[school-discuss] A Linux pc for $180?

[Yishay Mor <y.mor@ioe.ac.uk>]

 Some Xbox Enthuasiasts Microsoft Didn't Aim For
07/11/03

AFTER a 31-year-old Manhattan financial executive received Microsoft's 
Xbox video game system as a gift in January, he walked to a store and 
bought a half-dozen game titles.


New York Times Full Feed

New York Times Full Feed via NewsEdge Corporation : AFTER a 31-year-old 
Manhattan financial executive received Microsoft's Xbox video game 
system as a gift in January, he walked to a store and bought a 
half-dozen game titles. The video game industry would have been pleased 
to hear it.

After he played those games a few times against computer-controlled 
opponents, he got a bit bored and signed up for Microsoft's Xbox Live 
service, which enabled him to play against other people online. The 
video game industry, again, would have been pleased.

After a few months on the Xbox Live network, in May, he got a bit bored 
again. This time, however, he opened his Xbox and soldered in a chip 
that allowed him to change the console's basic computer code and bypass 
its internal security technology. After installing a new hard drive, he 
transferred about 3,000 MP3 music files to the system and downloaded 
illegal copies of 3,500 old-time arcade games. Then he installed the 
Linux operating system, which allowed him to use the box essentially as 
a personal computer.

Needless to say, the video game industry would not have been pleased.

When Microsoft released the Xbox in November 2001, it was heralded as 
far more than a game machine. Even as the Xbox took aim at Sony's 
PlayStation 2 game empire, the console was meant to lead Microsoft's 
broader invasion of the living room. Incorporating a hard drive, which 
made it more readily adaptable than other consoles, the Xbox had the 
potential to be a digital-entertainment nerve center.

Bill Gates, Microsoft's chairman, said at the time, "We're going to put 
new software that runs on Xbox that, both in the gaming dimension and 
other dimensions, will amaze people with the power that's in this box."

That is happening, but not necessarily as Microsoft planned. All sorts 
of new software is indeed running on Xbox consoles these days, and they 
are in fact becoming home-entertainment hubs, but it is not Microsoft 
doing the amazing.

Rather, an online confederacy apparently numbering in the thousands -- 
including accomplished hackers of varied motives and everyday 
technophiles like the Manhattan financial executive (who shared his 
experience on the condition of anonymity) -- is taking the lead. Those 
involved often call their efforts "unleashing" or "unshackling" -- 
freeing the Xbox to express its inner PC. Technology industry 
executives, however, often call such activity a bald attempt to hijack 
the Xbox illegally.

It is a battle that involves many of the ethical and legal issues facing 
the technology and media industries at this digital moment. What rights 
do consumers have to tinker with products they own? How far should 
companies go to protect their intellectual property? What happens when 
the desires of consumers conflict with the business models of companies 
they patronize? Who gets to decide just what a particular product may be 
used for?

The Xbox is a particularly attractive target for hackers because while 
it is essentially a standard PC modified to do only a few things, like 
play Xbox games, it is much cheaper than a PC. It is like an economy car 
modified to follow only a few roads -- but one potentially as powerful 
as a far more expensive model.

In the Xbox, that power comes in the form of a 733-megahertz Intel 
processor, comparable to a midrange personal computer, and sophisticated 
graphics and audio systems. Its limited operating system, based on a 
version of Windows, can be used by a programmer to run simple software 
like a music player -- or the machine can run a new operating system 
altogether, namely Linux. "The reality is that if you could bypass 
Microsoft's operating system you would end up with a fairly powerful 
computer for less than $200," the Manhattan financial executive said.

In fact, Microsoft lowered the price for Xbox to $179.99 in May. In a 
sense, Xbox hackers are exploiting Microsoft's business model, which is 
to sell Xbox hardware at a loss (to build penetration of the system) and 
make the money back on royalties from the sale of Xbox software. A PC 
manufacturer like Dell, meanwhile, has to recoup its costs and generate 
a profit from the initial sale.

So someone who buys the Xbox hardware, modifies it into a 
general-purpose computer and does not buy Xbox games potentially 
undermines not only Microsoft but also the personal computer industry. 
But that is not how some Xbox hackers think about it.

"Especially in Europe, computers are more expensive than they are here, 
and the Xbox is the cheapest computer you can get," Andrew Huang, author 
of a new book called "Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse 
Engineering," said in a telephone interview. "Basically," he added by 
e-mail, "once you have Linux, you have everything."

It is unclear just how many Xbox hackers there are. Officials of the 
Interactive Digital Software Association, a trade group of video game 
publishers, said that Xbox hacking appeared more prevalent in parts of 
Asia than in North America. Michael Steil, a 24-year-old German who is 
project leader of a group that calls itself the Xbox Linux Project, said 
by e-mail that a full version of Linux software for the Xbox had been 
downloaded more than 220,000 times.

Whatever the numbers, Microsoft does not appear eager to discuss Xbox 
hacking. In recent weeks, a Microsoft public relations representative 
repeatedly declined to make any company executives available to discuss 
the matter. Instead, the company issued a statement through a public 
relations firm that said in part: "Microsoft is a company passionate 
about innovation and creativity. We are also very committed to respect 
for others' intellectual property and we request the same respect 
applied to our innovations."

The statement made no reference to the potential use of hacked Xbox 
consoles as personal computers, saying Microsoft's "primary concern" was 
with the sale of modified chips for the boxes "that enable game 
counterfeiting." And that is the area that most clearly raises legal 
issues.

Although there are several methods, hacking an Xbox typically involves 
obtaining a special chip called a modchip, available on the Internet, 
and soldering it into the machine. (For those who find the process 
daunting, there are also vendors on the Internet who sell "pre-modded" 
Xbox units.)

Modchips, of which there are several varieties, allow users to load new 
versions of the basic computer code, known as the BIOS, that tells the 
machine how to operate. A hacked BIOS generally incorporates modified 
versions of copyrighted Microsoft code and so is generally illegal. The 
main Web sites that deal with Xbox hacking do not include links to 
hacked BIOS, and hackers generally find their forbidden fruit in 
Internet chat rooms.

Once the modchip is installed and the BIOS modified, the console can do 
a number of things it cannot do "out of the box." Xbox games normally 
must be run from an optical disk, and a hacked Xbox can "back up" a game 
to the unit's hard drive and run the game without the disk. This 
technique could be used simply to avoid having to insert and remove 
disks -- or it could be used for piracy (say, by renting a game, putting 
the software on the hard drive and returning the game).

Until passage of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act in 1998, the mere 
sale of a modified chip would not have appeared illegal. That law, 
however, prohibits the sale of devices that are primarily meant to 
circumvent copyright protection.

Companies and technologists will fight over the exact legal meaning of 
those provisions for years. For now, however, the software industry is 
relying on them.

"Our view over all on modchips is that they are illegal infringing 
devices, that where we find people engaged in the widespread 
manufacturing and distribution of them, we and our members, individually 
and collectively, are committed to doing what we can to shut down their 
manufacturing and go after the distributors," said Doug Lowenstein, 
president of the Interactive Digital Software Association.

Some advocates, however, say that while software piracy is illegal and 
morally offensive, the mere act of modifying hardware should not be 
illegal. "The most important dimension of this debate from our view is 
that people should have the right to tinker with the stuff that they 
own," said Fred von Lohmann, senior staff attorney at the Electronic 
Frontier Foundation, a civil-liberties group in San Francisco.

"Others will say that this is about piracy and all that, but they forget 
that the principle of tinkering with the stuff that you own was the 
principle on which the entire personal computer industry was founded," 
he added. "This is basic business and basic science in the technology 
world and we think that this right to tinker, this freedom to tinker, 
remains legally protected."

For now, however, the federal government seems to agree with Mr. 
Lowenstein. Last December, David M. Rocci, a 22-year-old from 
Blacksburg, Va., pleaded guilty to a federal charge of conspiring to 
import, market and sell modchips for the Xbox. In April, he was 
sentenced to five months in prison and five months of home detention.

Simply from the standpoint of accessibility, the PlayStation 2 would 
seem to be a more likely candidate for hacking. IDG, the technology 
research firm, estimates that at the end of last year, 38.1 million 
PlayStation 2 units were in use in Europe, North America and Japan 
combined, compared with 6.7 million Xbox units in those regions.

In one sense, however, the hacking scene for PlayStation 2 is less 
developed than the one for Xbox because there is less appetite for it. 
Sony sells an official conversion kit for the PlayStation 2 that 
includes a hard drive and allows that system to run the Linux operating 
system, which in turn allows the system to run MP3's, movies, 
spreadsheets or any other program or data that works under Linux. It is 
relatively easy for Sony to embrace Linux because Sony, unlike 
Microsoft, is not in the operating system business.

The PlayStation 2 hacking community seems focused on developing chips 
that allow PlayStation 2 units to run illegal copies of games and games 
meant for far-flung parts of the world. (For marketing reasons, many 
PlayStation 2 games include regional coding, much as DVD's do.) In 2001, 
Sony sued an Australian for selling modchips that allowed Australian 
PlayStation 2 units to play games from other parts of the world. After 
the Australian government argued on the man's behalf, however, the 
Federal Court of Australia last July ruled mostly against Sony.

Mr. von Lohmann said that Microsoft had not been particularly aggressive 
in combating Xbox hackers but that Sony had actively fought them. A Sony 
spokeswoman did not respond this week to requests for comment about the 
company's approach to hackers.

For its part, Microsoft, through its public relations agency, indicated 
that it believed Xbox hackers were a relatively small band. "Aside from 
a set of hobbyists," it said, "the vast majority of Xbox owners are not 
focused on this niche."

But those who are appear quite focused indeed. By e-mail, Mr. Steil, the 
German leader of the Xbox Linux project, declared: "In very simple 
words: The Xbox is cheaper than a PC. The Xbox is a lot smaller than a 
PC. The Xbox looks better (next to a TV set). The Xbox is more silent. 
Therefore it's an ideal Linux computer in the living room."

That was probably not the vision Mr. Gates had in mind.


--
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Yishay Mor
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