News US conducts nationwide raid on mod chip shops

Totally illogical. We'll might as well ban synthetic engine oil because you're inescapably going to gain a few horsepower by using it, thus allegedly making you more capable of careless driving or street racing.

Cheers to your failed political leaders. I'm surprised at how Americans haven't migrated to places of far better adult living.

 

GET OVER IT!!! THIS IS TECHNOLOGY AGE THERE"S BOUND TO BE SOME FLAWS AND U JUST HAVE TO TURN YOUR HEAD AWAY!! this just pisses me off product with some flaws ther's people that can fix it to make it better thist's modding or people like to call it HACKING!!!

 

Tech3312, words honestly escaped me when I read that post. I had to sit here for a few minutes to figure out what I actually wanted to say.

First, I don't have to accept flaws. If a product is flawed, I can either return it to the merchant, or I can complain to the company that made it. If the flaw comes up after some use, I can fix it myself if that's within my abilities, or I can demand the company repairs it for me if the damage is reasonable and the warranty is still valid. Technology is no different from anything else, and you can't ask me to accept flaws. I'm certainly not going to turn my head away and ignore problems, because that shows the companies that I'll accept these flaws, and then they'll continue releasing flawed products.

However, that's completely irrelevant because the XBox isn't flawed. I just wrote the paragraph above because I really, really don't like you telling me that I have to ignore flaws for some arbitrary reason you've just come up with relating to the fact that it's technology. A pacemaker is technology and I'd be pretty pissed if there were flaws in that.

More importantly and more to the point, modding an XBox is not aimed at correcting flaws. It is aimed at increasing the capabilities of a device beyond what the manufacturer intended. If you think this is such a bad thing, I think you may have come to the wrong site, as Bit-Tech is all about modifying computers to do and be more than they were intended by the manufacturer. I own my console. I bought it with my own money. I, not the Microsoft Corporation, own it. If I want to add a chip that allows me to use it as a networked video player, I'm well within my rights as a consumer to do so. They wouldn't mind if I painted it, and this is fundamentally no different.

The trouble arises when the same chip allows me to pirate games. It's not a feature I use, but because it's available Microsoft is understandably concerned about the existence of the chips. However, my complaint here arises not because they're concerned about their software but because they are trying to make it illegal for me to customize my possessions for fear that I will use my customizations to do something illegal. They feel that my ability to break the law is by itself illegal. I feel that my ability to break the law is no different from many other situations - speeding is illegal, and yet it's perfectly legal to add a turbocharger to a car as long as it still passes emissions, even though the turbo makes it easier to speed. This is because there are legitimate uses for a turbocharger (accelerating to the speed limit more quickly, higher performance at private racetracks) and because they trust me to use my best judgement and not speed. Granted, if I'm the type of person to add a turbo, I'm probably the type of person to speed as well. That's not an issue, though. The turbo is still legal, and the police will be happy to give me speeding tickets whenever necessary.

The mod-chip is the turbo. It should be legal, even though it has illegal uses, and they should only complain when I delve into the illegal uses.

 

Completely agree with you!
It's like Bit-Torrent and YouTube. They have legal uses, illegal ones too, but most certainly should be allowed!

 

What gets me, is why this is a *customs* issue. Hypothetical: If I make a mod chip in my own home, out of my own parts, and solder it to my own console, but don't use to to play pirated games, only legitimite backups of my own games... what law is being broken, and why would customs, DHS, or anyone care?

 

The DMCA was nothing but cowtowing down to big money companies instead of actually looking at the situation and seeing if there is actually a problem that needs solved. I agree completely with the "I bought the blasted thing, if I wish to mod it, solder it, blow it up, that's my choice" mentallity. Go after the people pirating games and buying pirated games instead of the mod chip folks. They are trying to kill the spirit of tinkering, of innovation, and of self education.

 

The us government should stop treating its citizens like robots by controlling what they can do with there own lives they should know that piracy is using any product or services that you didn't pay for and modchips may give the ability to run game backups it doesn't mean its illegal. I can backup my games and play it on my console and I'm not doing something illegal I bought the game and that's not piracy. I can do anything to my console because I bought it. They should know what a backup is and a pirate copy.

 

get those saddle poppers!

 

Well seeing as the backlash will be particularily humorous, I wonder what's going to happen..