No Freedom To Tinker: Arrested For Modding Legally Purchased Game Consoles

from the no-innovation-allowed dept

This is hardly a new issue, but it's still troubling every time we hear a story like this. For years, there's been a fight over whether or not it should be legal to modify a legally purchased game console. Those in favor of the right point out that if you've legally bought something, you should always be free to tinker with it. That's just common sense. Those against it say that modifying a gaming console is done mainly to play pirated games or to cheat, which can cause problems for legit players. I find the latter responses unpersuasive, as those are technological or business model issues that can be solved in other ways, rather than a legal issue. But, thanks to that good old DMCA, that's now how the law works.

Instead, we get stories about students getting arrested for "jailbreaking" a video game console. It's interesting to see the use of the word "jailbreaking" here, as that's more commonly been applied to iPhones -- where it's common. Usually, this action has been referred to as "modding" or "modchipping" when it came to consoles. But the basic fact is that the actions are effectively the same -- and both should be perfectly legal. Modifying legally purchased hardware should never be against the law. It's possible that you could then use that modified hardware to break the law -- and no one's saying that's okay. But the act itself of modifying the devices should never be against the law -- especially where it could lead to a ten-year prison sentence, as in this case.

This particular case involves a student who would modify game consoles to let people make use of backup copies of their own games on the consoles. Making a backup copy, by itself, has been well established as being perfectly legal. The problem here (once again) is the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause, which makes it illegal to circumvent any kind of DRM, even if it's for a totally legal purpose. It's difficult to see how that's constitutional. Making it illegal to do something that's perfectly legal, just because someone puts any kind of DRM in the middle doesn't make any sense at all. It's a ridiculous scenario that this kid is now facing 10 years in jail for making video game consoles more useful, allowing people to use perfectly legal backup copies of their games. But, such is the state of the DMCA and copyright laws these days.

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Do Game Consoles Sold In Europe Have Power Buttons?

from the dept-of-redundancy dept

As Mike noted earlier, a new EU study says that video games are good for kids. But the BBC picked up on another angle of the report, saying that games should have a "red button" parents can press to disable inappropriate games their kids are playing. That makes you wonder: if game consoles sold in Europe don't have power buttons, how do people there turn them on? Because isn't that what such a "red button" would be, just a good ol' power switch? Ok, to be fair, many consoles' power buttons these days aren't red, but still -- if parents need a way to stop their kids playing, new laws or rules to force console makers to add a "red button" are pretty unnecessary when parents already have the ability to turn the consoles or computers off. But a law forcing parents to take responsibility is a much harder sell than putting blame on the game makers.

Carlo Longino is an expert at the Insight Community. To get insight and analysis from Carlo Longino and other experts on challenges your company faces, click here.

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Homeland Security Tries To Make Dubious Connection Between Mod Chippers And Money Laundering

from the don't-they-have-something-better-to-do? dept

We've written about the mod chip saga for years. Basically, mod chips let you change what a video game console can do. It's often used by people who want to play unauthorized games, but there are legitimate reasons to modify your video game system. Considering that it's a purchased item, you would think that the owner would have every right to tinker with it however they saw fit -- but you would be wrong. Buzz writes in to let us know that mod chips are back in the headlines as again as customs agents raided 32 homes and businesses to look for mod chips. It's not clear why the feds should get involved in what someone does to legally purchased hardware, but that's the world we live in these days. Thanks to the DMCA, having anything that can circumvent copy protection is illegal. The press release quotes from the Department of Homeland Security are really stepping into ridiculous territory, though: "These crimes cost legitimate businesses billions of dollars annually and facilitate multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering." That's right. First cite bogus claims about imaginary "losses" and then, to make it actually sound like a big deal, try to imply that it's involved in organized crime by saying it's associated with smuggling and money laundering. Of course, there wouldn't be any issue with "smuggling" if the law wasn't criminalizing modifying a product that you legitimately purchased.

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