# No Freedom To Tinker



## RootbeaR (Dec 9, 2006)

"This particular case involves a student who would modify game consoles to let people make use of backup copies of their own games on the consoles. Making a backup copy, by itself, has been well established as being perfectly legal. The problem here (once again) is the DMCA's anti-circumvention clause, which makes it illegal to circumvent any kind of DRM, even if it's for a totally legal purpose. It's difficult to see how that's constitutional. Making it illegal to do something that's perfectly legal, just because someone puts any kind of DRM in the middle doesn't make any sense at all. It's a ridiculous scenario that this kid is now facing 10 years in jail for making video game consoles more useful, allowing people to use perfectly legal backup copies of their games. But, such is the state of the DMCA and copyright laws these days."
http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20090804/1537125771.shtml


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## RootbeaR (Dec 9, 2006)

Ars explores why your hacked console is very likely illegal if you live in the US.


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## Ent (Apr 11, 2009)

I guess that's always been the trouble with Patent and copyright rights, they incourage the first inovation, but make improvement almost impossible.


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