Legality of Custom Gameboots Produced with Sony's Leaked Tools

July 29th, 2006, 21:38 Posted By: F9zDark

Heres a Public Service Announcement and we at DCEmu fully agree with the statement ahead

With the recent slew of custom gameboots coming down the pipes, many here may be jumping for joy at the prospect. But there is a problem with them: they may be illegal.

The problem arises from the tools that produce them, which, if you are unaware, were leaked a few days ago ( you can read about it here: http://www.dcemu.co.uk/vbulletin/showthread.php?t=30167 ) Some members have claimed to have downloaded these leaked tools and others have outright released what they have made with them.

With the limited understanding of the laws in the US that I have, I firmly believe that these gameboots are illegal.

Just like developers need to get a license to develop software for the PSP that will be 'official' software, so too do developers need to get a license to use the UMD software package that was leaked.

The license also applies to any information released using the products. If the party isn't licensed to use the software, they aren't licensed to release anything they make with it.

This package may have been included as part of PSP dev-kits, which, if you are a homebrew developer, you already know that all software made with these dev-kits, if acquired illegally, are illegal (and no self respecting homebrew site would knowingly allow those files to be hosted on their servers).

This legal problem can and very well be the end of homebrew sites as we know them, if something is not done about this.

Sony has a vested interest in these tools and what can be made with them, and I believe that if we allow for dicussion of these tools and files made. released, and distributed using these tools, that we can gurantee that Sony will have more than enough reason to shut down homebrew sites.

So far, we have maintained an image of legality, to which Sony may have some respect for us. But Sony could probably shut this or any site down at will, without proper evidence for it. So just imagine how easy their job would be, if they had evidence for it...

Let's not give Sony a reason to shut us down.

Message from Webmaster

Can all PSP visitors and members please not at all upload or link to gameboots on DCEmu servers, any material should be deleted ASAP or risk being banned.

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