Sony ask why you "hack" your PSP

[Phil]

its not illegal. its your propety.
And im still waiting on my PSP phone

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

Originally Posted by cottonvibes

btw,
is hacking your PSP illegal?
or is that just what sony wants you to think?

cuz i don't think mod-chips are illegal, its just the act of pirating games thats illegal.

I don't know if hacking is illegal, but having a mod-chip installed in consoles is illegal in certain countries. So I would assume that hacking the PSP would be also illegal in those countries because it is similar to modding a console (in the way that the user is allowing content to be used on it that the manufacturer doesn't permit normally).

[Phil]

well he was talking about hacking as in homebrew....mod chips...ehh thats a gray area....your not allowed to sell them installed on ebay i think

is ceiling cat keeping you up? and i dont have any hotpockets

[cottonvibes]

Originally Posted by TheCloudOfSmoke

I don't know if hacking is illegal, but having a mod-chip installed in consoles is illegal in certain countries. So I would assume that hacking the PSP would be also illegal in those countries because it is similar to modding a console (in the way that the user is allowing content to be used on it that the manufacturer doesn't permit normally).

mod-chips are illegal?
i didn't know that.
i think theres still lots of sites that sell them.

or maybe just installing the mod-chip is illegal?

[Phil]

you can buy them seperatly....but not installed. my boss just installed one on his wii...now he downloads "free" games on to a peripheral harddrive

[cottonvibes]

i didn't know there were ones for the Wii out already.

[Phil]

theres one for about every consle imaginable. check ebay for nice prices

[cottonvibes]

i don't think for ps3 :O

[Cid Highwind]

Originally Posted by cottonvibes

btw,
is hacking your PSP illegal?
or is that just what sony wants you to think?

cuz i don't think mod-chips are illegal, its just the act of pirating games thats illegal.

It simply depends on local law, America is more anal about this than Europe because of corporations running the goverment there, things are getting worse every day here as well.

I don't know much about modchips where I live, piracy has become a bigger issue during the past two years. Perhaps the installing is illegal if you let it do, or dealing in them, but if it's for personal use it's probably legal. Kinda like with movies and music, you're allowed to download them for personal use, but you're not allowed to give them away or sell them.

Anyway, last time I checked direct mod chip discussions weren't allowed here, so please keep down the chatter about them

Originally Posted by refraction

MI6 2008: ESRB, Sony and Microsoft on policing user-created content - PS3 News, Wii News, Xbox 360 News, PSP News and more!


subtle attempt to pass a law against homebrew on machines which dont allow it?

Not really, since homebrew is beyond official control anyway, this is an entirely different problem. This is about social networks shaped in the form of a game and how to control what is done by the users who have the freedom to let their imagination go. Personally I would simply give it an R rating, or 16+ to us European users. Internet communities and gaming communities are still mature communities mainly and people are bound to encounter such things. These ratings are here to warn parents, since they're not mandatory and stores aren't forced to deny kids these games, so at least the parents should have a good impression of what to expect. The internet isn't a children's playground, parents like to believe so but it isn't, just like these "games".

[Noja87]

lol that survey is fake. I don't think Sony is that Stupid ( i mean they are stupid but THAT stupid?) to come out with something like this? just look at it. It looks like it was wrote by a 12 year old. "Hacking my psp makes me feel like a rebel" ? wtf is that? hahahaha. Nah, this is fake. Is obvious. But if its real, please sony, go kill yourself =)

[Thanakil]

Originally Posted by Noja87

lol that survey is fake. I don't think Sony is that Stupid ( i mean they are stupid but THAT stupid?) to come out with something like this? just look at it. It looks like it was wrote by a 12 year old. "Hacking my psp makes me feel like a rebel" ? wtf is that? hahahaha. Nah, this is fake. Is obvious. But if its real, please sony, go kill yourself =)

Well, there are people who do hack the psp just to try and act like rebels =/. It could be sony just trying to reach a small part of its audience .

But the survey does feel very stupid... I'm torn between "it's so stupid it's fake" and "it's so impossible that it's real... that it must be real, just to spite us".

[Noja87]

Well, i think this survey is unnecessary and the answer is obvious. Homebrew and Piracy. I don't know what Sony is going to get from this. My friend have like 3 original games and a **** load of homebrews in that thing @_@

[Dark Watcher]

Our take...
Most of the questions seem to make the community out to be blatant
rebels. We suppose that demonstrates Sony's skewed view of the
homebrewn community. The only legitimate questions are towards the
bottom. Those that seem to apply to us for example are:
"I can do more with a hacked PSP then I can with an unhacked PSP"

And

"I like to push the PSP in directions that the developers did not intend"

The PSP dev teams of this community have given us the ability to do
far more. The PSP is an amazing handheld. It makes sense that
developers make it all it can be and more. If anything the Devs of the
community should be an inspiration to Sony by demonstrating what other
functions can be included to PSP. Sony reps should also understand
that each member of this community is also a PSP owner. We are people
that helped to make their device truly successful.

They must also understand that not all of the homebrewn community
endorses piracy. We purchase and enjoy many PSP games titles. We just
also happen to enjoy additional "PDA like" functionality and
customization options that this homebrewn community offers. We can go
on trips for business or pleasure, and (instead of carrying several
different devices), take advantage of the "swiss army knife" that is
our PSP.

[Rebel_X]

This survey is bullsh!t , I can't even find one question that applies as a benefits to the hackers or users (except question #1, it makes me feel more Rebel) this survey is driven to answer only one thing "Hacking the PSP is bad, and everyone do this is psycho, and we (sony) want to know how many psychos use hacking on their PSPs)
They don't even wanna hear their opinions and why those people doing this, and what kind of things can be done by doing that..
albeit they know why..

Edit: about hacking if it's legal or not! I think if there is in EULA (End-User License Agreement) anything about modifying the firmware
or reverse engineer or dissassemble, or even reading contents using hex editors is illegal, and user accepts this, then it becomes
illegal to do so.. (IMHO )

[PCXL-Fan]

How would germany's criminalization of hacking effect the emulation and modding scene there? Perhaps Bobbi or NexXxus coud answer this?

[TheCloudOfSmoke]

Originally Posted by Dark Watcher

The PSP dev teams of this community have given us the ability to do
far more. The PSP is an amazing handheld. It makes sense that
developers make it all it can be and more. If anything the Devs of the
community should be an inspiration to Sony by demonstrating what other
functions can be included to PSP. Sony reps should also understand
that each member of this community is also a PSP owner. We are people
that helped to make their device truly successful.

They must also understand that not all of the homebrewn community
endorses piracy. We purchase and enjoy many PSP games titles. We just
also happen to enjoy additional "PDA like" functionality and
customization options that this homebrewn community offers. We can go
on trips for business or pleasure, and (instead of carrying several
different devices), take advantage of the "swiss army knife" that is
our PSP.

Very well put. You made some really good points imo. If Sony saw that, I think they would truly totally understand the reason why people hack their PSPs.

[Cid Highwind]

Originally Posted by Rebel_X

This survey is bullsh!t , I can't even find one question that applies as a benefits to the hackers or users (except question #1, it makes me feel more Rebel) this survey is driven to answer only one thing "Hacking the PSP is bad, and everyone do this is psycho, and we (sony) want to know how many psychos use hacking on their PSPs)
They don't even wanna hear their opinions and why those people doing this, and what kind of things can be done by doing that..
albeit they know why..

Edit: about hacking if it's legal or not! I think if there is in EULA (End-User License Agreement) anything about modifying the firmware
or reverse engineer or dissassemble, or even reading contents using hex editors is illegal, and user accepts this, then it becomes
illegal to do so.. (IMHO )

EULA's aren't legally valid because they are shown to you after you have written the contract (a.k.a. dropping your cash and committing to purchase). Which is the exact reason why I am allowed to do with my PSP what I want, within limitations of the law of course.

Downloading copyrighted software isn't allowed for instance, so that's more likely to be the problem here. I don't know about reverse engineering or looking into such software and writing your own based on it, copying would be plagiarism, and you'd need the original writer's permission.

Downloading games is illegal per definition, with the exceptions of when you are licensed to do so of course. But well, otherwise here you would be fine to do so as you please, the biggest problems will appear when you publish your work, because doing stuff for personal education is pretty much always allowed, making it public and sharing files is not.

Originally Posted by Dark Watcher

Wise words

Couldn't have said it better myself. Homebrew has helped gaining market share for them, although it's a shame so many people use it to run pirated copies of their games. Here I have some nice legit PSP games, not many, but it's a start. Most of them are too expensive here and I can't always be bothered to order from the States

[MentallyAfflict]

Originally Posted by refraction

as here Survey for Dark AleX, et al: Sony asks PSP hackers about their motivation - PS3 News, Wii News, Xbox 360 News, PSP News and more!

this is ridiculous. Im all for sony seeing what users want from their PSP to adapt their firmware to support it or meet at a "middle ground", but that survey is down right biased to hell. The questions arent even put neutrally, its like "why do you break the law? do you feel cool breaking the law" its like, wtf!

Whats hard to grasp? users want freedom to run their own software on it and play homebrew games and run homebrew apps, n of course the ability to run their games without needing the UMD cos its quicker. They dont like the restrictive feel those corporate asshats put on the console, but this isnt even an attempt to comprimise from what i see, it seems more an attempt to expose people for doing things they shouldnt be and make the homebrew community look even worse than it already does.

Thoughts?

Well Phil, that is good ol' Sony for ya!

[Phil]

OMG Thats refraction, not me!!

[MentallyAfflict]

Originally Posted by Phil