It's lovely that you can just accuse me of modding my equipment. Unfortunately, my PS3 is not modded and I don't have an xbox360. Why is that? OOOOH BECAUSE THE FREAKIN JAPANESE GAMES I WANT TO PLAY IS REGION LOCKED TO JAPAN!
Hold on, what's that on my shelf?
-Eternal Sonata - PS3 - NA version
-LIttle Big Planet - PS3 - NA version
-Valkyria Chronicle - PS3 - NA version
-Folklore - PS3 - NA version
-Katamari Forever - PS3 - NA version
-Shirokishi Monogatari - PS3 - JP version
-Agarest Senki - PS3 - JP version
-Agarest Senki Zero - PS3 - JP version
-Rorona No Atlier - PS3 - JP version
I am sure in Cenobyte's universe that the last four games doesn't exist.
In fact about 2 months ago I bought an xbox 360 elite from Costco. Then my friend from HK asked me what games I wanted to play. I said that the only reason I was buying it because I wanted to play idolM@ster and Blue Dragon, and also Host C club. He asked, "Did you check the compability list?" Long and behold, I have to return the xbox360 before I even open the box because, what's that?, they are all region locked.
And why does my HK friend know? Because he recently immigrated from HK to North America, and he's now caught between a rock and a hard place. Why? Because his HK bought xbox360 recently died (turns on but no display comes out, no RROD). He knows that he has to choose from the following
1. buy NA xbox360, all his previous game useless (all HK bought) and start a new library (might have to rebuy some of the games)
2. buy another HK xbox360, from the net or someone ship it over. The cost would be high and he needs to continue buying HK games and ship them over.
We are talking about a guy who has pretty much owned ALL the console since NES. Currently he has all current gen game consoles, wii, xbox360, ps3, psp, ds. He has all his games legit. He plays so much game that he wrote a java randmizer that actually help him decide which one to play next. He even has 3 set of rock band equipments (because they always ship new stuff with each rockband). I can't think of anyone I know that is a better customer to game industry than this guy.
And he's getting screwed over because his REGION LOCKED xbox360 is broken.
What I am saying is this is a real problem. So, in conlusion, Cenobyte, don't claim knowledge that you do not posses. It just make you look like either a shill for Big Corp, or an ignorant idiot.
PS. to others, I don't mean to write such a long techdirt unrelated rant and if you read throught it, thank you. I just can't stand some people claiming that region lock doesn't exist and/or it's not a big problem. In my circle of friends, it's real and it's a big problem for us.
1) I know a lot of asians living in North America who modded their ps and p2 so they can play Japanese games. Since ps3 is not region locked anymore, those ppl I know started buying games, from Japan without having to mod their machine. This bascially throws your all modders are cheating/pirating reasoning off the window.
2)What MS did is not ONLY prevent you from entering xbox live, but also disabled many functions of your xbox while it's offline. If they are only banning people off the xbox live, it wouldn't create such fury. Here is the (partial?)list
*Cannot go on Xbox Live
*Cannot install games to the HDD
*Cannot use Windows Media Centre extender
*Cannot be used to get achievements from backups without corrupting your profile
Now tell me why is #2 and #3 have anything to do with xbox live?
Let say you bought an iPhone and hacked it. And let's also say that Apple is taking a hard ball approach to the hacked iPhone. Bascially a similar "ban" on you iPhone to this one would be
*You cannot get on AppStore
*You can no long put music/video on your iPhone
*You cannot play music/video to TV/stereo with headphone jack or their proprietary connector
*Attempting to sync with iTunes to get your address book will corrupt your address book(this one is a bit contrived, but you get the picture)
Now, when I translate the affect fucntions to an iPhone, it doesn't look so good anymore isn't it?
No one is arguing MS' right to deny acces to their network. It's theirs. However, MS is acting like they own the hardware and preventing you to use some of the OFFLINE functions. That's why players are angry.
Sheinen and alternatives() wants to know if my friend can offer proof of such "chip" existance.
I personally don't use or know xbox360 that well so I'll ask him to see if he can confirm this. However, I do know this guys knows a lot about modding xbox/xbox360s.
Well, correct me if I am wrong, the hard drive is usable on a "new" xbox right?
So in my comment, I was right that you cannot use your hard drive anymore on your banned xbox. I just didn't write it in a clarified way.
In addition, if you happen to read the log of a certain irc channel conversation where the head of the policy department showed up. He actually does not guarantee that your saved games and downloaded contents are saved. He said, and I quote, "HDD from banned to unbanned is okay, but you might have to reformat to get full access to licenses"
From a friend of mine who seems to know a lot about xbox software, what MS did is blow up (literally, they short circuit) an encrypted chip on the board which permenantly and un-reversably disables functions on the xbox.
Some people, possibly including Mike, are probably not aware that what MS did is not just refusing xbox live services to modders but intentionally breaking the xbox. For example, you will not be able to use harddrive anymore.
To use an example, it's not that Mike banned you from Techdirt and you are not allowed to login anymore. It's Mike and the techdirt crew send a signal to your motherboard inside your computer, fried some circuits, so not only you cannot log in to techdirt, you are also in possesion of a broken computer.
This has NOTHING to do with cheating, as Mike suggested, as MS is targeting hardware modifications that cut into their profit. A modified console MAY be used for cheating, but MS is not targetting at that type of modification right now. This is a pure piracy crackdown.
BTW, on related news, MS has banned around 600,000 xboxes and is aiming to ban 1,000,000 boxes by Christmas. It's hard not to believe this is not an actual marketing strategy to make people buy new xboxes during christmas. However, with the recent PS3 price drop, we cannot be certain how many ppl are going to buy another xbox, knowing that MS can break them if they so wish.
On another related news, MS' xbox policy enforcement department head's private information has been posted to 4chan (if you don't know what that is, look it up) and has been receiving death threats to him, his wife, kids and dogs, not to mention the non-stopping phone calls to his private residence.
Obviously you have never dealed with the shadier side of your local electronic stores.
On a sort of related note, everyone is all dissed about DVD region lock. Guess what, I can walk down the street and get an "all-region" DVD player right now, that'll play, anything you throw at it.
the most infuriating is comedycentral! I can't remember how many times I tried to follow a link to a "funny" video or segment only to find myself blocked and CURSE comedycentral to hell.
what if they include the clause to include all universe, than the alternate universe copyright is own by another company?
So company A in universe A claims copyright over item A in all universes while company B in universe B claims copyright over item A(alt) in all universes.
So who owns the copyright? does universe A supreme court have jurisdiction over universe B?
I should go watch that futurama episode where professor created all those boxes containing universes...
2. Please don't post off topic comments. If you have a need to contact Mike, please try this form at http://techdirt.com/contact.php, or call them at 1.888.930.9272 as indicated in their "Contact Us" page. If you would like to submit a story, as this seems like a news story, please use http://techdirt.com/submitstory.php.
Thank you for your time to check us out, but please RTFM next time.
(sorry, I can't resist slipping the acronym there) ;-)
your cheques and bank balances are no match for lobbyists cheques and bank balances.
Seriously, it's all good and dandy we have ways to keep government in line, but no one really have enough money or time to fight the lobbyists in court. That's why once they set up a "law" it's basically game over.
uhh... you need to think through what you are proposing.
You can't possibly start with one price and adjust up and down depending on feedback, sales or demand. It's the ultimate way to piss customers off.
simply run this through a case.
-start with $10
-feed backs and sales data...etc
-adjust to $15
-people who bought early is happy (they got a deal!) People who bought it late is PISSED OFF for having to PAY MORE!
*bonus* people view you as evil because you did a money-grab
reversely
-start with $10
-blah blah blah...etc
-adjust to $5
-people who bought early is PISSED OFF for having to pay more and people who bought later is happy they hold out (they got a deal!)
*bonus* people hold off buying until a price drop
usually people are more tolerable on the second case because it's generally recognized that you have to pay higher price to be the first bunch of people to get the newest stuff.
So as you can't see, companies can't be as flexible as you suggested on price.
if the "education campaign" is coming from a known unreliable
source, wouldn't that make people research for the truth, if they care enough to go through the original campaign?
So thank you, music industry, for raising awareness of consumer copyrights.
I tried to come with some clever comment, but I couldn't. Why? Because this is such a clear cut case that nothing really could be said about it.
Now, what I could comment, is the sad state of the American legal system/culture/environment and ASPCA/BMI/RIAA/MPAA...
1) The court system is in such a sad state that we ACTUALLY have to WORRY about the court making a wrong decision in this kind of clear cut and basic frivolous case. Either the court's judges' intelligence has dropped so low or that judges' corruption has cause us to lose most of the faith in our legal system (can't rule out both reasons are valid) What would happen when the day comes that we put judges on the same level as lawyers?
2) The industry environment is in such a sad state that they would do anything, ANYTHING to try to squeeze pennies out of consumers. How dumb are these people not realizing all these actions just cause people to lose respect and for some people, the anger drives them to commit copyright infringement? (those ******s! I would never pay them anything attitude). Either that or they think we, the general public and consumers, are idiots who believer everything they say.
Of course, in this case we see a dog biting another dog, and it's very entertaining. Hey, here is the news, we are much more empowered now by new technology and new communication methods. The days where you can just steamroll us, your paying customers, are over. OVER I SAID.
On the post: UK Again Says That Mod Chipping Isn't Legal
Re:
Is xbox360 region coded? If it's not, why do we have this list at play-asia?
http://www.play-asia.com/paOS-00-3-xbox360_compatibility_guide-49-en.html
It's lovely that you can just accuse me of modding my equipment. Unfortunately, my PS3 is not modded and I don't have an xbox360. Why is that? OOOOH BECAUSE THE FREAKIN JAPANESE GAMES I WANT TO PLAY IS REGION LOCKED TO JAPAN!
Hold on, what's that on my shelf?
-Eternal Sonata - PS3 - NA version
-LIttle Big Planet - PS3 - NA version
-Valkyria Chronicle - PS3 - NA version
-Folklore - PS3 - NA version
-Katamari Forever - PS3 - NA version
-Shirokishi Monogatari - PS3 - JP version
-Agarest Senki - PS3 - JP version
-Agarest Senki Zero - PS3 - JP version
-Rorona No Atlier - PS3 - JP version
I am sure in Cenobyte's universe that the last four games doesn't exist.
In fact about 2 months ago I bought an xbox 360 elite from Costco. Then my friend from HK asked me what games I wanted to play. I said that the only reason I was buying it because I wanted to play idolM@ster and Blue Dragon, and also Host C club. He asked, "Did you check the compability list?" Long and behold, I have to return the xbox360 before I even open the box because, what's that?, they are all region locked.
And why does my HK friend know? Because he recently immigrated from HK to North America, and he's now caught between a rock and a hard place. Why? Because his HK bought xbox360 recently died (turns on but no display comes out, no RROD). He knows that he has to choose from the following
1. buy NA xbox360, all his previous game useless (all HK bought) and start a new library (might have to rebuy some of the games)
2. buy another HK xbox360, from the net or someone ship it over. The cost would be high and he needs to continue buying HK games and ship them over.
We are talking about a guy who has pretty much owned ALL the console since NES. Currently he has all current gen game consoles, wii, xbox360, ps3, psp, ds. He has all his games legit. He plays so much game that he wrote a java randmizer that actually help him decide which one to play next. He even has 3 set of rock band equipments (because they always ship new stuff with each rockband). I can't think of anyone I know that is a better customer to game industry than this guy.
And he's getting screwed over because his REGION LOCKED xbox360 is broken.
What I am saying is this is a real problem. So, in conlusion, Cenobyte, don't claim knowledge that you do not posses. It just make you look like either a shill for Big Corp, or an ignorant idiot.
PS. to others, I don't mean to write such a long techdirt unrelated rant and if you read throught it, thank you. I just can't stand some people claiming that region lock doesn't exist and/or it's not a big problem. In my circle of friends, it's real and it's a big problem for us.
On the post: UK Again Says That Mod Chipping Isn't Legal
Re: Xbox cut off takes a gamer to understand
2)What MS did is not ONLY prevent you from entering xbox live, but also disabled many functions of your xbox while it's offline. If they are only banning people off the xbox live, it wouldn't create such fury. Here is the (partial?)list
*Cannot go on Xbox Live
*Cannot install games to the HDD
*Cannot use Windows Media Centre extender
*Cannot be used to get achievements from backups without corrupting your profile
Now tell me why is #2 and #3 have anything to do with xbox live?
Let say you bought an iPhone and hacked it. And let's also say that Apple is taking a hard ball approach to the hacked iPhone. Bascially a similar "ban" on you iPhone to this one would be
*You cannot get on AppStore
*You can no long put music/video on your iPhone
*You cannot play music/video to TV/stereo with headphone jack or their proprietary connector
*Attempting to sync with iTunes to get your address book will corrupt your address book(this one is a bit contrived, but you get the picture)
Now, when I translate the affect fucntions to an iPhone, it doesn't look so good anymore isn't it?
No one is arguing MS' right to deny acces to their network. It's theirs. However, MS is acting like they own the hardware and preventing you to use some of the OFFLINE functions. That's why players are angry.
On the post: UK Again Says That Mod Chipping Isn't Legal
Re:
I personally don't use or know xbox360 that well so I'll ask him to see if he can confirm this. However, I do know this guys knows a lot about modding xbox/xbox360s.
On the post: UK Again Says That Mod Chipping Isn't Legal
Re: Re:
So in my comment, I was right that you cannot use your hard drive anymore on your banned xbox. I just didn't write it in a clarified way.
In addition, if you happen to read the log of a certain irc channel conversation where the head of the policy department showed up. He actually does not guarantee that your saved games and downloaded contents are saved. He said, and I quote, "HDD from banned to unbanned is okay, but you might have to reformat to get full access to licenses"
On the post: UK Again Says That Mod Chipping Isn't Legal
Some people, possibly including Mike, are probably not aware that what MS did is not just refusing xbox live services to modders but intentionally breaking the xbox. For example, you will not be able to use harddrive anymore.
To use an example, it's not that Mike banned you from Techdirt and you are not allowed to login anymore. It's Mike and the techdirt crew send a signal to your motherboard inside your computer, fried some circuits, so not only you cannot log in to techdirt, you are also in possesion of a broken computer.
This has NOTHING to do with cheating, as Mike suggested, as MS is targeting hardware modifications that cut into their profit. A modified console MAY be used for cheating, but MS is not targetting at that type of modification right now. This is a pure piracy crackdown.
BTW, on related news, MS has banned around 600,000 xboxes and is aiming to ban 1,000,000 boxes by Christmas. It's hard not to believe this is not an actual marketing strategy to make people buy new xboxes during christmas. However, with the recent PS3 price drop, we cannot be certain how many ppl are going to buy another xbox, knowing that MS can break them if they so wish.
On another related news, MS' xbox policy enforcement department head's private information has been posted to 4chan (if you don't know what that is, look it up) and has been receiving death threats to him, his wife, kids and dogs, not to mention the non-stopping phone calls to his private residence.
On the post: Venezuelan Government Blames Video Games For Violence, Implements Widespread Ban
On the post: FCC Poised To Let Hollywood Break Your TV And DVR
Re: Re:
Obviously you have never dealed with the shadier side of your local electronic stores.
On a sort of related note, everyone is all dissed about DVD region lock. Guess what, I can walk down the street and get an "all-region" DVD player right now, that'll play, anything you throw at it.
On the post: FCC Poised To Let Hollywood Break Your TV And DVR
If that's going to be the case, I am ditching my TV forever or get only Chinese imports that don't have these ridiculous controls.
I don't even watch Movies! Why should my TV be subjects to Hollywood control? Why give them the right?
Why is a total stranger allowed to come in my house, put a lock on my property, and start telling me what I can and cannot watch or use?
On the post: Dear Hulu: Stop Treating Me Like A Criminal
Re:
the most infuriating is comedycentral! I can't remember how many times I tried to follow a link to a "funny" video or segment only to find myself blocked and CURSE comedycentral to hell.
On the post: Licensing Agreements Now Covering 'The Universe' And Future Media Not Yet Developed
Re: Other Universes
So company A in universe A claims copyright over item A in all universes while company B in universe B claims copyright over item A(alt) in all universes.
So who owns the copyright? does universe A supreme court have jurisdiction over universe B?
I should go watch that futurama episode where professor created all those boxes containing universes...
On the post: As Expected, Mandelson To Introduce Plan To Kick File Sharers Off The Internet
Phase 2. ?
Phase 3. Profit!
On the post: New US Ambassador To Canada Kicks Things Off By Pushing For Bad Copyright Laws
Re:
On the post: New US Ambassador To Canada Kicks Things Off By Pushing For Bad Copyright Laws
Re: Keep it real (honest)
1. Your working url is http://www.arnoud.engelfriet.net/. You might want to correct this in your profile.
2. Please don't post off topic comments. If you have a need to contact Mike, please try this form at http://techdirt.com/contact.php, or call them at 1.888.930.9272 as indicated in their "Contact Us" page. If you would like to submit a story, as this seems like a news story, please use http://techdirt.com/submitstory.php.
Thank you for your time to check us out, but please RTFM next time.
(sorry, I can't resist slipping the acronym there) ;-)
On the post: New US Ambassador To Canada Kicks Things Off By Pushing For Bad Copyright Laws
If you don't like it, get the f**k out. Here is the road to the boarder, and take those electricity and lumber out of your purse before you leave.
Thank you.
On the post: EU Parliament Pressured By France, Removes Clause That Bans Kicking People Off The Internet
Re: Re:
Seriously, it's all good and dandy we have ways to keep government in line, but no one really have enough money or time to fight the lobbyists in court. That's why once they set up a "law" it's basically game over.
On the post: Disney's Keychest: Is Giving Back Your Fair Use Rights With More DRM Really A Step Forward?
hard drive space not enough
Today you can get a 500GB hard drive for less than $50 and that would hold more movie than you would ever watch in a year.
BAH!
On the post: France Agrees To Kick File Sharers Off The Internet Again; Lobbyists Call It 'Consumer Relief'
Re: Likely outcome
On the post: World Of Goo Tries A Donation Model, Publishes Results
Re:
You can't possibly start with one price and adjust up and down depending on feedback, sales or demand. It's the ultimate way to piss customers off.
simply run this through a case.
-start with $10
-feed backs and sales data...etc
-adjust to $15
-people who bought early is happy (they got a deal!) People who bought it late is PISSED OFF for having to PAY MORE!
*bonus* people view you as evil because you did a money-grab
reversely
-start with $10
-blah blah blah...etc
-adjust to $5
-people who bought early is PISSED OFF for having to pay more and people who bought later is happy they hold out (they got a deal!)
*bonus* people hold off buying until a price drop
usually people are more tolerable on the second case because it's generally recognized that you have to pay higher price to be the first bunch of people to get the newest stuff.
So as you can't see, companies can't be as flexible as you suggested on price.
On the post: So Much For That 'Education' Campaign: Fewer And Fewer Swedes Think File Sharing Is 'Theft'
if the "education campaign" is coming from a known unreliable
source, wouldn't that make people research for the truth, if they care enough to go through the original campaign?
So thank you, music industry, for raising awareness of consumer copyrights.
On the post: Sorry ASCAP, A Ringtone Is Not A Public Performance
Now, what I could comment, is the sad state of the American legal system/culture/environment and ASPCA/BMI/RIAA/MPAA...
1) The court system is in such a sad state that we ACTUALLY have to WORRY about the court making a wrong decision in this kind of clear cut and basic frivolous case. Either the court's judges' intelligence has dropped so low or that judges' corruption has cause us to lose most of the faith in our legal system (can't rule out both reasons are valid) What would happen when the day comes that we put judges on the same level as lawyers?
2) The industry environment is in such a sad state that they would do anything, ANYTHING to try to squeeze pennies out of consumers. How dumb are these people not realizing all these actions just cause people to lose respect and for some people, the anger drives them to commit copyright infringement? (those ******s! I would never pay them anything attitude). Either that or they think we, the general public and consumers, are idiots who believer everything they say.
Of course, in this case we see a dog biting another dog, and it's very entertaining. Hey, here is the news, we are much more empowered now by new technology and new communication methods. The days where you can just steamroll us, your paying customers, are over. OVER I SAID.
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