Custom Firmware - Good or Bad for the Scene ?

[deftonesmx17]

I would venture to guess (and I'm basing it on my knowledge of the legal system in Canada - and as the US is a little more draconian, I may be off), and say that distribution of a patched BIOS is illegal as it infringes upon copyright; the act of reverse engineering and bypassing the pre-existing encryption is against the DMCA (whcih we in Canada think is sooo stupid). So, anyone supplying these firmwares ought to be very careful.

I'm not targeting my response to only you but everyone that keeps saying this. It seems most of you have never used a custom BIOS flash for your computers Motherboard, have you? I had an MSI board that needed the custom, hacked, reverse engineered, whatever you want to call it BIOS as the offical MSI ones sucked. You could find these all over the place, even on MSI's german forums.

Also, I dont think dark_alexs custom firmware mods are even a hacked flash replacement. It seems with the 2 secs it takes to flash it that it has to be more of an extension to the original flash. Don't take this for a fact, but I beleive there is nothing illegal about making extensions to programs.

[F9zDark]

The legality of it depends on what is done. If the coder writes their additions from scratch, that is perfectly legal.

If the coder takes a dump of the psp's firmware and modifies parts of Sony's copyrighted work and THEN distributes it, is illegal.

Cases in the US Supreme Court deemed that circumventing any copyright protection installed by the owners of the copyright, is ALSO illegal. So just by decrypting that 2.0 and up firmware we are already breaking the law in the US.

The same applies to burning CDs or DVDs which also have these protections.

So in short, it all depends on how the new firmware was produced. If the additions were coded from scratch, then its legal. If its a copy and paste job using one of Sony's firmwares, then its illegal.

[jwilds73]

I have created iso's of games I legally own so as to play them from the memory stick. Having to carry around my PSP (in the OEM sleeve) along with any umd's for new games I want to play just isn't portable enough for me. I don't fully know all the copyright laws but I believe this to be "fair use". It seems just as stupid if Microsoft and other computer software companies required you to run all your programs from disc instead of installing them. Imagine trying to carry around your laptop with discs for every program you might need to run. It would be unduly $#@!bersome just like the psp and other portable gaming systems are now. Which is why ram carts were made for those systems also.

[F9zDark]

Well that was way it used to be, back in the days 5 1/4 floppy disks and even for some 3.5 disks.

As far as I have read, making ISOs of any CD, DVD or UMD that has copyright protection measures is illegal. But then again there is fair use.

[jwilds73]

I agree that is the way it used to be. The problem arises when technology is capable of more then their archaic business model's are willing to allow. I don't even see why I should have to go to the movie's at all or wait up to a year after a movie has come out to purchase it on dvd. I want to download it, burn it and watch it the day of release. Music has taken forever to become an "legal" internet product. Not because technology wasn't capable but because they were unwilling. If you don't give the customer what they want the customer will create a way themselves to have what they want. Weather it is legal or not. Businesses have to change their business models to be inline with what technology is capable of.

Running psp games directly from the memory stick saves on battery life and umd drive use/wear and prolongs my gaming experience. I believe the psx emulator SOny is producing will run downloaded games right from the memory stick also.

[r2works]

i dont think i'll be using any custom firmwares. the only way i can see myself using a custom firmware is it allows for a regional patch, unless this has already been acheived?

[NoQuarter]

well said jwilds73

[jaws365]

Firmare Timebombs !?!?! Any Info? Anyone?

[F9zDark]

It was just a theoretical possibility that someone could do to a custom firmware, so that when you install it, a timer is activated and after a certain length of time, the PSP is bricked from custom firmware.

This is a heinous act and while I do not believe anyone is embarking upon such a malicious crime, I know that there are people out there who would do that.

It is why I believe custom firmwares should not be allowed at all, because writing to flash is tricky as it is. The more desire there is for custom firmware, the more incentive malevolent people have at writing ones that would purposely brick a PSP.

[jaws365]

Ok, thanks for the info. But if if some sick-o get pleasure for bricking peoples hardware, then why not make an instant bomb instead?