Re: Re: Gc-linux-devel digest, Vol 1 #88 - 1 msg

On Aug 25, 2004, at 1:21 PM, Groepaz wrote:
>> But they do ban atomic bombs, because they can be used for killing
>> *only*.
>> There is *no* use for the drivers other than reading and copying 
>> games.
>
> thats nonsence. what if i want to examine the contents of a game in 
> order
> to reverse engineer them? what if i want to create a mediaplayer to 
> play
> those movies on my MGS discs? what about serving the dvd contents to my
> pc so i can use them with the emulator i am writing? what about running
> executeables from retail games from within linux? i'm sure i could make
> this list a lot longer, and i'm sure other people have other uses too.

These are very good points.

> i personally think its just funny how people suddenly go bezerk when
> a certain thing is mildly related to piracy.

I know what I am talking about, because Linux has been abused before 
for questionable purposes:
* Although Linux on the pay-tv decoder "dbox" is excellent, people have 
abused the flexibility of Linux to add code that hacks pay-tv.
* Pirates have used Linux and the "raincoat" flashing program to modify 
their Xboxes so that they could play copied games. Raincoat was 
supposed to flash only Linux bootloaders.
* Pirates have used Linux and the Linux FATX filesystem driver on the 
Xbox to modify the hard disk contents so that they could play copied 
games. The FATX driver was intended to make it possible to have Linux 
in an image file on a FATX drive.
* Pirates have used the "DayX/Ernie&Bert/Font hack" as well as the 
MechInstaller solution on the Xbox to mod their Xbox for copied games. 
All these were indended for running Linux only.

In the Xbox Linux project, we have always been very careful what to 
include and what to publish. For example, we had not published the 
source code of MechInstaller, and we have not written a filesystem 
driver for Xbox game DVDs.

> i find it even more amusing
> that the same people seem to think that pirates are to stupid to write
> their own ripping software (or their own loaders for that matter).

I my experience, they like to leverage the existing work for their 
purposes. It has been done with dbox Linux, raincoat, FATX and the font 
hack.

I would continue to be very careful on what to release and what not. 
Certainly there are two important exceptions:
* if there are already solutions for piracy, we can release our 
solution as well, if it does not make piracy easier
* if our solution has a real sense for our project, we can of course 
release it.

Your points are good, so I might agree to adding the code to the 
project (note that I am not implying I have some veto right or 
something), but I do not think that everyone should just "do what can 
be done".

   Michael



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