Modchip
Encyclopedia
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...
, and copy protection
Copy protection
Copy protection, also known as content protection, copy obstruction, copy prevention and copy restriction, refer to techniques used for preventing the reproduction of software, films, music, and other media, usually for copyright reasons.- Terminology :Media corporations have always used the term...
checks for the purpose of running software intended for other markets, copied game media, or unlicensed third-party (homebrew
Homebrew (video games)
Homebrew is a term frequently applied to video games or other software produced by consumers to target proprietary hardware platforms not typically user-programmable or that use proprietary storage methods...
) software.
Modchips are mainly used in CD/DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
-based videogame systems due to the availability and low cost of user-writable media. In addition to games consoles, modchips are also available for some DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
s to circumvent region code enforcement and user operation prohibition
User operation prohibition
The user operation prohibition is a form of use restriction used on video DVD discs and Blu-ray discs. Most DVD players and Blu-ray players prohibit the viewer from performing a large majority of actions during sections of a DVD that are protected or restricted by this feature, and will display...
s.
Function and construction
Modchips operate by replacing or overriding a system's protection hardware or software. They achieve this by either exploiting existing interfaces in an unintended or undocumented manner, or by actively manipulating the system's internal communication, sometimes to the point of re-routing it to substitute parts provided by the modchip.Most modchips consist of one or more integrated circuit
Integrated circuit
An integrated circuit or monolithic integrated circuit is an electronic circuit manufactured by the patterned diffusion of trace elements into the surface of a thin substrate of semiconductor material...
s (microcontroller
Microcontroller
A microcontroller is a small computer on a single integrated circuit containing a processor core, memory, and programmable input/output peripherals. Program memory in the form of NOR flash or OTP ROM is also often included on chip, as well as a typically small amount of RAM...
s, FPGAs, or CPLD
CPLD
A complex programmable logic device is a programmable logic device with complexity between that of PALs and FPGAs, and architectural features of both. The building block of a CPLD is the macrocell, which contains logic implementing disjunctive normal form expressions and more specialized logic...
s), often complemented with discrete parts
Discrete device
A discrete device is an electronic component with just one circuit element, either passive...
, usually packaged on a small PCB
Printed circuit board
A printed circuit board, or PCB, is used to mechanically support and electrically connect electronic components using conductive pathways, tracks or signal traces etched from copper sheets laminated onto a non-conductive substrate. It is also referred to as printed wiring board or etched wiring...
to fit within the console system it is designed for. Although there are modchips that can be reprogrammed for different purposes, most modchips are designed to work within only one console system or even only one specific hardware version.
Modchips typically require some degree of technical acumen to install. Modchips must be connected to a console's circuitry, most commonly by solder
Solder
Solder is a fusible metal alloy used to join together metal workpieces and having a melting point below that of the workpiece.Soft solder is what is most often thought of when solder or soldering are mentioned and it typically has a melting range of . It is commonly used in electronics and...
ing wires to select traces or chip legs on a system's circuit board. Some modchips allow to be installed by directly soldering the modchip's contacts to the console's circuit ("quicksolder"), by the precise positioning of electrical contacts ("solderless"), and, in rare cases, by plugging it into a system's internal or external connector.
Memory cards or cartridges that offer functions similar to modchips work on a completely different concept, namely by exploiting flaws in the system's handling of media. Such devices are not referred to as modchips, even if they are frequently traded under this umbrella term.
History
Cartridge-based console systems did not have modchips produced for them. They usually implemented copy protection and regional lockout with game cartridges, both on physical and software level. Converters or passthrough devices have been used to circumvent the restrictions, while flash memory devices (game backup deviceGame backup device
A game backup device, formerly usually called a copier and more recently a flash cartridge, is a device for backing up ROM information from a video game cartridge to a computer file called a ROM image and playing them back on the real hardware...
s) were widely adopted in later years to copy game media. Early in the transition from solid-state to optical media, CD-based console systems did not have regional market segmentation or copy protection measures due to the rarity and high cost of user-writeable media at the time.
Modchips started to surface with the PlayStation
PlayStation
The is a 32-bit fifth-generation video game console first released by Sony Computer Entertainment in Japan on December 3, .The PlayStation was the first of the PlayStation series of consoles and handheld game devices. The PlayStation 2 was the console's successor in 2000...
system, due to its popularity and the increasing availability and affordability of CD writers. At the time, a modchip's sole purpose was to allow the use of imported and copied game media.
Today, modchips are available for practically every current console system, often in a great number of variations. In addition to circumventing regional lockout and copy protection mechanisms, modern modchips may introduce more sophisticated modifications to the system, such as allowing the use of user-created software (homebrew), expanding the hardware capabilities of its host system, or even installing an alternative operating system to completely re-purpose the host system (e.g. for use as a home theater PC
Home theater PC
A Home Theater PC or Media Center appliance is a convergence device that combines some or all the capabilities of a personal computer with a software application that supports video, photo, music playback, and sometimes video recording functionality...
).
Anti-modchip measures
Most modchips open the system to copied media, therefore the availability of a modchip for a console system is undesirable for console manufacturers. They react by removing the intrusion points exploited by a modchip from subsequent hardware or software versions, changing the PCB layout the modchips are customized for, or by having the firmware or software detect an installed modchip and refuse operation as a consequence. Since modchips oftentimes hook into fundamental functions of the host system that cannot be removed or adjusted, these measures may not completely prevent a modchip from functioning but only prompt an adjustment of its installation process or programming, e.g. to include measures to make it undetectable ("stealth") to its host system.With the advent of online services to be used by video game consoles, some manufacturers have executed their possibilities within the service's license agreement
Software license agreement
A software license agreement is a contract between the "licensor" and purchaser of the right to use software. The license may define ways under which the copy can be used, in addition to the automatic rights of the buyer including the first sale doctrine and .Many form contracts are only contained...
to ban consoles equipped with modchips from using those services.
Some console manufacturers included the option to run homebrew software or even an alternative operating system on their consoles, however, these features have mostly been withdrawn again. An argument can be made that a console system remains largely untouched by modchips as long as their manufacturers provide a legitimate way of running unlicensed third-party software.
Legality
One of the functions of many modchips—the circumvention of copy protection mechanisms—is outlawed by many countries' copyright laws such as the DMCADigital Millennium Copyright Act
The Digital Millennium Copyright Act is a United States copyright law that implements two 1996 treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization . It criminalizes production and dissemination of technology, devices, or services intended to circumvent measures that control access to...
in the USA, the EUCD and its various implementations by the EU member countries, and the Australian Copyright Act. However, due to the many diversified functions of a modchip, other laws may apply to a modchip as well, allowing specific functions (e.g. the circumvention of region coding under Australian law).
The nonuniform interpretation of applicable law by the courts and constant profound changes and amendments to copyright law do not allow for a definitive statement on the legality of modchips. Because of the ambiguity of applicable laws, a modchip's legality under a country's legislature may only be individually asserted in court.
Most of the very few cases that have been brought before a court have ended with the conviction of the modchip merchant or the manufacturer under the countries' anti-circumvention laws. A small number of cases in the United Kingdom and Australia have been dismissed under the argument that a system's copy protection mechanism would not be able to prevent the actual infringement of copyright (which would be the actual process of copying game media), therefore it cannot be considered an effective TPM protected by anti-circumvention laws. Australian copyright law has since been amended to effectively close this legal loophole. Despite this, since then nobody has been taken to court in Australia for Wii, Xbox, nor PS3 modifications due to them all being region coded. The only company taken to court was selling Nintendo DS mods (the DS was not region coded).
Although being an unregisterable generic term in many countries, "Modchip" is a registered trademark in Canada.
See also
- Game backup deviceGame backup deviceA game backup device, formerly usually called a copier and more recently a flash cartridge, is a device for backing up ROM information from a video game cartridge to a computer file called a ROM image and playing them back on the real hardware...
- List of Wii modchips
- XBOX ModchipsXBOX ModchipsXbox modchips are electronic devices that modify or disable the built-in restrictions of the XBOX.The Xbox has gone through several generations of modchips each using different methods to disable built-in restrictions. A majority of the modchips developed connect to the LPC bus pads that are...
- Qoob chipQoob chipQoob Chip is a modchip for the Nintendo GameCube, which allows the user to run unlicensed software such as BIOS replacements like GCOS, emulators, backup tools, and even operating systems such as Linux...
- Operation Tangled WebOperation Tangled WebOperation Tangled Web is the name of a raid conducted by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement as part of a crackdown on modchips and copyright circumvention devices. These devices allowed pirated video games to be played on video game systems in the United States. Agents raided 30...