Hacking legality of modchips in United States

[avatarx]

Just found these from wikipedia.org searching "modchip"

USA legality under DMCA

The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) cites that circumvention devices, including, but not limited to mod-chips, are illegal, because the device circumvents the copy-protection features of their host systems. In reality, the mod-chips themselves are not illegal, they are just pieces of hardware inserted into the gaming console to override system defaults. The software is what is illegal because it was made to perform illegal actions such as decoding DVDs and copying games onto the Hard Drive.

In early 2003, iSONEWS.com was raided by the FBI, presumably for selling Xbox modchips with pre-flashed BIOSes. The impetus for the raid was likely the fact that iSO News was distributing hacked versions of the original Microsoft BIOS, thus redistributing Microsoft's copyrighted software without permission.

Many companies are now selling modchips without any possibly DMCA-infringing BIOS code loaded onto the EEPROM portion of the chip module, or loading it with a totally legal BIOS containing none of the manufacturer's copyrighted code (for example the Cromwell BIOS developed by the Xbox Linux Project). It is then up to the customer to separately obtain a copy of their desired (possibly illegal) firmware and then to flash it into EEPROM.

On September 11 2006, Judge Claudia Wilken of the U.S. District Court awarded $3,750,200.00 in damages against corporate defendant Divineo, Inc. Divineo is a major international distributor of modchips, and the HDLoader Software for which it was sued by the ESA.

 

[modshroom128]

well then computers should be illegal because they can be used to pirate music...

gah, this law is not well thought out and complete bs...

 

[lcddream]

#1 he can refuse to do the work.
#2 if modchips themselves are illegal then they wouldn't ship them in/to the country you are in.
#3 he is as responsible as you for whatever illegality of installing it


what is he gonna call the FBI and be like...yeah this kid wants me to install this modchip, put under surveillance and bust him!



he was just fucking with you man relax.
or just covering his own ass.

not like you signed a release form or anything....seriously relax.

 

[NMorgan]

Federal copyright laws allow you to make 1 backup copy of any media you own as long as you make that copy yourself (no downloading). You are installing the modchip only so you can run backup copies of the Wii games you have purchased. Nothing wrong with that. Modchips are 110% legal and a consumer will NEVER get in trouble for modding their Wii.

Downloading, burning, and playing games you don't own is 110% ILLegal. This is where you can get in trouble. If you download and burn games you don't own, you are engaging in software piracy, and therefore are putting yourself at risk of getting in trouble. Although, the liklihood of getting in trouble is very low, it is still there. Understand that if you intend to use a modchip for software piracy, there is a chance that you could get in a lot of trouble for it.

Actually, downloading ANY games is illegal, even if you own that game. Technically, you need to copy the game yourself in order to stay within the legal spectrum.