The Beatles Rock Band (Xbox 360) Demo Disc for ban prevention

You may have read hl718's thread in the 360 dev section where he talks about the need for a disc which could be used to check whether or not a used Xbox 360 has a modded DVD drive firmware/was hacked for piracy, without having to resort to a pirated copy of a game yourself.

Here's such a disc image, some facts:
- freely available demo disc
- region free
- 'wave3', meaning it will only work on consoles updated to dashboard 7371 (or higher, update is on the disc) which have the iXtreme 1.51 (or higher) drive firmware or an older firmware which boots everything without checking for wave compliance
- doesn't require any skills as opposed to other methods to check for modifications
- needs to be burnt to a DVD+/-R DL disc, preferrably a Verbatim DVD+R DL (2.4x/4x) made in Singapore but others work too

Apparently the disc is not largely available on the web so I decided to post it here (I didn't rip it, see the filename).
If anyone knows of a disc that would fit better (maybe one of the others hl718 listed: Walmart Apprentice demo disc (US), Turok demo disc, WWE Smackdown vs Raw 2008 demo disc (UK), DJ Hero demo disc) let me know.

Grab the torrent here.

 

Is this the disc off the UK Official Xbox Magazine? Or another disc?

Just because something is given away for free, doesn't mean it isn't copyrighted. And that prohibits you from copying it. So technically, no this isn't legal.

 

It's the disc that was/is given away at Best Buy.

You can't run anything on an Xbox360 without the proper (copyrighted) disc security and structure, in other words you're screwed if you're trying to find out whether or not the consoles you spent good money on are going to work tomorrow (let's forget about RROD etc. for now).

At least for those wo are looking to play on live or purchase DLC, or purchase movies or get updates for the game they bought which keeps crashing/glitching this basically kills off the possibility to buy used Xboxs.

Here we go with the crappy car analogy, I wouldn't like it if a Ford representative came to my house with a sledgehammer and unloaded on my car because I bought it used from a guy who had it tuned (without my prior knowledge even).
The previous owner might not even have used the tuned car for something illegal like driving 100mph in a town (king kong exploit or similar, owning the retail), but he could've, and that's enough to justify devaluing my property and taking away the snow tires I payed him extra for until I buy a new Ford (DLC).

Now if I at least get the chance to check for those unwanted modifications before the sledgehammer wielding suit unloads his frustration on my property I can store the car away, undo the modifications and hope Ford is cool with that or try to recover part of my costs by selling it as a 'soon to be sledgehammered' car.

That's why the disc was torrented, call it fair use, or customer protection.

There've been discussions about the legality but I think we can agree this is still the most legal way to check for mods, and one without any bad/pirate intentions. If anything this raises awareness for the game, and that's what a DEMO is supposed to do after all.

Plus if an author publishes an excerpt of his book for publicity purposes and this excerpt then gets cited (reproduced, uploaded, call it what you will) on a book discussion board, I don't think he can claim his rights were violated.

The torrent is not on TPB btw since, again, it's not intended for pirate kiddies but for people who try to make sure they're buying/selling/using consoles that are in compliance with the Xbox Live Terms Of Service.

EDIT:
Just to make that clear, I do think you are, as you say, technically right. But where there's no plaintiff there's no judge and I can't imagine any of the copyright holders would step forward to stop distribution of their very own demo disc.
In this case the disc also helps people conform to the system's rules, I can't see how that could possibly harm the copyright holders.

 

Personally I don't see it as a big issue it's a good safe way to check if the xbox has been modified, and the fact is it's nothing different then some of the Kiosk demos that many users own here. As someone who used to have a modded xbox BUT still owns over 65 xbox 360 games. I used it as a "try before I buy" and even if nobody wants to believe that so be it. I know the person who ripped this actually :nod:

Well that was my simple rant, thought I'd contribute a small bit :dance:

 

I think these two paragraphs sum it up.

This disc image helps people avoid unwanted iXtreme mods and stick to unmodded/stock systems. If someone really wants a modded system they're going to seek one out and the seller is likely to have discs on hand to prove it is modded.

People who have no interest in pirated discs however, don't want an iXtreme mod because all it's going to do is get you banned from Live. And ever since the ban waves became public, the number of people wanting modded systems has dropped like a rock and the number of people selling modded systems has shot through the roof as they try to dump them on unsuspecting buyers.

In the past if you unknowingly bought a modded system (from a store, from a seller, from a car boot sale, etc.) it didn't really matter. So long as you only ran original discs you were good. But these days you can buy that system, bring it home and then suddenly be banned a few weeks later through no fault of your own. And Microsoft isn't going to help either because it will (rightly) say that the problem was caused by the shady seller.

Given that sellers are now claiming that systems are stock (versus modded) in order to inflate the resale value it behooves the buyer to be educated. Just looking at a system it can be very difficult to tell if it has been tampered with. This demo disc however is a fairly surefire way (not 100% because it won't detect the older mods) to tell if a system you are buying is truly stock or if it has been modded.

In short:
1) If the system is stock, the disc won't boot. So anyone who's using this as a test disc is never going to actually play the demo anyway.
2) If the system is modded, the disc will boot. It's a nice, easy, 30 second test.
3) If someone is an active pirate and has a modded system for this purpose, they're not going to waste a DVD-R on a demo. They're just going to rip the full version game.

While the LETTER of the law may vary worldwide, I think it's safe to say that no matter where you are located, sharing this disc for the purposes stated above is well within the SPIRIT of the law.

-hl718