chipping ps2 now illegal

[ohmygodwhathaveyoudone]

apparently as from 22/7/04 it is now illegal to chip playstation 2's,i think this will only put the demand even greater as the general public will think it will be cool & brag to their mates how dodgy it is
next ford will be telling you not to modify your car as it holds the copyright on mondeos,they'll say you can't enhance it even though u now own it
you can't get chips now for love or money on the web,but if anyone wants some just ask

 

[TexMex]

Years ago, I designed a built a midi interface for the sinclair spectrum. Once I had it up and running I found the lack of memory to be a real issue so I then blew my own rom with all the routines to connect to the interface, which then turned it into a dedicated midi computer.

Having successfully got this one running, I thought, hang on, I could buy sinclair spectrums by the shed load, modify them and then sell them on as cheep midi computers.

I approached Amstrad (who, by then had bought the rights from Sinclair) and asked for a deal for a few hundred. Their response was that I would be "infringing copywright". Eh? If I was actually copying anythng of thiers then it would be a breach of copywright. But in this case, I would be paying them for every unit that I sold!

No amount of logic could sway them, so I gave it up as a lost cause. I suspect that, had I managed to get hold of the things and started selling them on, in the event of a court case, I would have been exhonorated.

I can understand manufacturers wanting to apply restrictive practices, where it suits their commercial interests, but to have this backed up by law seems ludicrous.

Do you have any further details of the law in question? I'd like to see a copy of it's wording to get a better idea of it's full consequences.

 

[AdamW]

In some countries (Spain for one) the courts decided that once someone has bought a PS2 it is up to them how they use it. So, whilst copying games is illegal, it is not illegal to own a chipped PS2.

You know, all the DVD and computer game companies have brought this on themselves. Instead of producing region-encoded discs and forcing us to wait behind the US to get our latest films and games, they should do simultaneous releases. This has been done with several blockbuster films: instead of coming out here 3 months after the US, they are actually released 5 or 6 hours earlier here because it is the same day! Did you know, they used to use the excuse "but the films have to be translated for European cinemas". Hmmmm, when was the last time you heard an American film dubbed into English?!

If Sony abolished region coding on their games, then the only reason to own a chip would be to play copied games. THEN they have a right to moan, but not before.

As an aside, I hope you are all aware that in this country we have no "fair use" laws, so it is illegal to buy a CD, store the original away safely and make a copy. Even to stick it onto a tape for the car. Totally against the law.

 

[ohmygodwhathaveyoudone]

texmex
check this out
http:/news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3915179.stm

 

[nstreet]

As an aside, I hope you are all aware that in this country we have no "fair use" laws, so it is illegal to buy a CD, store the original away safely and make a copy. Even to stick it onto a tape for the car. Totally against the law. ..

But you can copy a software cd and keep it as an archive copy incase your original gets damaged

 

[TexMex]

Outrageous. Using the same precedent, the copy and paste functionallity should be totally removed from all copies of Windows.

How often have you opened a PDF file and decided to save it for later. In the menu of Accrobat Reader the "save" function is dissabled. All you do is right click the hyperlink that led you there and click "Save target as..". Is internet Explorer then a tool for circumventing Adobes security.

What about VHS recorders, photocopiers, Ball point pens. Absolute lunacy. The worlds gone mad

 

[AdamW]

But you can copy a software cd and keep it as an archive copy incase your original gets damaged

I remember when software came on floppy disks the first thing the manual said was "make a backup and use that". I suppose that by saying that they were giving explicit permission to make a back-up, but when you buy a music CD it just tells you "copy this and we'll have your ass in a cell with Big Bubba"

Now they don't, and anyone who has tried to backup the CDs of their PC games recently will have found it hard. The daft thing is, the pirates will always find a way around the copy protection, making it more difficult doesn't dissuade them it just makes life harder for the rest of us!!!

 

[mildmanneredjanitor]

It all comes down to greed at the end of the day...

The criminal element is in it to make huge quick profits.

The pirates are in it for the same reason!

If they only reduced the price of music, video and games, this would make it less desirable for piracy?

I love music, but very rarely buy any due to the cost. If I do buy music, it is usualy compiltation albums as I rarely like all the music on an album anyway!

I'm sure if music etc. was much cheaper, then they would sell shed loads more. I like the Ipod idea, but you can't beat just buying a cd and playing it, without all that faffing about!

DVD's are my thing at the mo, can't help keeping my eye open in Woolies for the reduced ones! Don't mind paying £6 for a film I'll watch over and over again! Considering a top title is about £3.25 to rent!

 

[AdamW]

You see CDs are still the thing for me, not because of the tactile aspect so much. More that I refuse to pay good money for a reduced quality version from the internet. Yes, the compression algorithms they use are very good, but I can still hear a very slight difference.

I know DVDs are compressed, but the quality of them is far superior to anything else. Paying for MP3s instead of CDs is a step backwards in my opinion!

A few CDs have been released (most notably a Beastie Boys album) that automatically install an anti-copy driver on your PC when you insert the disc. You can circumvent this by holding down "shift" or just disabling autorun, but the fact is, software that installs itself, without your sayso, that impedes the functionality of your computer, is a virus. So I can't wait until PC users the world over take a class action against the record companies and sue for the time wasted in sorting their PC out! I think £50 an hour should cover it, 2 hours of figuring out what the heck is wrong, 3 hours of data back-up, 2 hours of harddisc formatting and OS installing, 2 hours getting all the updates and drivers from the net... Oh, forgot to include the overheads for paying for the internet! All in all, nearly £500 for each £20 CD they sell... I can dream.

 

[ljdottir]

RIDICULOUS! Have Sony made that decision just in the UK or worldwide? What are they going to do, track down everyone who fits the chips and confiscate the PS2s from people who've had it done?

Years ago I had the original Playstation. A big fan of the Final Fantasy games which come out in Japan often a year before they do here, I paid about £100 to have the PS chipped, £70 for the Japanese game, and then still bought the UK game when it came out. So Sony still made quite a bit of money from me, and yet that now would be illegal. Stupid, stupid, stupid.

People should concentrate on tackling important issues instead of going on about DVD and film piracy and spending millions telling kids not to chip their games consoles.

 

[AdamW]

No, it is a UK thing. It is all about the interpretation of a European law.

In the UK, it was ruled that it is illegal to own a PS chip. I doubt they will retrospectively prosecute you if you already have one!

In other countries they have ruled that as soon as you hand over your cash for the PS2, it is your property and thus you can do what the heck you like with it. Piracy is still illegal, but having the ability to play pirated games isn't. In the same way that shooting people is illegal, but owning a gun isn't.

Now, obviously, a 14 year old having the ability to copy his mate's game is FAR more of a crime than murder, so they are making it illegal to own the chips.

Remember that in the UK it is illegal to make a backup of your music, video and games discs, even for your own use. We do NOT have the Fair Use rules they have in other countries e.g. the states.

 

[big-all]

so there we have it condoning a monopolies
ability to overcharge what happend to competition

big all

 

[ZenStalinist]

approached Amstrad (who, by then had bought the rights from Sinclair) and asked for a deal for a few hundred. Their response was that I would be "infringing copywright". Eh? If I was actually copying anythng of thiers then it would be a breach of copywright. But in this case, I would be paying them for every unit that I sold!

No amount of logic could sway them, so I gave it up as a lost cause. I suspect that, had I managed to get hold of the things and started selling them on, in the event of a court case, I would have been exhonorated.

Unusual. I take it back in the old days that Amstrad were quite strict then. Nowadays there one of the few companies that allows their ROMs to be freely used for emulation purposes, and don't tend to bother with their copyright legacy.

As for the EUCD, I am totally against it, it is utter lunacy.

I think copyright should exist to protect artists and inventors, but not going in the direction of the yankees.

Who's up for writing to your local MP and Euro MP on this one?

 

[waran]

On the issue of copyright being a good thing, wasn't the reason that microsoft did so well was that IBM when they started out making PCs, let other people clone them and therefore they became the dominant computer in the workplace even though Apple had the better system. Surely letting people distribute your product more widely (within limits) is good for your company after all there will be some products that they would need to get from the parent company?

 

[ohmygodwhathaveyoudone]

sony have shot themselves in the foot as you have to buy a ps2 to have it chipped,you have to have the original in order to back it up.
sega dreamcast was a decent console but a pain to chip there for it died a death which i imagine nintendo gamecube will.
bill gate must be happy as the xbox is so easy to chip/program which i think is intetional seeing what sony has done