BigKid.com.au

As much as I might think Sony is being stupid, you can’t really say that making mod-chips illegal doesn’t help reduce piracy.

Just compare the number of newspaper ads for console chippers compared to the number that were around 4 years ago.

DVD region-locking is totally stupid in today’s globalised marketplace and isn’t the same concept as the copying of games.

I agree that Sony have every right to fight piracy - just not at the expense of the consumer. Sony got themselves into this mess by implemting a region locking type system on the Playstation in the first place. Is there any real need to do this? Wouldn’t it be better to design a generic system that accepts any games and then formats the output to the relevant display for that region. Instead they choose not to and mod-chips have to be used to allow users to play games from other regions. That mod-chips are mainly used for piracy is probably true. The fact still remains that Sony shot themselves in the foot when they designed a system that needs to be legally modified to play content from other regions. If any PS2 could play any PS2 game or DVD then there would be no legal reason for mod-chips and Sony could put a stop to piracy a hell of a lot quicker.

Very true. That’s why the ACCC stepped in as a ‘friend of the court’ to help the defendant. I didn’t know until I read the article that the government (and labour) implemented an Australian counterpart to the infamous American “Digital Millenium Copyright Act” (signed into law by Clinton). So far it has been abused frequently in the states. It makes circumventing any form of copy protection illegal. While that sounds reasonable in theory, companies have already started abusing their power under this law. My view is that these laws are bad for consumers, bad for technological innovation & competition, and bad for business.

One such case last year involved a Russian who worked for a company that broke the Adobe e-book encryption. He was invited to the US to give a talk at the DEF CON conference on the lax security in their e-book product and as he was leaving back to Russia, Adobe got him arrested and put in prison.

Some open source guys reverse engineered Blizzard’s Battle.net code and created their own non-profit open source battle net server software - bnetd.org. Blizzard used a DMCA threat to force them to shut down the website.

Then we have DVD movies and video games. I believe the reason behind region protection is so that companies can manipulate prices depending on the area. I guess if they cordone off parts of the world, then depending on how DVDs are selling, it’s possible to discount one area while keeping prices inflated elsewhere.

At least in Australia we have the ACCC, who seem to be doing a decent job considering they are up against the full weight of the multinational bigwigs. Let’s hope the courts side with the consumers, and gut this stupid law of its potency.

The ACCC was the best thing that the GST brought in and if it wasn’t for the ACCC i have no doubt that we would already be in the same situation as the US

In the case of the Adobe and Dmitry case, he broke no laws in Russia when he created the software and when he went to the US he was arrested for breaking the US DMCA law. That is the same as arresting someone from Australia for Drinking when they are under the age of 21 even though they only drank when they were in Australia and were over 18 at the time.

The Bnetd.org guys even offered to incorporate the Blizzard key checking system into their software to stop Piracy and Blizzard weren’t interested - until then it was perfectly legal to reverse engineer a product.

I wonder what it would be like in the US if they had something similar to the ACCC - considering the impact that US law has on the rest of the western world its a shame they don’t (well at least to my knowledge)

well stop talking and do something…

Electronic Frontiers Australia

There are many organisations trying to fight the corporate take over of our world. Join one.

We can talk until we’re blue in the face, but unless you are actively lobbying your MP and anyone else you meet then the luddites led in Australia by Alston will ruin this country like they are ruining the US.

While you’re at it, fight for copyright reform. Current copyright laws are responsible in part for the stagnation of many creative endeavours.

Did you know that Disney built their empire on public domain culture, fabels etc? Yet every time their “IP” is due to enter the public domain they lobby to have copyright time lengthened, all while continuing to plunder the public domain.

Copyright was originally intended to grant a limited time publishing monopoly to the creator in order to encourage creativity. It was not a “copy protection” but a “publishing protection”. After this limited monopoly expired the creative work entered the public domain to stengthen “the commons” for all future creativity and culture.

Today’s copyright is technically for a limited time, but is continually extended. It has grown from the original 14 years (with an option for another 14) to life + 70 years for individuals and 90 years for corporations. or there abouts.

And while they’re at it, governments sponsored by large multinational corporations slowly errode your fair use rights.

Publishing of a copyright work is, always has been, and aways will be, and always should be illegal. But fair use rights for personal, education and academic endeavour should ALAWAYS be allowed for the good of the community. These rights are currently being erroded by DMCA and associated type laws the world over. Not to mention Digital Rights Management in hardware (see intel) and software (see Microsoft).

This is a serious and scary issue for the cultural future of our world. The sooner you understand it and fight it the more chance we have of avoiding a corporatised future.

On the topic of mod chips. They should be legal until the legitamate need for them is removed.

ie Once regioning is gone, the ONLY use for them would be piracy and thus you couldn’t honestly argue for one.

I’ll drink to that.