In the High Court, Mr Justice Laddie ruled that Mr Ball was acting illegally in selling the chips which get around the built-in copy protection system on Sony's console...However, in Italy a judge threw out Sony's case saying it was up to owners of a console what they did with it.
Similarly in Spain, mod chips are seen as legal despite the EU copyright legislation.
melon said:Modding your hardware shouldn't be illegal. In fact, I would argue that the prevalent attitude against the practice runs smack against previous antitrust precedent. When AT&T had a monopoly on telephone service in the U.S., they controlled everything, much in the same way that console creators do now. When a company named "Hush-a-Phone" created an unauthorized product that could be purchased and placed at the end of the receiver to help the quality, AT&T complained and lost. It is because of that decision, in part, that people could buy telephones not made or authorized by AT&T.
But look at what we have learned since? Nothing. What the console creators are doing is little more than monopolistic behavior. In fact, correct me if I'm wrong, people aren't even allowed to create games for these systems, without the permission (and probably "payment") to the system inventors. I dunno...I see something seriously wrong with this, or was all this talk about "competition" and "free trade" nothing more than hot air blowing out their asses?
But whatever...I'm nothing more than a cynic these days. I certainly don't expect the pols to listen to me anymore.
Melon
Entertainment industry lapdog Senator Fritz Hollings (Democrat, South Carolina) lashed out at Intel executive VP Leslie Vadasz who warned that the copy-protected PCs Hollings is obediantly promoting on behalf of his MPAA and RIAA handlers would stifle growth in the marketplace.
"We do not need to neuter the personal computer to be nothing more than a videocassette recorder," Vadasz said in testimony before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation Thursday.
An obedient Hollings tore into the witness, calling his testimony "nonsense".
"Now where do you get all this nonsense about how we're going to have irreparable damage?" Hollings demanded. "We don't want to legislate. We want to give you time to develop technology."
...The hearing was a typical Congressional dog-and-pony show designed to stroke Hollywood fat cats like Michael Eisner and Jack Valenti pursuing the Holy Grail of pay-per-use technology. No critics were invited to speak, and no harsh criticism was expected.
So when Intel's Vadasz showed the spine to blast the entertainment industry's pet scheme, he had to be beaten down, and Hollings was of course eager to please his masters.
Eisner and Valenti also testified, exhibiting their profound ignorance of technology and their sneering contempt for the rights of consumers, under Hollings' admiring gaze. Hollings, apparently, is an 'honest politician' according to Brendan Behan's formula: when he's bought, he stays bought.