Homebrew Is modding the 3DS illegal?

[Foxi4]

DMCA. Modding a console is illegal if you break any technological protection measures. And you do.

Be more specific - which paragraph explicitly says that you can't modify a console you legally own? What you can't do is circumvent anti-piracy measures and that's not something you do in terms of homebrew which is clearly original code. Modifying firmware goes against the license, but not against the law. Similarly rooting Android phones or jailbreaking iPhones was recently made legal while unlocking them is still illegal.

As for homebrew in school projects, my final IT project at Uni was a homebrew game for the DS and it was recieved with praise and top marks.

 

[DarkFlare69]

They usually will anyways (although expect to pay for it, and expect it to be returned with the latest and greatest firmware installed)

Maybe for a higher price. Idk. I take care of my shit, so I wouldn't know.

 

[dubbz82]

I've heard that some peoples had nintendo fix up their bricked 3ds's when Gateway was still in the habit of arbitrarily bricking them, though they charged a rather sizable chunk of money to do so.

 

[WhoAmI?]

Is modifying your Vodka by adding some Orange juice illegal?
Even if it breaches Polish and Russian Codes of Conduct, I don't think it can be considered as illegal.

Hahahaha xD nice signature! Love it!

 

[c4655362]

Did you guys not see this?

 

[GhostLatte]

You think the police care about 3DS modding?

 

[stanleyopar2000]

do we really care...?? come on think about it.

How many people actually CARED before jailbreaking iOS devices was illegal? (Some didn't even know it wasn't illegal??)

When I saw it on CNN when the goverment made it finally legal I was all like "it was illegal before??? LOLZ no fucks given before"

I sure as hell didn't. My Device. My Money. My Fucking Rules....





.....bitch.

 

[Foxi4]

Did you guys not see this?

Yes, IGN is totally my source of legal news. And whatever ESA says is totally law and not their political agenda. No. Here you are:

Section 1201 divides technological measures into two categories: measures that prevent unauthorized access to a copyrighted work and measures that prevent unauthorized copying of a copyrighted work. Making or selling devices or services that are used to circumvent either category of technological measure is prohibited in certain circumstances, described below. As to the act of circumvention in itself, the provision prohibits circumventing the first category of technological measures, but not the second. This distinction was employed to assure that the public will have the continued ability to make fair use of copyrighted works. Since copying of a work may be a fair use under appropriate circumstances, section 1201 does not prohibit the act of circumventing a technological measure that prevents copying.

[...]

Exceptions
Finally, the prohibitions contained in section 1201 are subject to a number of exceptions.

[...]

3. Reverse engineering (section 1201(f)). This exception permits circumvention, and the development of technological means for such circumvention, by a person who has lawfully obtained a right to use a copy of a computer program for the sole purpose of identifying and analyzing elements of the program necessary to achieve interoperability with other programs, to the extent that such acts are permitted under copyright law.

tl;dr Copying your own software is legal, reverse engineering is legal, creating homebrew that operates through "other programs" aka exploiting is legal. This is straight from the summary of the DMCA act itself. I don't know how you feel about this, but I think this is pretty much a slam dunk case right here.

http://www.copyright.gov/legislation/dmca.pdf

 

[nyrol]

Remember everyone. You don't own the consoles you buy. Remember how Geohot was sued for trespass from Sony because he opened the console? They said that when you buy a console, you are buying the right to use their property, but you do not own it.

 

[Foxi4]

Remember everyone. You don't own the consoles you buy. Remember how Geohot was sued for trespass from Sony because he opened the console? They said that when you buy a console, you are buying the right to use their property, but you do not own it.

He wasn't sued for "trespassing" or "opening a console", he was sued for posting Sony's security keys on his website.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Remember everyone. You don't own the consoles you buy. Remember how Geohot was sued for trespass from Sony because he opened the console? They said that when you buy a console, you are buying the right to use their property, but you do not own it.

You don't own your body or your life either, it was created using resources of the state, in a land that is property of the state, you belong to the state, don't even try to modify your body in any way or use your life in a way not intended by the state.
Oh, actually by state I really mean the minority group of rich people that makes actual decision in their own benefit... democracy... such a fallacy.
The land of freedom... ok?
Meh, this sounds too dystopic, but hell!

 

[Foxi4]

You don't own your body or your life either, it was created using resources of the state, in a land that is property of the state, you belong to the state, don't even try to modify your body in any way or use your life in a way not intended by the state.
Oh, actually by state I really mean the minority group of rich people that makes actual decision in their own benefit... democracy... such a fallacy.
The land of freedom... ok?
Meh, this sounds too dystopic, but hell!

Chill out, mate.

 

[sarkwalvein]

Chill out, mate.

LOL, just on spot.

 

[williamcesar2]

Smea made Portal 3DS for a computer science project so I think you should be fine!

lol Smea is the king of hypocrites!

 

[blinkzane]

as long as the homebrew does not exploit the system in a way to provide services for free that are otherwise paid for you should be fine. and given that you need to pay for cubic ninja you can use that as your base as you cannot use any hombrew through ninjhax to obtain anything that is usually paid for.

EDIT: As in I probably wouldn't use gateway as your base

 

[Foxi4]

as long as the homebrew does not exploit the system in a way to provide services for free that are otherwise paid for you should be fine. and given that you need to pay for cubic ninja you can use that as your base as you cannot use any hombrew through ninjhax to obtain anything that is usually paid for.

EDIT: As in I probably wouldn't use gateway as your base

As far as I know, technically speaking, using piracy-related hardware or software is not illegal - selling and distributing them is. As such, the entry point doesn't really matter if he already owns a Gateway cartridge. To draw a parallel to the United States, owning or drinking alcohol is totally legal if you're above the drinking age, but you can't sell alcohol on a commercial scale unless you have a liquor license (this varies from state to state as in some states only government-ran stores can sell alcohol, but gimme a break - it's just an analogy ).

 

[Technicmaster0]

As far as I know, technically speaking, using piracy-related hardware or software is not illegal - selling and distributing them is. As such, the entry point doesn't really matter if he already owns a Gateway cartridge. To draw a parallel to the United States, owning or drinking alcohol is totally legal if you're above the drinking age, but you can't sell alcohol on a commercial scale unless you have a liquor license (this varies from state to state as in some states only government-ran stores can sell alcohol, but gimme a break - it's just an analogy ).

But the gateway launcher contains property of nintendo anyways.

 

[dubbz82]

Remember everyone. You don't own the consoles you buy. Remember how Geohot was sued for trespass from Sony because he opened the console? They said that when you buy a console, you are buying the right to use their property, but you do not own it.

Not sure if your intent was to pass around misinformation, but that's exactly what you did. He posted ps3s system keys, and THAT is what landed him in boiling water. He was not sued for "trespassing on Sony's property" nor was he sued for creating an iso loader (this is what some people might believe, but it never actually happened). Please, PLEASE double check your facts next time.


Foxi4 - this heavily depends on what country you live in, and how draconian their laws are (or not). In the US, I believe possessing the hardware to load up pirate stuff isn't explicitly illegal (selling it is) but possessing pirate software is. YMMV, depending on your location though.

 

[Foxi4]

Foxi4 - this heavily depends on what country you live in, and how draconian their laws are (or not). In the US, I believe possessing the hardware to load up pirate stuff isn't explicitly illegal (selling it is) but possessing pirate software is. YMMV, depending on your location though.

Not sure if your intent was to pass around misinformation, but that's exactly what you did. He posted ps3s system keys, and THAT is what landed him in boiling water. He was not sued for "trespassing on Sony's property" nor was he sued for creating an iso loader (this is what some people might believe, but it never actually happened). Please, PLEASE double check your facts next time.

EDIT - sorry for the weird formatting on this post. Posting on my phone, so not very easy to fix....will try to fix this later.

What do you mean by "posessing pirate software"? Piracy never entered the debate, we're talking about hacking, reverse engineering and homebrew. Moreover, I was referring to the DMCA rules specifically, other countries have other legal documents concerning this issue, but the IGN article concerned the U.S.

As for GeoHotz, I wasn't passing misinformation, you're just re-phrasing exactly what I said - he posted Sony's keys online and got busted for it. He wasn't busted for reverse engineering the system, that's legal. I quote:

He wasn't sued for "trespassing" or "opening a console", he was sued for posting Sony's security keys on his website.

I think you might be referring to someone else, perhaps the person I was replying to.

But the gateway launcher contains property of nintendo anyways.

The law doesn't work backwards. If you buy a car and later find out that it was involved in an accident, you're not responsible for the accident by proxy - the original driver is. You shouldn't be using the Gateway for a myriad of reasons but this isn't one of them.

 

[the_randomizer]

lol Smea is the king of hypocrites!

And users are the kings of self-entitlement, wanting everything done for them, including ROM "backup" loading, region lock removal and online cheating and expecting hackers to do everything. Want ROM loaders or region lock removal without flashcards? Learn to mod the 3DS yourself.

Remember everyone. You don't own the consoles you buy. Remember how Geohot was sued for trespass from Sony because he opened the console? They said that when you buy a console, you are buying the right to use their property, but you do not own it.

Screw that, no one really cares on whether or not one actually owns a console or not, that's not going to stop people, what they said is not held in any court, you won't go to civil court for modding a console.