Xbox Live Class Action Being Investigated 453
eldavojohn writes "Were you negatively affected by the recent ban on Xbox Live for modifying hardware you own? Did you modify yours for homebrew or altering things you paid for and not to engage in piracy? Abington IP would like to hear from you and may be able to help. From that page: 'If you are an Xbox Live subscriber, had your modified Xbox console banned from Xbox Live, were not refunded a prorated sum for the time left on your subscription, or have experienced other problems as a result of being banned, and would like to participate in a class action against Microsoft, please submit your information below.' Someone is finally standing up for the legitimate hobbyists. Should Microsoft worry?"
Re:Worry? About what? (Score:5, Interesting)
Yes, Microsoft should be worried.
"The Xbox360 will still work, but the Xbox Live service will not." --- False. Parts of offline play are disable.
If you READ the class action lawsuit, it has nothing to do with the banning from XBL, but rather the offline features that were disabled/modified as a result.
Very interesting article regarding the bannings: http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/2397134/analysis_why_microsofts_plan_to_ban.html
"I was at GameStop the other day and listened to a customer's questions about Microsoft's banning of modded X-Box 360s. The worker tried to explain that this banning was for those people that hacked their X-Box 360. The customer was worried that if her child downloaded any kind of content through the X-Box 360 that this might constitute a reason for a banning for her son's system. She was confused, so she decided to purchase a PS3 instead. I was told by the manager at that GameStop that this was not an isolated incident. They had received over 50 calls that day about the banning.
What Microsoft appears to have forgotten by earmarking this time of year for the banning of modded X-Box 360s is that most of the systems that are purchased this time of year is by parents and grandparents. The game systems that are purchased this time of year are usually done by those that do not have a firm grasp on the industry. Simply put, the systems are usually purchased by people that are fairly clueless about video games."
Re:lol @ 'finally standing up' (Score:4, Interesting)
>>>You AGREED TO THAT and now it has happened.
P.S.
In the Paypal case the paypal lawyers made that same argument ("users signed the end user agreement and license"), which the Federal judge negated by saying citizens can Not sign-away legally-protected rights. In effect he nullified paypal's EULA. I fully-expect the same to happen with Microsoft's Xbox Live EULA.
Re:lol @ 'finally standing up' (Score:1, Interesting)
They didn't take any functionality from your XBox at all. They booted you off THEIR NETWORK.
When you first got on the network the agreement was that if you mod your XBox your booted off.
You AGREED TO THAT and now it has happened.
It is COMPLETELY legal and frankly fair.
In Scandinavia you are allowed to mod your consoles for the purpose of playing your own backups, homebrew etc.
When you buy a piece of equipment, the law states that you are legally allowed to do whatever you want with said equipment.
If Microsoft was to state that by accepting this agreement (for the live service) Microsoft's staff would be allowed to rape your children, Would that be legal?
Their EULA for the live service is in contradiction to the rights / laws in many countries.
Re:Terms of use seem pretty clear (Score:3, Interesting)
What part about removing MS functionality not related to Xbox Live do you not understand?
Re:lol @ 'finally standing up' (Score:5, Interesting)
Perhaps. But the kicker here is that the Xbox 360 is unable to be used on any other network. Microsoft has taken key steps to ensure that 360s cannot be used over VPNs or any other network other than a local LAN. Individual 360s pass encrypted keys to one another upon first connection and if they do not receive an appropriate replay in 30ms, a connection is not made. It was a blatant attempt to disable alternative services like Xlink Kai and completely lock down online play on the console.
We are dealing with a Walled Garden here. Microsoft is exerting complete control over 360 consoles regardless of who owns them. If it were possible to connect to VPNs like Xlink Kai or others, this ban would be a problem. But it's not. Microsoft sold these guys a console which they said could be used to play online games, and now these console can't be used to so much as send a private message.
This is akin to Linksys deciding that installing Linux on your router means they can disable it from connecting WAN's anymore. Sure, you can use it in a LAN, but is this the product you paid for?
I'm sympathetic to Microsoft's position with regard to cheating and glitching on their network(Though I'm sceptical modded consoles are a major player here). I'm also sympathetic with regard to piracy on modded consoles. But they dug themselves into a hole here when they locked down the online capabilities of their machine without advertising that fact.
Personally, I feel that paying to play online is a rip off anyway. Perhaps this will convince people that subscribing to a game service that treats you like a consumer instead of a player isn't in their long term interest. If you're relying on someone else's servers to play your games, then it's only a matter of time before you won't be able to play those games anymore.
Re:There isn't really any homebrew on the 360 (Score:3, Interesting)
Is that all there is to prevent pirated or "backup" copies? The DVD drive firmware?? I thought you had to chip the console to do that. It sounds more like they wanted to punish those who took it upon themselves to fix the crappy DVD drives that scratch discs all the time. Please correct me if I am incorrect about this.
Re:lol @ 'finally standing up' (Score:4, Interesting)
"Perhaps. But the kicker here is that the Xbox 360 is unable to be used on any other network."
Which is why I don't own one.
Nobody put a gun to your head and made you buy an XBox. I'm a PC gamer because I appreciate the freedom to use the FULL INTERNET, and not be locked down to some service like XBox Live. When the orig. XBox was first coming out with online functionality, I thought "Oh, cool. Consoles are finally catching up to what PCs have been able to do for 5 or 6 years now. Better late than never, I guess". Then I read that even though it used the Internet, it would only connect to Microsoft's servers, and I thought, "That's just like Microsoft - use an Internet connection which can connect to the whole world, but then lock you to connecting to 1 server."
Seriously, people need to start taking responsibility for their buying decisions. You know what Microsoft and Apple are like, yet people moan and whine about how they lock what their users can do with the XBox or iPhone. If you don't like the restrictions the seller is putting on you, just don't buy what they are selling. If enough people do that, the problem will fix itself. But, too many people want to run to the government after the fact and complain.
Do I think this is kind of bone-headed on the part of Microsoft? Yes, I do. But, I agree that it's their network, and they can basically set the terms of use for it. Caveat emptor.