Whew!
It took me a total of 15 minutes to find the information I was looking for. The internet is great, but navigation needs looking into. I mean search engines and google is great, but it puts a new meaning to going around in circles.
I found the section you guys need reading. Its a scary section, and needs rethinking, that if you indeed do these types of things, you might want to do it quietly and to yourself.
http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap12.htmlChapter 12 says it all. I wish I took the time to research the subject before going in guns firing and all that. I am not a person who likes to point certain facts like this out, but I am a person who is sick and tired of individuals breaking the law and saying it is ok to do it.
I'll cut it down to these three paragraphs:
§ 1201. Circumvention of copyright protection systems2
(a) Violations Regarding Circumvention of Technological Measures. - (1)(A) No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.
(A) to "circumvent a technological measure" means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and
(B) a technological measure "effectively controls access to a work" if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work
There is more, including the section about changes to the law regarding obsolete systems. Other words, emulators.
Once you open the plastic box and insert the chip you are breaking the law, unless you got permission first.. Selling an item under this statement.... well I 'll leave that up to you. You are all intelligent individuals here, and it should take 2 seconds to figure out. I'll go a bit further and ask you if you got permission from Microsoft to mod your chip. If so, then you are legal.
I love homebrew, also like the idea, and also the economic mechanics behind it. It sells the console, but there is a risk attached to it a risk I would not like to be put before a court, before my family, my employer or ISP.
I'm sure you think I'm a real jerk for pointing this out, spoiling your fun, telling you how to run your business or life, well I'm really sorry about that.
Really truly sorry.
But if I can make a small difference to a world going bad, is it such a crime?
Let's all of us make a new year resolution: Say no to modding consoles.
*Edit:* There is a provision to the law that says the limitations of the law diminishes after 5 years of the date of the offense. So if you did mod your xbox in Dec 2001, you won't go to jail for 10 years or pay a $500,000.00 fine. Hope you keep your receipts. 