I can’t believe they were stupid enough to actually have games on the drives.
Authorities arrested two store employees on charges of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and conspiracy to traffic in a device that circumvents technological protection measures, the ESA said.
:(
Good. I hope it’s the start of a trend.
Read the thing I bolded for a reason that this is a Bad Thing.
There’s nothing wrong with modchipping, selling a chipped console, or copying games to your hard drive. If they were selling pirated games, fine, arrest them. But display models with games copied onto them? No big deal if you own the game.
And before posting some rant about justifying piracy, I’m not. I am just pointing out that selling things which possibly allow you to break the law is not immoral and should not be illegal. (Such as a crowbar)
Added to which, “device that circumvents technological protection measures” covers a lot of ground…
It’s crazy - there’s a mall in Toronto that sells pirated DVDs, and a couple of months ago, one of the Canadian TV stations did an expose on it. The next day, I believe there there was a bust and all the places shut down. A month later, all the stores were back open.
Well, in the U.S.A. we have the DMCA which makes it very clearly illegal to bypass copy protection or to sell devices that bypass copy protection.
Morally of course I don’t have a problem with chipping either, but the law is fairly clear on this one. This is why Sony/MS/Nintendo were able to get so many modchip makers in legal trouble.
Yes, the DMCA is immoral in my opinion. Probably this will be a bad test case, as they were probably selling pirated games.
[size=2]Edited after I misread post above[/size]
Well, in the U.S.A. we have the DMCA which makes it very clearly illegal to bypass copy protection or to sell devices that bypass copy protection.
Morally of course I don’t have a problem with chipping either, but the law is fairly clear on this one. This is why Sony/MS/Nintendo were able to get so many modchip makers in legal trouble.[/quote]
Yes, the DMCA is precisely what I take issue with. Almost anything could be ruled illegal under the DMCA. A fucking CD burner could be ruled illegal. Or Daemon-tools. Or a no-cd crack, even if you bought the game. Etc. It’s a fucking bullshit law.
Well, in the U.S.A. we have the DMCA which makes it very clearly illegal to bypass copy protection or to sell devices that bypass copy protection.
Morally of course I don’t have a problem with chipping either, but the law is fairly clear on this one. This is why Sony/MS/Nintendo were able to get so many modchip makers in legal trouble.[/quote]
Seems very similiar to the DSS / Satellite battles. Technology, relentless pursuit of “offenders”, and getting the laws changed has the those companies winning the war.
I’m absolutely baffled by why these console makers aren’t integrating everything together so that the console mainboard has like 3 chips on it. One graphics processer, one cpu, and one everything-else. They move enough volume to make it feasible to design and fab a custom chip to do all their functions and it would make it really hard for people to tinker. Maybe it’s a cost issue in the ultra-competitive world of consoles.
The DMCA would disagree with you.
[size=2]If it were a person.[/size]
I think it would be cost prohibitive and unwise to pu the BIOS on the same chip as everything else. Not to mention that the CPU, video and buss chips are often from different companies.
Like… a pencil?
Like… a pencil?[/quote]exactly. congress stuck their heads up their asses on that one.
I think the DVDs at Image and Sound are actually Hong Kong DVDs in NTSC format. They aren’t burnt copies. Doesn’t make it right. but at $20 for three, how can you go wrong!?
So… what about the possibility that they were ripping the games as a matter of convenience and selling the ripped games along with the systems?
I think the DVDs at Image and Sound are actually Hong Kong DVDs in NTSC format. They aren’t burnt copies. Doesn’t make it right. but at $20 for three, how can you go wrong!?[/quote]
Well, it’s not like those HK DVDs are just imports… they’re bootlegged DVDs that are pressed and sold en masse by the Triad. They are, in fact, burnt copies – just not burnt by the store.