Modchips legal in Australia?
Shak
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/4315172.stm
Was this on appeal? Cos I'm sure it was made illegal a while back.
Shak
Chris F
FatHippy
<chris.f@haha.u> writes
Interestingly, it will make no odds however as the Ozzies have signed a
trade agreement with America that contains an agreement that the use of
modchips will be banned/illegal.
Perhaps I am simplifying this a little, but that would appear to me to
be American trade policies overthrowing the rule of law in other
countries.
Again.
--
FatHippy
'Poking death in the face with a big stick and then running away'
(To reply by e-mail, please replace {$spamtrap$} with fathippy)
Name: Fats Town: Bauhaus
Beck
"FatHippy" <{$spamtrap$}@fathippy.net> wrote in message
news:IL5tZ2Hd...@fathippy.net...
> Interestingly, it will make no odds however as the Ozzies have signed a
> trade agreement with America that contains an agreement that the use of
> modchips will be banned/illegal.
>
> Perhaps I am simplifying this a little, but that would appear to me to be
> American trade policies overthrowing the rule of law in other countries.
They would save alot of money in legal fees by simply having consoles region
free and allowing imports if a customer chooses to. That way they can
concentrate on clamping down on the other reasons for chipping - piracy. It
would add more weight in a case against a modchipper then as they cannot use
the "does not circumvent copyright" reason. If the only reason a person has
to modchip is piracy then they would be able to deal with it alot more
effectively.
FatHippy
<my_bu...@btopenworld.invalid> writes
happen. How on earth would they be able to control regional pricing
policies if everyone just bought their games from other regions at the
cheapest prices.
That would never do. Oh no.
Shak
news:3qtrsgF...@individual.net...
I think that for them us being able to import IS a bigger problem than
piracy. They're just using the piracy headline as an excuse to clamp down on
the other, more reasonable, action.
Shak
Beck
> But that would rather upset the console manufacturers if that were to
> happen. How on earth would they be able to control regional pricing
> policies if everyone just bought their games from other regions at the
> cheapest prices.
>
> That would never do. Oh no.
But most people do not import. If everyone imported there would have been
no sales of PSP at launch. In the scheme of things, people who import are
in very few numbers - the companies know they already import and can not do
much about it so why not go with the flow?
Beck
"Shak" <m...@privacy.net> wrote in message
news:3qum82F...@individual.net...
>
> I think that for them us being able to import IS a bigger problem than
> piracy. They're just using the piracy headline as an excuse to clamp down
> on
> the other, more reasonable, action.
How is it a bigger problem? The numbers who import are in a very small
minority to those who buy from the high Street or online.
Shak
If it wasn't grey and you didn't need modchips then it'd be more popular I
think.
I wonder what the case is regarding piracy vs importing? I suspect the
latter would hurt the companies more.
Shak
Nathan
and maintain peace!!!
> How is it a bigger problem? The numbers who import are in a very small
> minority to those who buy from the high Street or online.
And why is this? Perhaps because you can't just buy a Japanese game and
expect it to work on your console.
I think if region-locking was a non-issue then it might open floodgates,
these days with the internet it's easier for people. I reckon it's
awareness of places like play.com and amazon.co.uk that highstreet shops
finally took videogame prices down a notch; all new games seem to be about
£32 in asda for example. So if everyone knew that they could buy a US PS2
game, months before it came out here, and then it would work, word would
spread and people would start to get in the habit of doing it.
I mean, there's been a few posts in UGVP from time to time saying something
like "I brought this PS2 game back from america for my son and it doesn't
work on his PS2..." Imagine if it did work? It'd be like, say, duty free
or something. People go and buy the cheap games while on holiday. I just
wonder what the money lost for sony / nintendo / MS would be, if all those
holiday purchases led to more and meant people didn't then go and buy the
UK versions.
Piracy is a problem, yes, but like Fathippy says it's about controlling the
market. One could argue (probably not me though I don't really have any
facts or figures) that the money people like Sony make as a result of being
able to charge the going rate in the UK as opposed to the going rate in US
or Japan is worth more money than that lost by Piracy.
--
Nathan.
Bow to the Cow!
Gaming Diary: http://blog.cowfields.com
Beck
I doubt it. At least with imports the company still gets the money. And
its money that they are only interested in.
Nathan
and maintain peace!!!
> I doubt it. At least with imports the company still gets the money.
> And its money that they are only interested in.
But would people that pirate suddenly buy all the games they steal?
I'm not so sure they would. Whereas someone buying GTA N from America,
finding it didn't work, would then go and buy the UK version instead.
I mean the price on somewhere like tronix for most new games is about £10
less than the price in somewhere like Game, and more like £7 or something
in Amazon ($48 in tronix = roughtly £26, £32 on amazon, more in Game)
Between £6 and £10 per game is rather a lot of money*. I don't think for
each meant-for-pirate PS2 you remove they'd necessarily make that, but then
that's based on an assumption about pirates and an unwillingness to buy
games. I mean I just don't think a pirate would go "Oh well, suppose I'll
start buying games legitimately then..."
It's not the same case for me if I was suddenly unable to buy US games for
my PS2. I'd end up buying more expensive UK ones.
* But yes I'm aware tronix doesn't have any tax on that price and the UK
does, and it's all not as simple as that but the fact remains anyway
Beck
"Nathan" <cowf...@gmail.com> wrote in message
news:Xns96EB7DE4...@130.133.1.18...
> I think if region-locking was a non-issue then it might open floodgates,
> these days with the internet it's easier for people. I reckon it's
> awareness of places like play.com and amazon.co.uk that highstreet shops
> finally took videogame prices down a notch; all new games seem to be about
> £32 in asda for example. So if everyone knew that they could buy a US PS2
> game, months before it came out here, and then it would work, word would
> spread and people would start to get in the habit of doing it.
>
> I mean, there's been a few posts in UGVP from time to time saying
> something
> like "I brought this PS2 game back from america for my son and it doesn't
> work on his PS2..." Imagine if it did work? It'd be like, say, duty free
> or something. People go and buy the cheap games while on holiday. I just
> wonder what the money lost for sony / nintendo / MS would be, if all those
> holiday purchases led to more and meant people didn't then go and buy the
> UK versions.
>
> Piracy is a problem, yes, but like Fathippy says it's about controlling
> the
> market. One could argue (probably not me though I don't really have any
> facts or figures) that the money people like Sony make as a result of
> being
> able to charge the going rate in the UK as opposed to the going rate in US
> or Japan is worth more money than that lost by Piracy.
Well okay lets look at the handheld market for example. They are region
free. People go on holiday and buy say a GBA SP from one of the shabby
electronics shops out there for less than the UK going rate. But do we see
a problem of people importing handheld games over UK versions? If it was a
huge problem then companies would region lock the handhelds if it was a case
of controlling the market. Sony could have easily region locked the PSP for
games, but they didn't so IMO imports are not on their list of priorities,
if Sony were that concerned about controlling the market they would have
locked it. People importing PSPs before the UK launch certainly did not
affect its UK sales either. In fact it probably helped them as if everybody
had waited there would have definitely not been enough to go around. Sony
still gets the money from the unit sale plus it gets sales of UK games.
Beck
I think you misunderstand. I am not talking about pirates suddenly wanting
to buy - there's more chance of the pope turning muslim. I just do not think
that having a region free console would harm sales. People who do not
import are not going to suddenly want to import because the company supports
it. If they are interested in importing and getting games they would do it
now anyway.
Nathan
and maintain peace!!!
> People importing PSPs before the UK launch certainly did not
> affect its UK sales either.
Sony clearly beg to differ. The region thing doesn't work on handhelds
because people take them around the world, I think they would get a lot of
stick for them not being region protected. I just think home-consoles are
perceived differenly.
Either way do you really think Sony don't care about selling UK PSPs to UK
customers, and not Japanese PSPs to UK customers because they're not region
locked?
Did you not see the fiasco where Sony basically put the heavies on people
like play-asia (and it worked! you still can't buy PSP stuff from PA)
telling them not to supply PSPs to the EU? There was no real legal
precedent for them doing this but I imagine Sony must have done some
supply-type threats to play-asia to stop them doing this, because they
completely folded.
You can't tell me that Sony don't care about people buying imports, or
aren't worried about controlling the market prices.
> Sony still gets the money from the unit sale plus it gets
> sales of UK games.
Sony get money either way, yes that's all true. But it's not about getting
money. It's about getting MO' money. Maximising the buyer.