Quote:
Originally posted by Bond
Some guy said this at the TeamXbox forums:
I suppose he is basically saying what you are saying, but you didn't bring up the 'cracked existing BIOS.' Want to clear that up? 
Sorry, I'm not up to date on my (il)legal activity.
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Basically, why they say it is illegal is because they took the code from the Microsoft BIOS and altered it for their use. The problem is that they took copyrighted material, altered it, and then sold it. Big no-no. If you wrote the BIOS from scratch, such as some of the Linux versions, they are legal. But most mod-chips take the Xbox version (leaked by some developer), and then alter it, and distribute it.
Now if you make your own BIOS, you can install it. And if you somehow got ahold of the BIOS and altered it, you could install that as well. Distributing it is illegal, since it's not your source code, and Microsoft didn't give you permission to distribute it. That's why a lot of the time when you buy mod-chips, you have to flash the BIOS yourself. It's like selling you a machine gun, it's not illegal until you put it together.
Now where everything gets complicated is whether or not the BIOS is considered a copyrighted piece of software, and whether or not possession of it is illegal. Also whether it is legal to distribute a cracked BIOS for non-profit, or if it's illegal to distribute at all.
You have every right to crack, or reproduce any software you own. If you create an idential version of Windows only stable, it's legal. If Russia gives you a top-secret computer and you want to crack the encryption, you can. Distributing stuff is where it gets confusing, and its even worse when it comes down to whether you have the right to own it or not. You need to find out whether the BIOS is considered software, and then whether or not it is legal for you to own an altered version of software you already own. That is something you need a lawyer for, because there is no clear cut law on the matter.
But in the end, Microsoft does not lose any money by you owning a cracked BIOS. And since they are not losing money by you having it, they sure as hell won't be spending money to make you get rid of it.