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[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (AkumAPRIME @ Oct 13 2003, 03:42 AM)

as I said, my partner and I have yet to decide if we even ought to use up any time talking to a lawyer about this shtuff. but thanx ps, I thought a higher court repealed the Australian ruling outlawing modchips!?!?! ehb

I don't know what 13Black is smoking, but you are correct, the higher court DID overturn the earlier decision that outlawed modchips, so they are OK once again.

There are some things that are VERY clear in the pursuit of copyright infringement - they only people brought to the courts over copyright issues are distributers of the material. Nobody, I mean NOBODY has ever been sued or charged for simply possessing a modified Xbox, or for that matter, even possessing backups ("legal" or otherwise).

If you do not believe that, take a look at cybercrime.gov.... check out the cases they've prosecuted. The closest they ever came was prosecuting that idiot David Rossi who folded like an origami swan - and that was for IMPORTING modchips for DISTRIBUTION. Otherwise, you'll see that most of the cases involved mass-produced pirate "warez" such as games and audio CDs imported from Hong Kong and the like.

[BenJeremy]

QUOTE (13Black @ Oct 13 2003, 09:29 AM)

BenJeremy, when was this overturned, as its still illegal, and there has been MANY installers prosecuted here for installing modchips. Also, they have been individuals prosectued for having backup games also, even with the originals, as backups are not allowed by federal law in Australia, we dont get that privalige you guys do I havent seen or heard of anything that has said it was ever overturned. Sony won a case like 2 years ago, then that was overturned. But a case, less than 6 months ago was passed, bannign them again?? Have any links or anything as i have been wanting to import XBIT chips to OZ as they is a servere lack of mod sin OZ.

It's probably in the news archives form the main X-S page. It is there, I assure you.

Sounds like Australia is a bit more restrictive than the rest of the "free world" - Here in the US, nobody has ever been prosecuted for owning proper backups - or for that matter having illegal copies, unless they were active in distributing them (served up files, or sold discs).

It really doesn't make sense to go after individuals (as the RIAA still hasn't figured out) - the ones that really hurt the publisher's bottom dollar are the slick bootlegging operations that sell software that may even LOOK authentic. I'd be willing to bet they take a REAL bite out of worldwide sales numbering in the hundreds of millions, or more. This is REAL piracy, IMO, because people buy these bootlegs, so they probably would have bought the originals (as long as the price differential was no more than 4 times the cost of the bootleg).

As long as a shop is not engaged in selling "backups" or actively modding boxes, displaying a modded Xbox playing games owned from the hard drive should not be a problem. Selling modded Xboxes, or modding them, you might have no real problems, as long as they were modified only to run Linux (i.e. Cromwell BIOS). Distributing M$ XDK-built software shouldn't be illegal, if you didn't compile it, but it's a gray area that probably doesn't need to be walked into.

[AkumAPRIME]

   <======   ME, not walking into the grey area!, But still thinking how nice it might be in there. SInce It's so grey, we can't see in. Kinda like a grey hole, but its a point if infinite legality, as opposed to density

[Alcofrolic]

having a modded xbox is NOT illegal!
by law, it is your property, therefore allowing you to do what you like to it
its not affecting M$ in any way because you have originals!

my advice is to just do it, they have no legal documents saying you cannot have backups, they only say you cannot copy games and have them without originals!

[Potato Bob]

but it is all the bios
and we need something that is compiled legally

heres my idea:

using cromwell make a linux version of something like boxplorer or dvd2xbox so that it will run from cromwell

and if im wrong just tell us an exaple

[AkumAPRIME]

RX3- exactly. I am no gineau pic ( is that spelled right?). I may be a lab rat, and I may be a rhesus monkey, or mayb eeven a rhesus rat lab monkey, but I'm not going to get myself sued by the giant that is MS.