would shoot themselves in the foot releasing something like that.
I'm not into piracy, however I think people should have the option to cheat at their games. Let's face it, not everyone is gifted at being a joystick jock. They don't have the time or patience to hone their skills (and don't even say "well they shouldn't play video games if they don't want to do it well" With that mentality everyone would be at home staring at a wall) but they still enjoying playing. Insert a cheat device (Gameshark, etc.) and away they go. It's sad that these devices can let pirate copies function as well, but that's not what the intention is behind these devices.
As for the label you put on those who use such devices (you know, the subhuman ADD-stricken creatures have minimal social skills at the best of times, and prefer robotically entering a long stream of hex codes via their joypad than gaining any enjoyment from life), maybe you should go outside and see the sun more often. And I'm not talking about that sunset background you have on your desktop.
Re:Their 'rights'? (Score:4, Insightful)
The Japanese software/hardware thing aside, there are other uses for cheat devices. Personally, when i buy a game (my favourite genre being RPGs), i play it as a challenge, an interactive story that desires my hand in completing it. However, once i've beaten the game, and got the satisfaction of completing it myself, i may want to play it again. When i play Final Fantasy VIII for the six hundredth time, am i playing it to relive the billion annoying random battles that i had to spend hours on defeating insignificant enemies? No, i'm playing it to relive the story. Using a cheat device here to maybe boost my attack strength, or give me all the spells, or give me quick level gain, is not disrespecting the developers. I paid my money, i got the satisfaction of beating it once. Now i want to relive the story, and i don't want to be bothered by the less-than-stellar parts of the game.
Besides that. This isn't the way i would do it it, but if someone felt so inclined to purchase a $60 video game and cheat the whole way through, fine. Let them. They paid 60 fucking dollars for it. Maybe the people that are ultimately "behind" the game will object, saying that that's not what it was intended for... but to Nintendo, Sony, Square, Sega, etc., IT'S JUST ANOTHER 60 DOLLARS.
As for piracy... there's two sides to this. Mod chips != piracy. More often than not, they do, yes. But this is like the whole RIAA thing and disabling CDs on computers and all that jazz. Just because some people rip the CDs that they buy and distribute them to millions of people doesn't mean the legit people like me, who rip their music to play on their PC because they don't feel like swapping through hundreds of CDs, should have to pay for that. The same goes for pirating. Just because there's a bunch of pirates out there ripping off Sony for their games doesn't mean i shouldn't be allowed to buy an import game and play it in my modded PlayStation. The money goes back to Sony anyway, why does it matter?
You've picked up some misconceptions about mod chips, ace. Not everybody is a bad guy.
Re:Make the Xbox mods *clearly* for Linux use (Score:3, Insightful)
That IS how it could and should work... (Score:3, Insightful)
So I think I can understand why the original poster was a little disgusted with licensing.
Sean
Re:Make the Xbox mods *clearly* for Linux use (Score:3, Insightful)
Ever wonder why people on /. just make shit up with no substantiation? There are multiple non-infringing uses for lockpicks, "Slim Jims" and the like. It certainly is not just the police who can own or use them. For example, you can buy one right here [spy-store.com], long with other lock-defeating devices. It is not illegal to own lockpicks or a Slim Jim, it is just illegal to use them to aid in the commission of a crime such as burglary. Just like it should not be illegal to sell modchips, it should only be illegal to use if you are using it to play pirated games. There are substantial non-infringing uses, I hope the courts see that and allow the sale of the chips to continue.
Re:Licensing has gone too far. (Score:5, Insightful)
It would indeed be great to buy (the right to watch) a movie on a DVD, and for little or no extra cost, be able to copy it to video tape to watch elsewhere in the house. For such a future to exist, all your entertainment media systems would have to talk to each other to determine that any given "license" wasn't being used in more places in your house than you have licenses for.
Better yet, instead of multiple DVD, VCR and CD players around the house, have a central server that "checks out" a movie to the living room TV and won't allow it to play in the bedroom until it finishes, or stops, in the living room.
I always thought (Score:2, Insightful)
But with that said, making backups is important. Especially with kids. Although I preach til I'm blue in the face to my kids on keeping care of their CD's, they never fail to get scratched a little. I've been lucky so far that they haven't completely ruined a CD yet, but I imagine it will happen sometime.
Re:money? (Score:2, Insightful)
Say, for example, that Sony doesn't have any problems with a particular mod chip, but can't let another type to so much as exist (the exact kind of each chip doesn't matter). If the company let some chippers continue business unchallenged, but files suit and/or initiates criminal investigations against others, then they'll have to defend in open a court a policy that makes (arguably invidious) distinctions between "good" and "bad" mod chips. Since distinctions of that fine and subjective a grain are exceedingly hard to defend, especially in successive trials, the companies are a whole lot safer spending the cash to go after mod chippers in general.
What this also means is that the situation really isn't as cut-and-dried as "they're taking away our consumer rights;" to protect against selective abuse of the laws, our legal system(s) require companies to defend their rights across the board, or accept a very truncated version of them. Given that choice, they'll litigate every time.