Consumers' Rights Given Little Respect
from the respect-what? dept
Dan Gillmor's latest column treads familiar ground around here, talking about how ridiculous it is that technology and entertainment companies think it's okay to tell you it's not legal to change anything on the box you just bought from them. He points out that if a car manufacturer ever told people that, they would revolt. Yet, people seem to accept it when computer and consumer electronics makers do the exact same thing. As an example, he uses the case against Lik-Sang in Hong Kong for selling mod chips for gaming consoles. I understand that online gamers are annoyed at those who use mod-chipped boxes to cheat, but that doesn't change the fact that making it illegal to sell a mod-chip seems to go overboard - especially when there are legitimate uses for a mod chip.
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Not Quite
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Let's be clear on our analogies
The point of all of this is that NONE of these restrictions is placed on the consumer by a manufacturer. All of the requirements are created by regulations that indicate what is needed to be a “street legal” vehicle. There is no mandate of a particular manufacturer’s product, or even a technology – anyone is welcome to create an induction system for any car and get it emissions certified.
I think Gillmor is right on with this one. And, bear in mind that the ramifications of operating a modified game console are trivial compared with those of operating a car with, say, modified brakes.
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