While perusing the thread that was locked earlier, I remembered hearing that while modchips were not expressly illegal, there were certain cases of producers/manufacturers getting raided.


I was wondering, since it's up in the air, what do you guys think? Should mod chips be illegal as per copy protection rights (they do allow piracy), or should they be allowed since it's YOUR system and YOUR private property and you can do what you want with it?

Personally, I'm of the idea that I should be able to do with my private property as I wish, and while mod chips do allow for piracy, that's like saying the Internet should be illegal because it allows you to download images/ISOs of games through torrents/IRC/DC++ et al, or torrenting should be illegal because it allows for the downloading of illegal materials (which is a very lively debate, which the RIAA and MPAA are slowly losing ground on). Mod chips have a LOT of purposes--anything from making your Xbox into a makeshift TiVo, to playing emulated games on the Xbox platform (emulation is not illegal), to playing homebrew on the Xbox platform.

Anyways, your thoughts?

I think Region encoding should be made totally illegal, thus negating the need for modchips to play import games.

Australia did something right when they banned region encoding.

Modchips should be mandatory

Yeah, the fact that the platform ships with the inability to play non-regional games, homebrew games, and the ability to expand without a mod chip is controlled market as it is. The function of a piece of hardware should not be limited by it's manufacturers and then legally protected in that limitation. I mean, what if a fridge was designed to only hold certain types of containers and specially designed cartons of milk that ONLY the fridge company's sister company makes? Not only is this fridge manufacturer one of 3 that all do the same thing, but it's also LEGALLY PROTECTED, so that you cannot alter the fridge to hold normal cartons of milk and normal food containers? Bad analogy, but you catch my drift. It's a monopoly on products, and it's NOT a monopoly that helps the consumer. (I'm referring to the fact that game designers must pay the console manufacturer to release a game for their system, which makes absolute legal sense, as it keeps the console manufacturer in business, and it allows the manufacturer the ability to determine what can and what can't be made for their system)

I have nothing against modding your console, if you do it yourself, but the distribution of copyrighted intellectual property is blatantly illegal. I don't think hacked (or even original) BIOS images should be distributed. It just draws too much attention from asswad ****tards that don't know what the **** they're doing, polluting console enthusiast forums with, "plz i need xbox cracked bios for cdrs cuz i lost my oringinel copy of harry potter kthx urgent," and the subsequent replies of people looking for the same thing.

You want to haxorz your X-Box, do it the right way. Read, learn, solder some ****ed-up interface cable and do it the **** yourself.

Not ony that, but I've long suspected that the real purpose of region coding on games/movies is to keep people from buying media for less in certain countries. It makes sense that It's just a subtle method of price fixing.

What countries sell legal copies that are cheaper? Every import I see costs out the wazoo because...well, it's an import.

Well the thing is there are mod chips out there that you can put custom BIOS' on, and come loaded with no specific BIOS. The Undiluted Platinum or whatever it's called for PSP doesn't come with any firmware loaded, but there's two very good uses for it--1) Using 1.5 firmware (which isn't illegal, wrong, or anything except against what Sony wants you to use) to play homebrew, and 2) making bricked PSP's useful again.

I'm not sure offhand, it is just a suspicion. I wouldn't put it past the **AA to try something like that, though.

I buy a lot of stuff from the US, the UK and so on because it's a helluva cheaper than buying it domestically. The purpose of the region coding is to screw the europeans over.

America, actually. To the UK, it's usually cheaper to import from the US.

The **AA has absolutely no control whatsoever over import costs. It's up to the importer to decide how much it is. That's why sometimes you'll find imports which are VERY reasonably priced.

It's mostly so other countries can't buy DVDs from here.

Because they are cheaper.