http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/04/27/spanish_xbox_modding_ruling/ Spanish judge ruled out that a store selling moddified consoles to play DVD imports, foreign games and games downloaded via the internet are in fact, legal. This is due to a loophole in Spain's IP laws. The article is rather short and tells you about the loophole.
. yea, who's going to after small fish(?) like end users. maybe if you are selling 100k modified consoles a month... he we have preliminary ruling saying mod chip was not illegal but sadly later overturned... still who gives stiff anyway... cheers
Here in American, the RIAA is more than willing to go after the end users - their customer base, so I wouldn't think that you're safe just because you're just on the receiving end.
(Fortunately?) people outside the US don't have a clue about the piracy situation (but generally don't need to.) Only American exec.s would sue a 10 year old's family over downloading a Britney Spears song, but hey we have the rights to do so. Piracy is such a big issue in the states, we probably pirate more now than China Every time I go to a movie theater I sit through the same damn 5 minute anti-piracy POS propoganda. Our only sanctuary was the internet, yet even now that space is being invaded. I think most Americans are more concerned about piracy talk for fear of legal action than moral dillema.
Screw piracy, I say download all you want. Sooner or later the RIAA is going to take thier heads out of thier asses and get with the stupid program already, and figure out a way to make some $$$ off of filesharing (a way that doesn't involve suing little girls and old people.) The thing is the only way we're going to get them to do that is to continue to cause them to lose money, i.e. downloading. So I don't feel bad about downloading a song, becasue by doing that I am in fact helping the dinosaur record industry to catch up to the 21st century. Besides, all those companies are run by thieves and crooks. They deserve to smell my toilet.
. frankly I can't be bothered with downloading images. Nowadays only thing I will be downloading is few ROM images to update my wife's MAME collection up to date otherwise she will get cranky... I used to know couple of places where you could get disc images and what not but even at cable connection I couldn't see myself going through the hassle - with little time I have it's cheaper to buy the title actually... besides hunting down obscure title is half the fun anyway... finding out the game is crap after spending so much time is not though... same goes for DivX. I'd rather have my favourite movie on DVD. besides those telesync copies I've seen weren't that great either... still it was cool when you could watch movies at home when it wouldn't be released locally for another several months... but after a while it gets old... cheers
About the Ley de Propiedad Intelectual The article is not exact. The judge makes an interpretation of the spanish law that basically says that the modification of a console by its owner is not illegal. The copying or using a copied software for trading purposes without the copyright owner permission is illegal. Basically if you have an original software you can make a copy but only for your own use. Here you pay an special tax when you buy a CD or DVD media.
