XBMC

[ubelaffe]

It's just as legal as borrowing the real/original, but if he's got one and you've got the other, that's not legal. The thing is, that's not regulatable...

[Jubal]

If all you're doing is making a media center out of the box, then you're not really doing anything wrong. You've purchased the xbox, so therefore you can alter it any way you'd like, just so long as you're not illegally ripping games you don't own...

this is true only so long as you create your own software or use software that is legally freely available. pixelbender did a good job of explainging the prob with xmbc under those conditions

#2 - The explicitly "illegal" part is the fact that XBMC (and any dashboard replacement if I'm not mistaken) uses an xbox SDK that is hacked and/or used without permission of Microsoft. However, you can look at it by the fact that copyright violations are not criminal acts, merely civil ones that would be taken to court by Microsoft against the makers of the software using the SDK w/out permission (and/or reverse engineered).

developers who want to use the XDK (xbox development kit) to create games for the xbox, pay $10,000+ to microsoft for its use and must have their created software approved for distribution/release.

XMBC is not created or updated by a licensed xbox developer, the XDK used to compile it is "stolen". any derivative works created with stolen software are not considered or protected as "fair use".

I dont know of any cases in US law of a user being prosecuted for using a downloaded dashboard, though
there are lots of cases of people getting prosecuted for distributing xbox games on modded xbox.


Q: so is XMBC illegal?
A: definitely

Q: will I get prosecuted in the US for downloading and using XMBC as a home theater PC for games/movies/music/pictures that I legally own?
A: Highly unlikely, you would be the first person to get prosecuted in the US for this to my knowledge.

[ubelaffe]

I was not aware that xbmc used code taken from other software. That's a gray area. That's not really any different than emulation of games (ie: mame), but is perhaps lesser thievery than emu.

Thoughts?

[CantStrafeRight]

There is nothing illegal about the code for xbmc

but to run the code on an xbox the XDK is needed and it costs money so people use pirated versions of it.

[ubelaffe]

that makes sense.