Doom of Xbox on the horizon due to Linux?

[Alzrius]

Actually, it is their business, because if you've successfully run Linux, that means you've bypassed their digital encryption/security/thingamado, which is illegal under the DCMA. It's really no different than defeating the lock on your local bank, and then wandering in and taking cash all the while saying, "But the door was unlocked and the money's just laying here, not claimed as anyone's!"

That's of course, a severe oversimplification, but you get the idea.

I thought that once you purchased a product, you could do whatever you wanted with it. If I purchased an Xbox only to take a bat and beat the hell out of it, it isn't destruction of Microsoft property, since I bought it and now own it. If I bought it, I can modify my personal property however I want.

 

[Dark Jezter]

Sorry, couldn't resist.

 

[Fast Learner]

I thought that once you purchased a product, you could do whatever you wanted with it. If I purchased an Xbox only to take a bat and beat the hell out of it, it isn't destruction of Microsoft property, since I bought it and now own it. If I bought it, I can modify my personal property however I want.

Thinking that, unfortunately, doesn't make it true. Our friends -- nay, our representatives -- in Congress passed the Digital Millenium Copyright Act, making such things illegal. In fact it made a whole ton of things illegal, things that would have the country in an uproar if it wasn't so busy sucking on the boob tube and swallowing pap.

The DCMA almost absolutely makes it illegal to modify your Xbox. It's possible that it wouldn't survive a real challenge (hence the "almost"), but until then you can absolutely be fined and even jailed.

I'm a huge proponent of protecting intellectual property (I constantly rail at music and software thieves), yet even I think the DCMA is unconstitutional evil.

 

[MJEggertson]

(Got my acronym mixed up...DMCA, not DCMA...)

The main problem with issues covered by the DMCA is that when you buy one of these items that are covered by the law, you may (sometimes) own a physical thing, but portions of that thing may still be protected under copyrights and what not. The concept of ownership becomes rather nebulous in these cases.

The thing to remember is, despite you having bought an xbox and owning the physical piece of hardware, you did not purchase rights to modify the copyrighted material that is owned by Microsoft. Similarly, the DMCA also protects Microsoft from you trying to defeat any security features on the xbox that they have in place to protect their intellectual property. Do anything you want to your xbox, but but if you step on Microsoft's protected intellectual property, they have legal protection.

The DMCA is likely flawed (though I've read of it, I haven't read the act itself), but god forbid, those slashdotting geeks who cry foul over any digital rights management (DRM) issue that the DMCA succeeds with sure as hell aren't right either.

 

[smetzger]

Yup DMCA is messed up

Yup, DMCA messed up alot of things that should be reasonably legal to do.

One interesting thing about DMCA. It will protect the next generation of file sharing programs. The record companies are currently going after individual Kazaa users who file share files that the records companies have deemed to be copyright violations. However, the next generation of file sharing programs encrypt your identiy. Even if the encryption is poor the record companies are not allowed to break that encryption due to DMCA. My hope that this will result in DMCA being neutered appropriatly or thrown out completly.

As for the doom of XBox, I doubt it. It was probably a good move by MS. If they had released the linux boot stuff then there may be export restrictions placed on the XBox, due to Super Computer export restrictions.

For example, PS2 has a linux boot release. Some guys have linked 70 of them together and made a very cheap Super Computer.

Since XBox doesn't have an MS supplied linux boot, they can probably avoid export problems.

 

[jdavis]

I really don't see putting linux on the X-Box as the problem, I really don't see why anybody would want to run linux on a X-Box to start with(It's just a crappy 733 and GeForce 2 in a box http://www.angelfire.com/extreme/paulsplace/x-box.html ) but that's not the point. The point is the copying of games that can be played on any unaltered X-Box anywhere bit.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/31571.html

This kind of piracy is very worrying for the console, since it would allow pirates to create copies of Xbox discs using simple CD and DVD burning equipment, which run on completely unmodified consoles in exactly the same way that original games do.

 

[Destil]

Actualy, this one doesn't. It's software. That's the whole point of it.

From what I've read this still takes a dollop of sodder on some connection. Thus they didn't win that award for being the first people to provide a softwear only version of Linux for the 'box.

 

[Tsyr]

From what I've read this still takes a dollop of sodder on some connection. Thus they didn't win that award for being the first people to provide a softwear only version of Linux for the 'box.

It's pure software.

What it DOES, on the other hand, require, is some fair bit of a work swapping files off memory cards and stuff. But not insermountable.

 

[drothgery]

I really don't see putting linux on the X-Box as the problem, I really don't see why anybody would want to run linux on a X-Box to start with(It's just a crappy 733 and GeForce 2 in a box)

Because it's difficult to put together even a crappy system for $180, assuming new components. It's not a bad cheap server.

 

[Hardhead]

Actually, it is their business, because if you've successfully run Linux, that means you've bypassed their digital encryption/security/thingamado, which is illegal under the DCMA. It's really no different than defeating the lock on your local bank, and then wandering in and taking cash all the while saying, "But the door was unlocked and the money's just laying here, not claimed as anyone's!"

I don't care if the DMCA makes it illegal or not - it's a stupid law in the first place, and as far as I'm concerned it's still none of their buisness.

Let's say I buy a vacuum cleaner, but I modify it to make it a leaf blower instead. I'm using the vacuum cleaner that I bought in a way unintended by the manufacturer. If they don't like it, tough. Much of the DMCA hasn't been tested in the courts yet, and it's legality is questionable. IMO, this is a stupid part that will eventually get repealed.

As for the bank metaphor (and the house metaphor) no dice. I'm not stealing any money from Microsoft by installing Linux on my Xbox

As for the house, I'm not giving others a key to Microsoft's metaphorical house, I'm giving them a key to their own house. In your metaphor, the key is to property owned by someone else, which is not the case. In reality, the "key" (hack) is for something that is not owned by Microsoft. It's the key to their own propery (the Xbox they bought from Microsoft). HUGE difference.

Oh, and I could be wrong about the soldering, but from what I understood, it still requires it. It doesn't require a mod chip, but it still requies soldering. OTOH, the article I read could have been inaccurate.