Divineo fined for $9 Mil

[harryjon35]

http://www.gamesindustry.biz/content_page.php?aid=20207

do they sell enough to ever pay this fine?


no news about it on maxconsole. i wonder why

 

[Costello]

Wow... yeah will they even be able to pay the fine? ... scary!
Will more shops be fined in the future? hmm

 

[ds6220]

yeah, I read that bad news today. Anyone notice that there were 2 individuals also in the suite. Like some random Canadian and French man were sued as well. Wow.

 

[kernelPANIC]

Aren't those numbers/amounts usually toned down after settlements and all that legal crap? (God! I hate lawyers...)
Well, at least we know that the DS-X is being sold by other retailers not affiliated to Divineo...

 

[MaD_mAnIaC]

what makes hdloader so illegal? what if i have the original game and want to backup it to the hd (to preserve the original disk and probably faster loading times)? while most people use this kind of devices for pirated games, the product maker isn't responsible for this, neither the reseller... unless divineo sold the hdloader bundled with pirated games i don't see why it's illegal... but i know nothing about hdloader or laws, so i can be wrong.

 

[HugeCock]

HD Loader rocks for 2 reason:
1) Faster loading times
2) The laser which sucks on Sonys low quality hardware doesn't get used which results in longer lifespan of your console. Basically your laser is just used to boot the loader then shuts off. So sweet.

Sadly the laws on backing up your own shit are vauge...some say you cant...some say you can...meanwhile people are trying hard to stop us from backing up our own goods....

 

[Tomobobo]

From what I understand, the court was held in the US, but Divineo is a Chinese company. They don't have to pay shit. Course I could be wrong.

 

[Costello]

More accurate news from http://www.xbox-scene.com/

>> From gamasutra.com:

The ESA, the video game industry's trade body, has announced that a federal court in California has ordered defendants to pay in excess of $9 million in damages for Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) violations, including trafficking of mod chips and a device called HDLoader, which allows copies of games to be downloaded directly onto the hard drive of a game console [PS2].

The ESA reports that the ruling came down on September 11 from Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court in Northern District of California. Judge Wilken awarded $3,750,200.00 in damages against corporate defendant Divineo, Inc., and Canadian resident Frederic L. She also awarded $5,791,400.00 in damages against corporate defendants Divineo U.K. and Divineo SARL, and French resident Max L.

However, what other sites fail to mention is that Divineo is not based or operating in the US, so this judgement doesn't really have much to do with their business.
Kinda weird to see a Japanese company sue a French/Canadian company using the US court ...

Hmm... ? no fine then?

 

[lagman]

Isn´t Lik-Sang also Chinese?

Wasn´t they sued by Sony Europe?

 

[Shinji]

They dont need this type of publicity. It doesnt look like a fine to me though...weird... maybe there is more that we dont know yet...still...

 

[HugeCock]

Lik-Sang was sued by Nintendo I believe

 

[Shinji]

Lik-Sang was sued by Nintendo I believe

I'm so torn

I love Nintendo and I love Divineo...

 

[adgloride]

When you buy a console shouldn't you be allowed to do what you want with it? I feel a whole knew debate coming on.

 

[assassinz]

So 9-11 is a bad date for Divineo now too.

 

[mthrnite]

This just sucks, regardless of my now rather low regard for Divineo. The DMCA has got to blow up at some point, as my daddy's fond of saying "Pigs get fat, and hogs get slaughtered." Maybe the lawsuits are good in that it advances the hog towards slaughter, I can only hope.

Both HDloader and mod chips have legitimate uses. I have no pirated stuff on my PS2 (ya rly!) and use HDloader to play everything that it'll boot. Like HugeCock said, it's faster and bypasses the crappy laser assembly. I want a modchip so I don't have to use the exploit disc and all that crap to boot up. Legitimate uses.

I'm sick of the American political process being whored out to big corperations to be used as a giant thumb on my head. In fact I'm pretty damn tired of the American political process period.

The crap these good for nothing fat-cats get by with wads my panties all the way up to my neck!

The DMCA makes innocent people into criminals, and that ought to be against the damn law!

 

[skywarp]

There has to be something more to the story, HDLoader is not illegal, and neither are most modern modchips(since they are sold without the BIOS).

 

[RueGorE]

Isn´t Lik-Sang also Chinese?

Wasn´t they sued by Sony Europe?

Lik-Sang was sued by Nintendo I believe


Sony, Nintendo and Microsoft vs. Lik Sang

It happened about this time four years ago. All three gaming giants took down Lik Sang's modchip and backup selling ways, and at that time we had thought that was the end for our favorite import store, but a new crew and management came in and took over operations and now Lik Sang is back, but without the "infringing" products.

Oh well.

Both HDloader and mod chips have legitimate uses. I have no pirated stuff on my PS2 (ya rly!) and use HDloader to play everything that it'll boot.



QUOTE(skywarp @ Oct 6 2006, 06:27 PM)

There has to be something more to the story, HDLoader is not illegal, and neither are most modern modchips(since they are sold without the BIOS).

Valid points indeed, but if I'm not mistaken, the problem is the process of getting those "backup" games to work by using devices that force a console to boot a copied game. This is circumventing technologies that were in place to prevent such things to happen, thus making those devices illegal to use.

I'm quite sure it's legal to make one backup copy of any game software you own, but I'm not so sure if it's okay to play them in place of the original disc or cartridge. Distributing (sell, rent or giving away freely) your backups are flat out illegal in most countries, no doubt about that.

I could be totally wrong but this is what I've come to understand of the laws.

 

[snazzypants]

What does this really mean? Are they going out of business or what? I am looking to order an M3+Passkey3 very soon and was going to do it through divineo. Should I steer clear?

 

[morcar]

If you have the real DVD in your house and you want to back it up tough sony wants you to run your dvd drive in your ps2 into the ground so that you can buy a ps3 or even a ps2 again it`s simple really.

 

[enarky]

PS2-Scene also reports about it. Some interesting information in the forum thread there, too.