EFF working to make console modding legal

Your Humble Indie Bundle dollars at work! The Copyright Office is taking submissions about possible new exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation is petitioning the office to protect "jailbreaking" of consoles, tablets, and other devices to run software other than that supported by the manufacturer. A year ago, a similar EFF initiative resulted in an exemption on "jailbreaking" smartphones.

[gamingdroid]

I think it is insanely important to protect consumer rights to prevent these console manufacturers from removing features and stepping all over their consumers with ToS only lawyers can understand.

[Dante112]

I'll see if you feel the same way if this was to be allowed for next gen consoles (720, PS4) which would allow mad cheating online and pirating of games (It'll be "remember that developer team, they were my favorite developers " in less than 6 months because they couldn't make a profit).

Edit: Homebrew's good if use right but it also allows privacy. That's the con. That why all console manufacturers don't allow it (Jtag, Jailbreak, etc). Even both scenes (PS3 and 360's top hack development scene members) admit this.

[The Great Melon]

privacy good, piracy bad

[Dante112]

@ TheGreatMan

I noticed it too late. My bad. I meant piracy.

[gamingdroid]

As it is, the law doesn't prevent anyone from modding their console. It merely makes it illegal.

If you want to pirate, cheat or steal, you can regardless of what the law says. I can easily jtag my Xbox 360 right or pirate PS3 games.

However, if you want to legally install your own software on your console, you can't legally.

Don't confuse the law with prevention. If the law COULD prevent something, we wouldn't have inmates and crimes.

So I'm fighting for my freedom to do with my possession as I please, as long as I do no harm to others.

[Blaine]

As long as you're not modding your consoles to PIRATE games, then I don't see a problem.

Want to mod your console? Don't use it to rip off hard working devs. Also, stay the hell offline. Don't want hackers cheating in my multiplayer games.

[lumley666]

@Blaine As long as you're not modding your consoles to PIRATE games, then I don't see a problem.

tbh it should be banned full stop to prevent piracy. if you allow jailbreaking then pirating will be achieved, if u dont like the software and shizzle that comes with a device, dont buy the device

[Blaine]

Yeah. Call me narrow minded, but I don't see what these people could possibly want to do with their modded consoles if it's NOT pirating games.

Seriously, what ever you want to do with your console you can probably do it better with a PC, without having to mod the damn thing.

[kwyjibo]

You should be able to do whatever you want with hardware you bought.

I don't mind that the platform holders kick you off their online services if you mod your consoles, but the ability to do that should be a right.

[Blaine]

Please inform me: what is it these people want to do with this hardware they bought, if it's not to play the games they're meant for? ESPECIALLY at the cost of not being able to play said games online anymore. To me, that alone should be enough to take whatever it is these people want to do with their consoles, and just do it on a PC.