Hacking Uhoh The Big N Is Pissed Off :P

[jaxxster]

Looks like they're getting serious now

"On Nintendo's homepage, a news article discussing mod chips, reveals that anyone caught installing or selling mod chips (as they're illegal apparently) may be faced with criminal charges. Seems Ninty isn't too happy with the current state of "black-market" modding on their systems and are letting that fact be known.

quote:
Perhaps you are not familiar with mod chips, but nevertheless we would like to draw your attention to some important information.
Modification microchips (mod chips) circumvent the security embedded into Nintendo's products. To install a mod chip into a Nintendo hardware system, it is necessary to dismantle the product and, in some instances, remove components.
The use of mod chips voids the manufacturer's warranty. In addition, the installation of a mod chip can damage the functionality of a Nintendo console, sometimes rendering it incapable of repair. Mod chips have been adjudicated to be illegal in various countries around the world, including the Unites States, the United Kingdom and Hong Kong. Most European countries have also already adopted laws prohibiting the circumvention of technological measures for copyright protection. People caught installing or selling mod chips may be subject to criminal charges.


Looks like a fair enough warning, but is it strong enough to dismantle the modding community?


News source: nintendo-europe.com"

Maybe piracy is really effecting them that much that need to go to such lengths to ensure people cant get a modchip. Companies will never win against modchips no matter how much they try to get rid of them.

 

[Opium]

Modchips are legal in Australia. Just you try and stop us

 

[jaxxster]

Arent they only legal if they contain "region free"....Thats what i heard anyways.

Looks like divineo could be losing another big court case in the future

 

[TLSpartan]

Australia has the greatest console laws ever.

 

[bliss-chris]

Hmmm, is there a list where modding is legal and where it isn't? From the big N homepage and this forum, I now know about the UK, the US, Honkong and Australia. What about Germany, France, the Netherlands and others?

Just a side note: this post turned me into a member, I'm not a newbie anymore. Hooray for me!

 

[mustnap]

could it be because tons of people returned bricked Wii consoles to them claiming that the consoles were already broken when they bought it or things similar??

i doubt that they post it because of piracy. it must have been because of Super Paper Mario NTSC update..

 

[bliss-chris]

Yep, that's it! They're pissed off by the expolding return of Wiis bricked by Super Mario and thousands of owners claiming they bought a used console and don't know what happened.

And maybe because sales of the games don't run as smoothly as they'd expected them considering the way-above-expectation sale of the consoles, but that's just a guess.

could it be because tons of people returned bricked Wii consoles to them claiming that the consoles were already broken when they bought it or things similar??

i doubt that they post it because of piracy. it must have been because of Super Paper Mario NTSC update..

 

[Darkforce]

Well people have been able to mod the Wii for months now so it sounds like Nintendo are pissed with the number of idiots breaking their Wii's due to botched mod chip installs and updates via SPM on PAL machines... if someone returns a Wii to a retailer then the retailer/wholesaler sends the faulty machine back to Nintendo and has their account credited; Nintendo ultimately pay the price. Even those who contact Nintendo directly and are charged the £52 or whatever it is to sort the problem out still kick'em in the balls as the cost of postage, labour, parts and possibly a new machine I suspect easily equal or exceed the £52 repair price.

 

[Rayder]

I am still of the opinion that as long as I don't make any profit with my efforts, I can do whatever the hell I want with the product I bought and payed for.

 

[TLSpartan]

If you dont know how to solder just dont try and modify a 400$ gaming system. Its that simple

 

[mustnap]

Well people have been able to mod the Wii for months now so it sounds like Nintendo are pissed with the number of idiots breaking their Wii's due to botched mod chip installs and updates via SPM on PAL machines... if someone returns a Wii to a retailer then the retailer/wholesaler sends the faulty machine back to Nintendo and has their account credited; Nintendo ultimately pay the price. Even those who contact Nintendo directly and are charged the £52 or whatever it is to sort the problem out still kick'em in the balls as the cost of postage, labour, parts and possibly a new machine I suspect easily equal or exceed the £52 repair price.

and currently only nintendo-europe.com has this "news" (when i read this, i immediately checked nintendo.com but could not find anything related to modchip there..) my guess is that, when they repaired the consoles, they found evidence of those Wiis being opened and maybe some still have modchip attached.

If NTSC/U consoles are getting bricked for similar reason (maybe in the future there are PAL games that are released earlier than NTSC), nintendo.com will post this kind of things too..

 

[adgloride]

I blame nintendo same as I blame microsoft. They knew as soon as the Wii and Xbox 360 were released DVDs could be copied. It was just a matter of time before we were playing copies on the consoles. Maybe they shouldn't have got for the cheap media so they could make even more money off the games.

As for fitting the mod chips if they didn't charge so much for the damn games, no one would bother. Nintendo are also charging way too much for the VC games, I just hope someone finds a way so we can play them for free as well soon.

 

[bliss-chris]

You're touching a hot potato there. I totally agree, but the problem is that you're not done with modding your Wii, but then you'll need copied games, too, which is illegal. So, Nintendo shouldn't complain about modded Wiis, because with a modchip you're capable of using copied games, but it's the good old question whether you can imply from having the equipment for illegal activities that you're also using it for that purpose. Every man is a potential rapist, right? Because he's got the gear for it. But back to the topic: in my opinion it's Nintendos fault they're losing money from fixing bricked Wiis. I'd understand them not fixing consoles "for free" anymore in case it broke due to users doing funny stuff with the consoles. But how can they know without having (and paying) people for investigating whether a Wii is modded or not? It's cheaper to throw the whole thing away and return a new one. They're complaining and trying to talk us into having a bad conscience. It won't work with me.

I am still of the opinion that as long as I don't make any profit with my efforts, I can do whatever the hell I want with the product I bought and payed for.

 

[larvi]

Thanks to the DMCA in the US it is illegal to circumvent technology that Nintendo has added to protect their copyright. It has nothing to do with making a profit or not:

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.

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

Also it makes the selling of such devices illegal in the US:

`(b) ADDITIONAL VIOLATIONS- (1) 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 protection afforded by a technological measure that effectively protects a right of a copyright owner under this title in a work or a portion thereof

It's a pretty draconian law that really favors the big businesses in the US, i.e. Nintendo. There are efforts trying to get it repealed: http://www.eff.org/IP/DMCA/

 

[jaxxster]

At the end of the day nintendo have every right to protect thier profits. If i was a company and found people were trying to rip me off i'd try my hardest to protect it. I can see this ending in divineo losing alot of money...AGAIN

 

[Darkforce]

in my opinion it's Nintendos fault they're losing money from fixing bricked Wiis. I'd understand them not fixing consoles "for free" anymore in case it broke due to users doing funny stuff with the consoles. But how can they know without having (and paying) people for investigating whether a Wii is modded or not? It's cheaper to throw the whole thing away and return a new one. They're complaining and trying to talk us into having a bad conscience. It won't work with me.Â

Uh, that doesn't make any sense... Also did you not read my point? Not everyone is honest enough to ring Nintendo up and loads of people just return their broken Wii to the store. The store will then send the units back to Nintendo and Nintendo don't have any choice other than to replace the broken units or credit the store the price of the machine. So even if Nintendo just throw the broken Wii away they have still lost money because a machine they could have sold for say £150 to a wholesaler/retailer has instead been given to a retailer for £0 as a replacement, meaning Nintendo has just loss £150.

And yes, I suspect a lot of broken machines they do get in are just thrown away, though it IS (just about) cheaper to repair a machine than make a new one. If for example the Wii is broken from a botched firmware update I'm guessing Nintendo will just have to reflash the firmware, replace the DVD main board, rubber feet/screw stickers and possibly the case and packaging. If you factor in say an hour or two labour at £20, parts at £10-20 and postage at £12 you can see where Nintendos repair charge of £52 for customers who do ring them directly comes from; Nintendo are basically repairing the machine for cost.

Nintendo are "complaining" because they're fed up with people not only pirating their goods but those who have the cheek to pirate their goods, brake their machine only to return it and then hit Nitendo with a loss on the hardware too.

If you want to pirate then pirate away, I'm not going to stop you, but don't bitch how "it's Nintendo fault", it's pathetic.

 

[TLSpartan]

I like to think of Nintendo of as a big furry bear thats tied to a pole. It sounds and looks scary but it will never get you.

 

[Hit]

Mod Chips are Legal in the netherlands so

 

[bliss-chris]

Admittedly, I might not make much sense today and I might have not made myself clear enough. I didn't get much sleep last night, which has nothing to do with N complaining people about mod chips, but you should rather ask my girlfriend about my lack of sleep.

I just wanted to say that I agree with you more than you think. I also think it's not okay by people to fuck up their Wiis and have N pay for it. And when I say "it's Nintendos fault", I'm not bitching around. It's a calculation of Ns service costs, which now backfires on them because people are abusing it. If N would've suspected such problems to occur then the repair service would've been more expensive. It's just math. And I also agree in £52 being nothing N is making profit with, I don't think so, because you also need to train the people, rent rooms where they work in, buy tools, etc. etc. Once you have that you'll try to minimize time spent per unit. They'll have a short standard procedure to fix the Wii (FW flash, some kind of diagnostics or something or another, I dunno) and if all that fails the unit's dumped and replaced. Anything else wouldn't make sense.

Uh, that doesn't make any sense... Also did you not read my point? Not everyone is honest enough to ring Nintendo up and loads of people just return their broken Wii to the store. The store will then send the units back to Nintendo and Nintendo don't have any choice other than to replace the broken units or credit the store the price of the machine. So even if Nintendo just throw the broken Wii away they have still lost money because a machine they could have sold for say £150 to a wholesaler/retailer has instead been given to a retailer for £0 as a replacement, meaning Nintendo has just loss £150.

And yes, I suspect a lot of broken machines they do get in are just thrown away, though it IS (just about) cheaper to repair a machine than make a new one. If for example the Wii is broken from a botched firmware update I'm guessing Nintendo will just have to reflash the firmware, replace the DVD main board, rubber feet/screw stickers and possibly the case and packaging. If you factor in say an hour or two labour at £20, parts at £10-20 and postage at £12 you can see where Nintendos repair charge of £52 for customers who do ring them directly comes from; Nintendo are basically repairing the machine for cost.

Nintendo are "complaining" because they're fed up with people not only pirating their goods but those who have the cheek to pirate their goods, brake their machine only to return it and then hit Nitendo with a loss on the hardware too.

If you want to pirate then pirate away, I'm not going to stop you, but don't bitch how "it's Nintendo fault", it's pathetic.

 

[TheVirus]

2 year warranty from Best Buy > *. I don't have to ship it to Nintendo, I just return it to the store for an in-store swap. Can't wait for all of the homebrew stuff to come out.