Hi I've tried searching all the information on this forum regarding this subject but could not come up with an answer. I have also searches several sites on the internet regarding this issue as well. Everyone seems to have there own opinion on it. I have yet to find a site which specifically states that Modchips sold or purchased in the U.S.A. is infact illegal. From what I have read some of the sellers have gotten prosecuted. Such as Lik Sang, an online distributor of console mod chips, but I couldn't find out which country he was from. On the other end I have read it's legal to sell them if you are selling them in a fashion other than to be used for playing pirated games or software. Say your selling them specifically for playing imports, yet it's capable of playing backups. But if it's illegal to sell the modchips, how are there so many sites available to sell them. And so many sites available to provide information on installing them. Also modchips are just like cd-burners or dvd-burners in the fact whether you use them in an illegal mannor or not they are tools capable of violating The Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 Some sites say it is legal of course this information in particular is dated 2 year olds http://www.abc.net.au/rn/talks/8.30/lawrpt/stories/s639926.htm. And other sites saying it's illegal. So which one is it? Is it illegal to sell the modchips, or illegal to own the modchips? or both or neither one. And if you happen to have any solid info. please don't hesitate to give me the right direction. Thanks in advance for clearing it up for me.
I don't think that you are going to get a definative answer since I don't believe there has been a court ruling in the US stating that modchips are illegal. The cases I remember being prosecuted are for other reasons, not the modchip itself being illegal but code on the chip. For example someone was arrested for selling xbox modchips but it was because the bios was flashed with microsoft copyrighted code, not because the chip was illegal. That's why all the xbox modchips come with the legal Cromwell bios code flashed on them instead of microsoft proprietary code. Until it is tested in court I don't think you will get a yes or no answer. They could be ruled illegal as a circumvention device per the DCMA but as far as I know there hasn't been a case in court yet. Lik Sang is in Hong Kong. The site that you provided saying the modchips are legal was from Australia and therefore wouldn't apply to the US.
