Doom of Xbox on the horizon due to Linux?

[2d6]

There's two methods to do the Linux hack, a mod chip or a software hack that involves exploiting an overflow bug in an xbox game to boot the OS. I haven't read a ton on it, but apparently you have to remove the HDD from the xbox, hook it up to a PC and transfer some utilites and software.

On the DMCA issue, what you do to your xbox isn't that big of a deal, at worst you lost your warranty. What a bunch of hacks do to thier xboxes and boradcast to the world most likely does matter, and could very well land them in court, if not jail.

for what it matters, IANAL, but this isn't the first time this sort of thing has come up.

 

[Tsyr]

There's two methods to do the Linux hack, a mod chip or a software hack that involves exploiting an overflow bug in an xbox game to boot the OS. I haven't read a ton on it, but apparently you have to remove the HDD from the xbox, hook it up to a PC and transfer some utilites and software.

You can transfer the files to a memory card and do it via a bug in the way several games access save files.

 

[Hackenslash]

Here,Here and here again !!!!

This won't kill the X-Box.

But I just loath the attitude of these punks... "Oh, we are so sad... Microsoft has forced us to release this exploit, but we really didn't want to, but you see, big bad microsoft wouldn't just bend over and do what we wanted, so we really had no choice, see..."

I am 100% in aggreement with this post and it echos my own sentiments exactly. How dare someone even contemplate tring to do this to a company. Yeah, we all know Microsoft is no angel, with corporate take overs and monopolization, but at least they are playing by the Law. I don't even know what this "Linux" crap is but I certainly won't be modifiing anything on my Xbox to get cheaper games or other software to work on it. I have always supported the Development Community by buying full priced original games or cut priced budget or pre-owned games, but would never buy a pirated game, DVD, CD or anything else for that matter. It may be my own sense of fair play or principles but I would just not feel right, in playing or watching pirated media. Just my 2 cents

 

[Zub]

If I buy an Xbox - I am buying the hardware. I am not buying a license that allows me to use the hardware for a particular purpse or in a particular manner. If I can come up with a way to run Linux or any other operating system on my Xbox then good for me. Microsoft has only one recourse, and that is they can deny warranty support, and somehow ensure that future revisions of the X-box hardware won't be compatible with this particular hack. As for the group themselves, they probably should have just released the hack. Anyone with any sense is going to know MS would never sanction this.

 

[Tsyr]

If I buy an Xbox - I am buying the hardware. I am not buying a license that allows me to use the hardware for a particular purpse or in a particular manner.

Are you, though? Have you actualy checked?

 

[Zub]

Are you, though? Have you actualy checked?

I don't have an xbox - so I can't answer that question. I do own a PS2. I purchased it used from EBGames. It came with no EULA, and I would be surpised if X-Box came with one as well.

I still fail to see how DMCA applies here. Whose copyright is being violated? If Windows were being installed, then I'm sure a WIndows EULA would be violated, but Linux wouldn't come with such a thing.

 

[MJEggertson]

It's really not an issue of licensing or anything like that. It's basically plain and simple copyright infringment. You can't modify their software, just as much as you can't (legally) modify the latest song, movie, or work of art at the museum without permission from the copyright holder. These various exploits all work on one way or another to modify a program either on disk or in memory, programs that are protected under digital copyrights. Microsoft owns the copyright to the software code and binaries on the xBox, just as Morrus does for the code that runs ENWorld. Either can do what they want with it. You can own an xBox, but Microsoft still has copyrights on some of the media inside that device.

The problem people have with digital copyrights, is they figure since they have a copy of it, it is their right to do anything with it. But that's not the way it works most of the time. Digital media works by requiring distribution of exact copies. Buying virtually any digital product does not allow you to modify it, open source being the exception. The laws are there to prevent people from copying, distributing, modifying, etc the product without the copyright holder's consent.

Do you really think anyone in their right mind would try to base a corporation off digital media if there weren't these laws?

The DMCA applies because there is software that is being modified. Bootstrappers, cryptographic software, etc. That software is there to ensure that only licensed Micrsoft products (that is, xBox games, and perhaps some DVD/CD media) run on the system. There is no way you can run Linux on the system without modifying/defeating some of the existing software, hence violating copyrights.

 

[Zub]

So in a general sense, If I removed or deleted all hardware that contained embedded code whose sole purpose was to make this system a dedicated X-box gaming machine from the XBOX, and replaced it with my own, I wouldn't be violating any copyright?

I'm still not buying this. Didn't SONY try to take BLeem off the market and fail?

Using the same reasoning, could GM prevent me from using a non GM parts in my car because I'd be circumventing what they intended? For example, GM starts placing RF ID tags on oil filters. The car will now only start if the oil filter has an RF tag that has a certain embedded code. It would be illegal for me to manufacture a compatible oil filter that contained an RF tag? It would also be illegal to replace the processor in my car with a chip that did not check the oil filter for an authorized RF tag? GM could claim they were doing this because only GM oil filters were of high enough quality?


That would be insanity. I'm surprised they haven't come up with it yet?

 

[WizarDru]

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.

The Nvidia card inside the Xbox is a hell of a lot more powerful than a Geforce 2. And it's not the speed of the processor that's ever the bottleneck in these operations. The bus design and OS are the real issues. Further, since the OS is scaled down and the hardware is fixed, you can push it much harder and do much more with it than a similar piece of equipment in a PC. That's the reason that DOOM3 and Half-life 2 are coming to the Xbox, even though PCs with twice the processing power on the CPU can't handle it.

As for the whole "Linux on Xbox will kill the platform', that's just patent nonsense. The Dreamcast died from poor marketing, a lack of title diversity (quick, name _3 _DC RPGs) and an already crowded market space by a company that couldn't afford to compete in that arena. The amount of work necessary to make something like Linux on Xbox work is more than 99% of the people who own one are willing to put up with doing.

Xbox is a clear and solid second, and is steadily gathering steam with quite a few system exclusives coming. Nintendo has a market share that they shouldn't have too much trouble maintaining, with the highest ratio of quality and family-friendly titles available.

As for BLEEM, they DID get it off the market. The company was utterly destroyed. The legal challenges never entirely finished, but they were able to keep going for a while. Sony didn't win against the other playstation emulator, but they certainly didn't make a very large profit, when all was said and done. Bleem had a stronger case than, say PSemu, which utilized stolen ROMS to work. But it still allowed you to play pirated games on a non-Sony device, and copy same. Bleem! was about emulation, not about stealing IP, per se.

 

[Welverin]

The Nvidia card inside the Xbox is a hell of a lot more powerful than a Geforce 2.

Yep, about a GeForce3 as I recall.

(quick, name _3 _DC RPGs)

Skies of Arcadia, Grandia 2, and Evolution 1&2, of course those are probably the only one. And no I didn't have to look it up.

Nintendo has a market share that they shouldn't have too much trouble maintaining, with the highest ratio of quality and family-friendly titles available.

Unfortunately I’ve been reading for a while now that t companies are jumping ship, or will, and will no longer support the cube.

As for BLEEM, they DID get it off the market. The company was utterly destroyed. The legal challenges never entirely finished, but they were able to keep going for a while.

Not because they were ever right or even remotely able to find any legitimate basis for claiming it to be illegal, but because they were able to bring enough bogus lawsuits far enough to make Bleem! spend more money on legal fees than development, so Bleem! eventually gave up.