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[ox] Fwd: US: Xbox-Hacking Book trotz Verbannung ein Bestseller



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Subject: US: Xbox-Hacking Book trotz Verbannung ein Bestseller
Date: Sat, 10 May 2003 02:46:17 [PHONE NUMBER REMOVED]
From: "q/depesche" <depesche quintessenz.org>
To: quintessenz-list quintessenz.at

q/depesche 2003-05-10T02:43:14

US: Xbox-Hacking Book trotz Verbannung ein Bestseller

Microsoft Xbox sollte eigentlich den Konsolenmarkt aufmischen.

Langsam entwickelt sich die Xbox zum digitalen Boomerang, denn die
Kreativität, wie kann man eine Xbox Zweckentfremden feiert größte
Urständ. Zwar versucht man seitens Microsoft mittels Modchip solches zu
verhindern, nützt aber nix wenn im Netz ein Art Kochbuch auftaucht, wie
man die Xbox hacken kann.

Mal ehrlich, eine Xbox kostet schlappe 199,-- Euro, ein kleiner Webserver
unter Linux fordert garnicht viel Aufwand. Solch Workshop schreit
förmlich danach kreativ tätig zu sein.

http://xbox-linux.sourceforge.net/

Unter Reverse Engineering versteht man allgemein den umgekehrten Vorgang
eine Soft- oder Hardware zurückzuentwickeln, bis man die Quellcodes
zurück gewonnen hat.
Genau das ist was Microsoft nicht gerade freuen dürfte, gerade deshalb
weil man grosse Kampagnen zum Thema "DMCA" weltweit fährt.
Das sogannte "Trusting Computing" wird damit adabsurdum geführt, wenn es
Microsoft nicht gelingen dürfte Ihre eigenen Produkte sicher zu bekommen.

Am Besten liest man selbst das Hacking book um zu Beruteilen, wie sehr
Microsoft erfreut sein dürfte.

.. a hacker named "bunnie"  ;)

http://www.hackingthexbox.com/


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'Banned' Xbox hacking book selling fast
By Kevin Poulsen, SecurityFocus
Posted: 09/05/2003 at 09:32 GMT


Hacker-engineer Andrew "Bunnie" Huang says he's already pre-sold between
400 and 500 copies of his self-published tell-all "Hacking the Xbox: an
Introduction to Reverse Engineering," weeks before its scheduled May 27th
publication date, despite -- or perhaps because of -- looming suspicions
by some that the book skirts the edges of legality.

"It' s about getting the book out there on principle, because I can't
 find a publisher willing to publish it," says Huang. "I think it's
controversial, but not illegal."

With chapters on "Soldering Techniques" and "Installing a Blue LED,"
Huang's how-to may not seem an obvious candidate for joining Huckleberry
Finn and Harry Potter on history's sad list of once-banned books. But
Microsoft, the maker of the Xbox, has taken a dim view of home
modifications of the game console, focusing its litigious ire in
particular on "mod chips" that allow Xbox owners to run software that
Microsoft hasn't approved and licensed. With a mod chip installed, users
can run everything from virtual juke boxes to the Linux operating system
on the game platform -- as well as pirated copies of Xbox games.

Last year, a Microsoft lawsuit temporarily shut down the Hong Kong-based
company Lik Sang, which sold mod chips over the Internet. And last month,
mod chip entrepreneur David Rocci was sentenced to five months in federal
custody for conspiracy to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Rocci was the proprietor of a U.S. website that sold mod chips and helped
users locate pirated copies of Xbox games to run on their modified
machines.

Huang says his book describes some types of mod chips -- explains how
they work, and what lessons they offer designers of secure hardware
platforms. For example the "Matrix" chip installs solderlessly over a
test port manufacturers left on the Xbox motherboard. "You don't leave
these test structures on the motherboard, if you want it secure," says
Huang. Another chapter helps readers replace the machine's firmware -- a
mod chip trick used by sophisticated pirates and tinkerers. "They can be
used by the pirating community, and they can be used by the Linux
community -- so that one chapter that talks about firmware devices plays
to the Linux community," says Huang. "I believe that should be a legal
activity."

DMCA Fears

The book also revisits a technique that cemented Huang's reputation as a
hardware hacker last year, which involves building custom hardware to
intercept an encryption key as it crosses the Xbox's internal high-speed
bus. To avoid legal complications, Huang published his research paper on
the technique only after receiving permission from Microsoft, negotiated
with the help of EFF attorney Lee Tien. "To get the paper published in
the first place we had to negotiate a legal mine field," say Tien, who
went on to contribute a chapter on the legalities of reverse engineering
to Huang's book.

But Huang didn't get Microsoft's blessing for Hacking the Xbox, which
goes beyond discussing a single hacking technique. The book aims to
teach readers how to think like a hardware hacker, using the internal
secrets of the game console the way a med school teacher uses Gray's
Anatomy. With the boundaries of federal copyright law, particularly the
DMCA, unclear, Huang says tech-publishing house John Wiley & Sons got
cold feet and withdrew its plans to publish the book sometime after
Rocci's guilty plea.

Wiley didn't return phone calls on the matter.

Unable to find another publisher, Huang elected to sell the book himself
through the Web. He dug into his own pockets to fund a print run of 1,000
books, which he says will be delivered to his home later this month.
"It'll be only a matter of two weeks when a pallet of books comes to my
doorstep," he says. "Every book will be boxed by my own two hands."

Huang began accepting credit cards through his website this week, after
already selling nearly half of his initial print run through a PayPal
account. He says he's barely reached the break-even point. "He's not
going to make a huge amount of money," says Tien. "He thinks that it's
worthwhile stuff. That it's interesting, and it's teaching people."

"Mainly, at this point, it's boiled down to a political battle, for the
freedom to tinker," says Huang. "For my entire life I've been playing
with hardware. This is the first time someone's told me I can't play
with hardware because it's illegal."

Original story
http://www.theregister.com/content/54/30627.html


Related story
MIT grad student shows how to read Xbox security key"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/archive/25568.html



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