Two game shop owners in Los Angeles have been charged under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for selling “modded” Xbox consoles. They were adding the mod chip and installing a larger harddrive. The cNet News article indicated that they were also selling pirated games but the charge was "conspiring to traffic in a technology used to circumvent a copyright protection” indicating that the mod chip was the significant crime.
Xbox modding can be useful for more than just cheating or stealing games. There are many useful applications that can be installed by "modding" the console. For example apps that allow it to function as a media center for playing different audio or video formats. There is even a version of the Linux OS that will run on the xbox allowing it to function as an internet pc when not gaming.
A related cNet News article reports Microsoft was taking legal action against a mod chip manufacturer.
This leads us the question, is it our right to modify a device that we own, and to what extent? Stealing games is a crime and cheating is just a HUGE pain, but should the mods and mod chips themselves be illegal? What should our rights as consumers be verses the rights of the manufacturer to protect their content?
A related cNet News article reports Microsoft was taking legal action against a mod chip manufacturer.
This leads us the question, is it our right to modify a device that we own, and to what extent? Stealing games is a crime and cheating is just a HUGE pain, but should the mods and mod chips themselves be illegal? What should our rights as consumers be verses the rights of the manufacturer to protect their content?
