The X3 bioses were used on xbox TSOP's 1.0-1.5. So they were always released for free to the public. This is really the main point - it was a opt-in situation. You were given the choice to do what you wanted and they didn't force you to purchase their products. If you wanted to tsop flash for free, they saw no issue with it and were happy to support the public. So thats why xbins hosts those files...because they were distributed for free and anyone could use them
I do understand that they sold commercial products, but we never hosted software (that I can think of) that was associated with commercial product usage where you had to buy the product in order to use the software. Honestly I can't even think of a software from xecuter that meets that criteria? AFAIK everything was released for free if it was software.
I recognize the nick, but I don't recall what your site/service was? Let me know
https://www.engadget.com/2017/09/22/eu-suppressed-study-piracy-no-sales-impact/
This is personally why im not against piracy. The argument has always been that piracy hurts companies, sales, economies, etc. Except what academic research we have on the subject proves thats not true. I've known this most of my life because I personally saw how much hardware (and software, accessories, etc) was purchased due to consoles being exploited and opened up for greater purposes.
The utility of a product is what makes a product viable. The more utility, often the more sales this product will have. This is a non-controversial opinion that is well founded in economic theory and applys to all financial vehicles as well. No one can deny that massive utility was created through modifying xboxes and any console beyond that had the hardware strong enough to play media and emulate. This created a larger market than what would have been possible with a walled-garden commercial product.
I have a lot of friends who are developers for both indie and major studios. They all mostly pirate games lol. Some of the best xbox hackers that made software were software engineers for major companies! I can name at least 3-4 off the top of my head and there are a ton more that I've probably forgotten about.
So as you can see, its not a very clear-cut situation. There is a lot of information to consider, and I find this perspective quite compelling. So even if you don't agree, perhaps now you can see that its not unreasonable to have a contrasting opinion on this subject.
Also, I have no problems with xecuter creating hardware to modify consoles, even if it means piracy. Im not convinced this hurts companies, so I don't see the moral conundrum that others do on the subject. To me its a form of class warefare, except directed towards consumers. I don't care if someone's poor, I want them to be able to enjoy things that other people do that they can't have because of the genetics lottery. Its important to have empathy for humanity and remember that most people don't live in 1st world countries. The America's, Europe and Asia supply more than enough revenue to billion dollar multi-national corporations, and im really not shedding tears over a 0.01% margin loss =)
I don't personally differentiate between someone stealing code from a github user or stealing software from a commercial software developer. I don't like it when people steal from me so I try my best not to steal from others. I realize thieves come from lots of different places, but in the end theft is theft and I don't like thieves. Not to say I've never stolen anything, but I regret doing so and will try my best to avoid doing so in the future. Throughout the years I've read a lot of peoples reasons why they justify pirating, but that doesn't change the fact they are still pirating. You're still a thief even if what you steal is worthless or won't get you a felony. If you steal a loaf of bread or Ford Mustang, theft it theft. I don't want to be around thieves in general as they usually also participate in other negative actions that I don't want to be associated with. So someone pirating a Switch game is guilty of theft the same as Xecuter is guilty of theft, which is why I won't support either groups of people. It's just my personal moral opinion. I understand that some people could care less that they steal things, but I don't want anything to do with those types of people.
The site I linked to previously is my site. You'll notice I don't have ads. I pay for it myself. I run it as more of a personal project that if you can use and enjoy - good. If not, well, don't use it.
Btw - The X3 BIOS at first had to be cracked to work on any other modchips that had enough storage space for it due to the built in DRM that made it only work on the Xecuter 3 modchip, which was a commercial product (even though they might have given away some samples you couldn't just load up a reseller site and order them for free). I suppose they could have removed the DRM in a later release, but when I used to get cheap xbox chips I'd stick to the X2 BIOS as it had a 256k version that would fit on most generic chips. Good luck fitting the X3 BIOS on one of those! I've also never TSOP'd a xbox, but does the onboard flash have enough room for the X3 BIOS (which was 1MB) if so did Xecuter even release a DRM free version?
SX OS, is a commercial product, that generally costs money to obtain. You can only use for free without restrictions if you crack it.
Xecuter 3 modchip, was a commercial product, that generally costs money to obtain, and to get it's full feature set you'd have to use the X3 BIOS that came with built in DRM that would only allow it to work on the Xecuter 3 modchip, that you could only use for free (and on other chips), if you crack it.
They seem pretty comparable to me.
Either way, you did host a BIOS that required a commercial product.
Additionally, there were other modchips in the XBOX scene that had custom BIOS for it that you could only run if you had the chip (for legal reasons they didn't ship the BIOS with the chip, you had to obtain it from xbins or elsewhere). Also, 4th gen chips like the SmartXX and Xenium had BIOS specifically for them, so in all reality to make use of all of their features you'd have to run their BIOS. You could, run a 3rd party generic BIOS, but if you wanted full functionality you'd have to run their custom BIOS that was specifically designed for their chip. The fact the BIOS was free and wasn't included shouldn't negate the fact that at the time no one included a BIOS and the fact that you need the hardware, that cost money to run the BIOS shouldn't be overlooked.
Like I said, you'll run your site however you like. One thing I dislike is outsiders trying to dictate how a page is run when it's not theirs. I'll do whatever the heck I want with my site and if you don't like it then tough shit. I was just curious on what your reasoning behind not hosting SX OS was. Again, I don't host it either and I'm sure some people might find this hypocritical because I host other CFW. Sorta like how some people say pirating roms for emulation is fine, but pirating Switch games isn't. Basically, I'm not going to tell you how you run your site (or tell anyone else how to run their Discord server), you just won't find me on servers or sites dedicated to mainly pirating stuff or hosting software that is advertised by it's authors mainly for piracy purposes.
Last edited by cots,
