Nintendo On the Hunt For More Scalps 232
rjch writes "After its recent win against mod chip piracy in the Australian Federal courts, Nintendo is now on the prowl for other companies to sue. 'Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise the gaming industry by using all means available to it under the law. In particular, Nintendo is currently contemplating bringing further actions against other sellers of game copying devices in Australia.' The game company said since 2008 it had pursued over 800 actions in 16 countries to stop game piracy, confiscating 'well over' half a million game copiers for the Nintendo DS. The company said piracy affected sales, the price of video games, and employment in the video game industry."
Reader daria42 sends in a related piece asking whether Nintendo is being too harsh over this and the recent $1.5 million settlement with a man who leaked New Super Mario Bros. Wii.
Homebrew 90% of the reason I bought a DS (Score:5, Interesting)
Personally, looking at what homebrew was available and such for a DS was a large portion of the reason I bought it in the first place. I also got good use out of DSLinux for random stuff until I got my ipod touch (jailbroken, of course) which gives me everything dslinux has and more.
It's a shame there's not a better way to separate out the homebrew and piracy. Although I suppose Nintendo probably wouldn't like the homebrew either since it's "competition"
Re:Right to Tinker. (Score:2, Interesting)
All this crap preventing me from running Linux on my XBox without screwing up Live (if I wanted it) is bull. Go away, it's mine - you don't like that? In a perfect world it wouldn't be my problem, but hey, we get the best laws money can buy.
You're half right. You own the XBOX, you should have the freedom to tinker. You don't own Live. It's a service, which runs on servers owned and maintained by Microsoft. They (rightfully) are able to do whatever they want with their networks, including but not limited to kicking off modded consoles.
What are they thinking? (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Right to Tinker. (Score:2, Interesting)
And conversely, Microsoft wants people who will be connecting to their matchmaking systems to have stock, default hardware. Microsoft wants to mitigate issues causes by people interested in cheating online. Microsoft wants to minimize the time that they have to spend on CSR because of the modding community.
I just want to be able to boot into Linux, have all the fun I want compiling my kernal or what-not *THEN* shutdown Linux, boot normally into XBox and join a live game and *NOT* have my console banned because some nefarious unsupported hack was detected.
Microsoft gives you this option. Go buy a developer kit for several thousand dollars. You can have your cake and eat it too.
{Writers note: don't get me wrong. I hate the DMCA, I hate copywrong restrictions, I hate DRM. But, in the same regard, Microsoft has it's own rights too. Your freedom to tinker stops at the front door of Microsofts' property. Their property being their servers.}
Re:Right to Tinker. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Right to Tinker. (Score:5, Interesting)
By forcing me to share partitions and software and bricking the console on system updates if I make my own Freedom, isn't that tying the issues?
You're not forced to share partitions. You can swap hard disks without even opening the console. Is it arduous to have to do this? Sure. Is there some other way to be sure that you're not using a rootkit to cheat? Nothing that Microsoft is capable of, that's for damned sure. Preventing the user from tampering with the operating system is the only responsible way to control cheating on Xbox Live. It's also the only way to ensure that users aren't taking content which Microsoft has promised will be protected out of the system. And of course it doesn't actually ensure that, but it does raise the bar considerably.
If you want to mess with the system, that is your right, as you say. And if Microsoft wants to ban you from Xbox Live as a result of messing with the system, that is their right. And if you don't want them to restrict you in this way, you have the option to not purchase their product. As I previously stated, purchasing the system is simply voting for the status quo. True, you can buy the system used; but if you want to purchase DLC (or for that matter, download game updates) you're going to have to follow the stated rules. Under capitalism, spending money is the most important type of vote you can cast. You get one vote per dollar. Capitalism is a kind of tyranny of the masses (who have a bunch of money if you count them en masse) and the asses — the robber barons who have all the cash. The masses want a locked-down Xbox Live, to which there are real benefits. But you're not forced to own the system, or use the service, so who's really being hurt here? The only way you can be injured is if you vote for injury. If you wanted a more open system, why didn't you buy one?
And before you ask, yes, I would love to be able to run Linux on my Xbox 360 without tampering with using Live. But since I can't, I guess if I really wanted to run Linux and have limited use of the hardware in the Xbox 360, I'd buy one of the many systems banned from Live for modification, which includes a modchip. These systems can't use Xbox Live, so they won't be getting the system update that blocks Free60... although Free60's root page is 404, fun fun fun.
Then vote for XNA or a used fat PS3 (Score:3, Interesting)
All I'm asking for is a menu option: "Boot other OS"
I understand that. Have you tried a used fat PS3 instead of an Xbox 360? And have you tried joining XNA Creators Club, which (incidentally) Apple copied for the iPhone developer program?
It's simple, and if mandated by government
I don't see that happening any time soon. In 2002, when the current President of the U.S. Senate was a senator, he introduced anti-counterfeiting legislation [theregister.co.uk] that would have pretty much criminalized homebrew for being "counterfeit".