Xbox, PS2 Modding Confirmed Legal In Spain

thesman writes "As we can see in The Register's article: 'A Spanish judge has ruled that modifications to games consoles to allow them to play DVDs and games from other countries 'are not illegal' in Spain'." According to the article, "the ruling comes after the Guardia Civil charged Barcelona video games shop Innovagames", and it's explained: "The judge noted that such modifications 'might constitute a crime against the intellectual property of the equipment manufacturers', but he concluded that there is a legal loophole in the 'Ley de Propiedad Intelectual' (Intellectual Property Law) which means that they are, by default, legal."

don't be too happy

[real_smiff]

it sounds like the judge was *against* mod-chips, but was forced to go against his judgement by the loophole. and loopholes tend to get closed.. so this is a very temporary victory for mod-chips, if that. it's more likely to speed up a change in the law making them *illegal* in Spain. IANAL.

Ps2 is a region selectable dvd player

[Anonymous Coward]

With a 15$ swap disk.

Normally, I would link lik-sang, but they are sold out.. and I dont know if they are getting more.

just search for "ps2 dvd region free" or "ps2 dvd region x"

This message brought to you by a community of people that legally import dvds, and want to play them easily.

Re:Ps2 is a region selectable dvd player

[iainl]

The DVD Region X is very useful if you wish to watch an imported film on the built-in DVD player, but does absolutely nothing to help you run import games, which is what was being argued about here. Whether its getting GT4 Prologue 6 months early as a European (or at all in the case of America), or like me wanting to run titles that won't ever get released outside Japan, these chips have their uses.

Voiding the Warranty or Breaking the Law?

[animenext]

I know of no law in any country which requires DVD players to set its region. In fact, this nice DVD FAQ [dvddemystified.com] further states that only the CSS license actually requires it. Choosing to mod or chip a player might void the warranty, but it would be a stretch to say it was illegal.

Re:Voiding the Warranty or Breaking the Law?

[shione]

Even better, many dvd players, brand name or not, are region selectable with a few button presses on the remote or a firmware flash loaded off a burnt cd. Its cheaper for the manufacturers to use the same internals for dvd players sold all across the world, hence why many dvd players are pal and ntsc compatible. They don't bother to make different dvd players for different countries. They just put in a different power supply, set the region to the country its shipping to, box it and away it goes.

I am deeply disturbed they tone of this article

[@madeus]

Of course modding is legal! It's legal in any EU country and in the US, that is *NOT* news.

A few organisations and companies are trying to advocate that it is not, just like they are trying to advocate that emulators are illegal (when, such as the case of Connectix PlayStation emultator vrs Sony, it's been ruled otherwise). They are looking after there own interests, and trying to convince you they are right and you have no rights as a consumer. They are not right, but if society moves to a culture where people start to believe what they are peddling, that is exactly the direction the courts will move in.

Modding has only ever been ruled against when the explicit purpose of a chip is to allow piracy. The fact that people even THINK that modding hardware YOU OWN for legitmate (non illegal) practicles is in any way shady just goes to show how weak minded these people are, and how effective the brain washing of these companies has been.

You can mod your XBOX in just the same way as you can mod your car, your desktop background or the shirt on your back. Sure it might void your warrenty (which is fair enough, for simple practicle reasons) and there are limits to prevent you modding it for illegal purposes (such as fixing a submachine gun behind the grill of your cars radiator), but where on earth did you get the idea that modifying your own possesions is illegal? Your building what will be your own self inflicted purgatory!

I'm trying not to sound like a whacked out sociopath here, but I expect better than this, assert your rights for crying out loud!

Sony tried to bully another company out of making an emulator, and lost in court so bought the emulator off them and shut it down. Nintendo tried to stop other companies making carts for it's console without permission, lossed in court so bought out the company (RARE). The same companies are guilty of worse crimes themselves and have been convicted in court.

Nintendo, for example, has been in court numerous times (in the US and abroad) for price fixing, and they have been convicted and fined for this, and they are still using their muscle in the market place to day, just recently forcing vendors to stop carrying 3rd party programmable gameboy carts, telling vendors it's illegal when it's very obviously not, but the vendors are too brainwashed and are telling people 'Nintendo wrote to us saying it was illegal so we don't get them in any more'.

Even if they did take it to court, it's not going to be an expensive claim to defend (at here least in the UK, with a Soliciter, I appreciate it's somewhat different [read: more costly] in the US) and you can recoupe the money you spend on the case (likely to be = 500 UKP) after the case. As a small vendor (as many of them are) you could even defend yourself point to prior examples (such as the Nintendo vrs Rare case, which was *exactly* the same thing, and Nintendo lossed in that instance). Even a relatively technophonic judge would understand when explained in simple terms (whereby you point to the examples of being able to buy and manufacture 3rd party cassette tapes and CD's for players by other companies). But no, vendors are poorly informed and easily frightend just like so many consumers, so I have to purchase them on line (more fool the high street stores).