legallity in Australia

[OldTom]

Hey guys, I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction to find out if its legal to mod an xbox in Australia.

 

[digthebox]

Hey guys, I was wondering if someone could point me in the right direction to find out if its legal to mod an xbox in Australia.

i don't know about australia in particular but the legal issues are very dubious the world over. I mean technichally I would guess yes modding an xbox is illegal. I am no law student but this is my take on the subject. Firstly I don't think you will ever have a problem as regards actually fitting the modchip, i think the problem mainly lies in the bios and software used on the xbox that is the main concern.

Basically microsoft have covered themselves with the standard laws and end user license agreements, this is the bit I guess really counts:

"You may not reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation."

As a hacked bios which is needed to run the unsigned codes has been either decompiled and code that is Microsoft copyrighted has been used.

I don't think you need you need to worry if you are just a gamer who fit's a chip. The problem would come if you are a modchip installer business and you are selling xbox's with the copyright code already loaded on them. This is why all modchips come with a legal linux based bios, nothing illegal there!Anyone who sells chipped boxes with hacked bios's preloaded or with software included are asking for trouble. I have never heard of a home user getting sued, but some modchip installers who have bent the rules by supplying hacked bios's and or illegal copied software are now starting to feel the weight of the law.

 

[OldTom]

thankyou kindly for the prompt response. Now i must read up on what a Linux bios/chip can do. I was looking into this for the reason of charging people to mod their xbox, but If i cant load evox/xbmc there wouldnt be much point, correct?

 

[digthebox]

thankyou kindly for the prompt response. Now i must read up on what a Linux bios/chip can do. I was looking into this for the reason of charging people to mod their xbox, but If i cant load evox/xbmc there wouldnt be much point, correct?

the Linux bios that comes on chip these days offers you basic functionality:

Allows you to lock/unlock the Hard disk
Allows you to flash the bios with a hacked bios

The hacked bios is the one that contains the MS Copyright code. The hacked bios is also the one that allows you to play backup games, run unsigned code such as EVOX, Xbox media center etc etc.

The legal linux based bios will not allow you to play backups or any of those functions.


If you are planning on charging people to install the hacked bios and XBMC etc you could be asking for trouble. I mean if you are doing it for a few mates I can't see a problem installing the whole lot but if you are planning on doing it as a business and advertising you could be asking for trouble.

I don't think it's a waste of time, most of the big chip installers only suplly the legal bios. It's the ones who have been selling the full kit with the extra illegal stuff that have landed in trouble.

 

[skatersully2010]

As stated by the other two in this topic, I'm no lawyer, but I think that (at least in the USA) it should be legal to install a mod chip, and use it, permitted that you don't do anything illegal with it (play games downloaded from IRC, etc.) I don't see anything with modifying your property, as long as you don't do anything illegal with it.

 

[Rookio]

Agreed again, mod boxes that's fine. You don't need to flash bios's for them anyway. Just don't charge a fortune and you'll get customers coming to you.

ALthough on the flip side. Xbox-scene allows the selling of xbox's as long as you don't include any pirate software like games etc.... but they do allow you to sell an xbox preflashed and loaded with evox.... go figure.

 

[skatersully2010]

Agreed again, mod boxes that's fine. You don't need to flash bios's for them anyway. Just don't charge a fortune and you'll get customers coming to you.

ALthough on the flip side. Xbox-scene allows the selling of xbox's as long as you don't include any pirate software like games etc.... but they do allow you to sell an xbox preflashed and loaded with evox.... go figure.

Yes, recently, It seems that the debate has gone down to become very similar to P2P applications such as , , etc. Just don't infringe on any copyrights and you should be okay.