Hacking Hacking: What qualifies as illegal?

[smf]

It is not illegal to hack your Wii, but it is illegal to download games you do not own.

Actually in the US and EU it is actually illegal to bypass the DRM even on games you own.
This means any right to make a backup is meaningless as you can't use it.

Not all countries even allow you to make a backup, in the UK the law doesn't even allow a backup copy to be made.

 

[Catastrophic]

Though I do admit that I pirate to a certain point, it's not something I recommend doing just because you simply can. Games are still pretty expensive here due to the economy crysis so I can't really afford them anymore. A lot of games on my Hard Drive are games I copied from my collection, my disc drive has started making some loud noises too.

I might buy a Wii U when it comes out and I'll pay for every game then.

 

[Hielkenator]

It is not illegal to hack your Wii, but it is illegal to download games you do not own.

Most people hack their Wii to play downloaded games they do not own.

And you base that on what?

I have some friends and once in a while we buy some games and lend them to eachother.
It's a great way to play some games, who needs internet for that?

 

[Fear Zoa]

I hacked my wii when the twilight hack first hack came out simply because I thought it was cool, I later rehacked it because I wanted to use the darkwii theme. There's nothing illegal about that.

As for piracy I once pirated half life 2 a few years ago, the pirated version crashed and so I discovered steam and bought it on there along with ep 1&2. Besides that I sometimes download the Japanese pokemon roms just to get an idea of what their like but I always buy the actual game when it comes stateside.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Actually in the US and EU it is actually illegal to bypass the DRM even on games you own.

Really? Show me the law in the US that forbids you from bypassing DRM? And as far as wii games goes, you only need to bypass an encryption that uses a common key, there is no real DRM involved here, and encryption with a common key does not classify as DRM.

 

[wiismodrome]

Really? Show me the law in the US that forbids you from bypassing DRM? And as far as wii games goes, you only need to bypass an encryption that uses a common key, there is no real DRM involved here, and encryption with a common key does not classify as DRM.

http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1201

 

[smf]

Actually in the US and EU it is actually illegal to bypass the DRM even on games you own.

Really? Show me the law in the US that forbids you from bypassing DRM? And as far as wii games goes, you only need to bypass an encryption that uses a common key, there is no real DRM involved here, and encryption with a common key does not classify as DRM.

DMCA.

Sec. 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems

• (a) Violations Regarding Circumvention of Technological Measures.
  • (1)
    • (A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. The prohibition contained in the preceding sentence shall take effect at the end of the 2-year period beginning on the date of the enactment of this chapter.
    • (B) The prohibition contained in subparagraph (A) shall not apply to persons who are users of a copyrighted work which is in a particular class of works, if such persons are, or are likely to be in the succeeding 3-year period, adversely affected by virtue of such prohibition in their ability to make noninfringing uses of that particular class of works under this title, as determined under subparagraph ©.
    • © During the 2-year period described in subparagraph (A), and during each succeeding 3-year period, the Librarian of Congress, upon the recommendation of the Register of Copyrights, who shall consult with the Assistant Secretary for Communications and Information of the Department of Commerce and report and comment on his or her views in making such recommendation, shall make the determination in a rulemaking proceeding on the record for purposes of subparagraph (B) of whether persons who are users of a copyrighted work are, or are likely to be in the succeeding 3-year period, adversely affected by the prohibition under subparagraph (A) in their ability to make noninfringing uses under this title of a particular class of copyrighted works. In conducting such rulemaking, the Librarian shall examine -
      • (i) the availability for use of copyrighted works;
      • (ii) the availability for use of works for nonprofit archival, preservation, and educational purposes;
      • (iii) the impact that the prohibition on the circumvention of technological measures applied to copyrighted works has on criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, or research;
      • (iv) the effect of circumvention of technological measures on the market for or value of copyrighted works; and
      • (v) such other factors as the Librarian considers appropriate.
    • (D) The Librarian shall publish any class of copyrighted works for which the Librarian has determined, pursuant to the rulemaking conducted under subparagraph ©, that noninfringing uses by persons who are users of a copyrighted work are, or are likely to be, adversely affected, and the prohibition contained in subparagraph (A) shall not apply to such users with respect to such class of works for the ensuing 3-year period.
    • (E) Neither the exception under subparagraph (B) from the applicability of the prohibition contained in subparagraph (A), nor any determination made in a rulemaking conducted under subparagraph ©, may be used as a defense in any action to enforce any provision of this title other than this paragraph.
  • (2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that -
    • (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;
    • (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or
    • © is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
  • (3) As used in this subsection -
    • (A) to ''circumvent a technological measure'' means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and
    • (B) a technological measure ''effectively controls access to a work'' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

There are excemptions, but none of them cover playing wii games.


http://en.wikipedia....tion_exemptions

The one that allowed circumvention for playing old video games is no longer in effect.

http://copyrightandtechnology.com/2010/07/29/fair-use-and-the-dmca-triennial-rulemaking/

 

[triassic911]

It is not illegal to hack your Wii, but it is illegal to download games you do not own.

Most people hack their Wii to play downloaded games they do not own.

And you base that on what?

I have some friends and once in a while we buy some games and lend them to eachother.
It's a great way to play some games, who needs internet for that?

What do you mean? The majority of people do in fact download games they do not own. It is fact.

EDIT: I would assume you know that I mean the people on gbatemp, when I use the term people.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

It is not illegal to hack your Wii, but it is illegal to download games you do not own.

Most people hack their Wii to play downloaded games they do not own.

And you base that on what?

I have some friends and once in a while we buy some games and lend them to eachother.
It's a great way to play some games, who needs internet for that?

What do you mean? The majority of people do in fact download games they do not own. It is fact.

EDIT: I would assume you know that I mean by people, I mean the people on gbatemp.

It doesn't even matter if you own the game, that's still piracy and it's still illegal.

 

[triassic911]

What the hell, why are people trying to start a rigorous discussion with me? I am not saying that it is legal to download games you own, I am saying it is ILLEGAL to download games you do NOT OWN.

 

[Tom Bombadildo]

What the hell, why are people trying to start a rigorous discussion with me? I am not saying that it is legal to download games you own, I am saying it is ILLEGAL to download games you do NOT OWN.

And I'm just adding onto that? Calm down.

 

[triassic911]

Haha, I feel like I'm being corrected.

 

[ddetkowski]

Have you ever DVR'ed a football game, or any game on TV?
Without written consent by the league, you have just committed piracy.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Haha, I feel like I'm being corrected.

Go cry about it.

Oh, you already are in your avatar.

 

[crono141]

Just a correction: It is not illegal to download anything (in the US). No one in any of the myriad court cases have been sued for downloading. What is illegal is providing those copyrighted works when you are not the copyright holder: AKA sharing them on a website or bittorrent client.

If I'm in possession of a bootlegged DVD, I'm not going to jail. How was I supposed to know that the guy I bought it from was making bootlegs (I actually do own a set of bootlegged anime that I didn't know was bootlegged until it arrived in the mail. Hilariously badly subtitled). Its why microsoft doesn't have your computer turn you in to the authorities if you're running pirated windows. They want to go after the source: the distributors. They are the target of copyright laws.

As an aside: anyone who says the only reason people hack their hardware is for illegal use is projecting. I hacked my wii and put all my legitimate games (ripped myself) on a HDD because I'm too lazy to get up and put a disk in if I don't have to. Its also great to be able to take all your games with you on road trips and not have to fill up a whole suitcase. Once devolution is complete, we'll be able to play GC backups without having to use GC controllers or memory cards. Its adding functionality. Not illegal.

 

[DeadlyFoez]

Just a correction: It is not illegal to download anything (in the US).

Really? You think so. I can think of one situation that will prove your statement wrong. Child porn.

 

[WiiUBricker]

Just a correction: It is not illegal to download anything (in the US). No one in any of the myriad court cases have been sued for downloading.

So you are saying that it's not illegal to download copyrighted work as long you don't get caught. It's like saying it's not illegal to steal a car as long you change the license plate and nobody notices it. You see what's wrong with your claim?

 

[The Minecrafter]

Here is my take on this. Sure, it can be used for piracy, but there are a lot of other reasons people hack their wii. And I bet a quite a few people pirate games from different regions, which are unavailable in their country for different reasons(like I know my friends friend got a copy of PAL Pikmin 2 Wii, because there wasn't a NTSC release. Anyway, here is my list of why people hack their wii:

1) Backups. First, it makes things easier having all your games on an external hard drive, USB read speed is better than optical read speed, cheats, modified games...
2) Disk launchers (Neogamma, Gecko OS,...) Allow cheats to be used with RETAIL disks.
3) System Menu hacks, such as block updates, turn off Wii menu music, Auto press A at health screen, region free everything,...
4) Media Playback, such as dvds, and viewing other media with programs like wiimc
5) Homebrew-there is a lot of poor homebrew games out there, but there are a few really good ones
6) Changing the color of your wii menu-some people think it looks cool
7) Copy the "Uncopyable" save files
8) back up your gamecube save files from your memory card.
9) Last, but certainly not least, Mods for games
There are so many modded ISOs and mods for games that make them a lot more fun. I mean, look at Kitty Corp: Meow Mix's Brawl Vault. (I'm not 100% sure that the site does not contain links to copyrighted data, so I cannot provide you with a link at this time. If it does not, I will add one. In the meantime, just search Brawl Vault on Google. Its the first link.) You can take worthless characters and stages *cough* Wario, Rumble Falls *cough* and other parts of the game and add more and better characters, stages, custom menus, custom music, customized attacks, outfits, characters from other games, ... The list goes on and on. The number one reason why my friends had me hack their wii was JUST for brawl hacks, nothing else. It can improve on a game's mechanics and make it more fun. I hacked their wii about 2 or three years ago, and we still play with brawl hacks. I can't believe no one had mentioned this before.

There are probably many other reasons that I have missed to hack your wii. Oh, and tdub154420, you obviously have a very narrow mind about this whole issue. Next time, do a little research beforehand about what you can do with a hacked wii. It seems like you are one of those people that claim "its illegal" whenever someone talks about hacking, without understanding the whole situation.

 

[koolking97]

my disk drive broke, so my only option was a loader

 

[SifJar]

First off, I'd just like to say unless someone here is a lawyer, none of us are qualified to give a definitive answer as to what is or is not illegal. Everything in this thread is pure speculation.

With that out of the way, I'd like to echo what a lot of others have said: there are more reasons to hack a Wii than to play "backups" or pirated games. These days I barely use my Wii. When I do, it is almost always for one of two things: Netflix or playing DVDs via WiiMC (allows me to watch imported US DVDs without having to track down a region free code for my actual DVD player). Obviously the first is possible without hacking, but the second is not. I also have a few homebrew games on my Wii (MyLittleBall is a fun little time waster for example). I have never downloaded any ISO or WAD for my Wii. Nor have I even backed up the games I do own (I have considered it at times, but I don't really want to have to devote a hard drive to my Wii, nor do I want to have to bring it every time I want to use my Wii [the hard drive I would have to use stays in my one room, the Wii and all my games in another], and I don't find it that much of a chore to put a disc in my Wii; I never have to switch discs because I never play more than one game in one session).