[fattony69]

Originally Posted by shake

ahahahaha my friend has had a modchip in his 360 for so long... looks like he'll be mad that he spent money on dual-layered disks for the games lol. except he wont be lol.

now how about something a little bit more recent...

http://apcmag.com/node/4769

Whoops...didn't see the date

Oh and in response to your vista link...here is some news:

In today's That-Was-Quick Department, pirates have already gotten their hands on Windows Vista and are circulating a "cracked" version of the operating system on the Internet.

Vista and Office 2007 have just finished development and are being made available to corporate customers in advance of their January 30 release. But if you know where to look online, you can find both products already.

In the case of Vista, the purported "crack" isn't really a crack to get around the activation process. According to the techie hobbyist site Ars Technica, the hackers replaced components in the final code with bits from from earlier betas of Vista.

This allows the would-be pirate to use a product key that worked with the betas and two release candidates and skip the entire activation process.

In the case of Office 2007, the Enterprise edition has leaked onto the Internet, and because it uses a volume license key, it does not require activation over the Internet.

The free ride won't last long. Microsoft said it was aware of the hacks, and how they were done. "The unauthorized download relies on the use of pre-RTM activation keys that will be blocked using Microsoft's Software Protection Platform. Consequently, these downloads will be of limited use," a Microsoft (Quote) spokesperson told internetnews.com.

Beyond the fact that the hacked software will be shut off, installing it is just crazy, claimed Greg DeMichillie, lead analyst with research firm Directions on Microsoft.

"A whole lot of the versions of Windows XP that show up on download sites aren't just modified to bypass activation. They carry spyware. So you install them and they immediately turn into zombies or botnets," he said.

He pointed out that it's possible even to install a rootkit despite Vista's vaunted PatchGuard kernel protection. The rootkit can be installed to the files on the installation, which are merely compressed and not installed yet.

"I would never install that [hacked Vista and Office], because they are honey pots used to get you to install them on the system because they are likely loaded up with malware already," he added.

All of these anti-piracy efforts are a cat and mouse game for Microsoft, which has eliminated some vulnerabilities, such as the volume license key for Windows XP. But once a key is leaked, Microsoft has no way to revoke it, and it then gets around the Internet in a nanosecond. In this case, users tempted by a pirated version have been warned of the hidden costs.

Microsoft responded Tuesday to reports that said some Web sites have been circulating pirated copies of Vista and Office 2007.

The pirated Vista comes with a product key that users can enter to activate a version of the products on their computers without paying for them, a report on the Web site of The Sydney Morning Herald newspaper said. A product key is a unique serial number tied to each package of a software product.

A second download, called an "activation crack," can then be applied that bypasses the activation process intended to guarantee that the Vista OS being downloaded is legitimate, the Herald reported. Pirated copies of Office 2007 can be downloaded just with the product key with no second activation code required.

But Microsoft said in a prepared statement that those pirated copies of the OS won't work for long.

"The copies available for download are not final code and users should avoid unauthorized copies which could be incomplete or tampered. This unauthorized download relies on the use of pre-RTM [release-to-manufacture] activation keys that will be blocked using Microsoft’s Software Protection Platform. Consequently, these downloads will be of limited value," the statement said.

Microsoft is still looking into reports of pirated versions of Office 2007 and declined further comment.

"Microsoft is happy that customers are eager to begin using Windows Vista," the company said.

Microsoft has been criticized for multiple delays in bringing Vista to market, but has said it wants to take care that the product is designed correctly to avoid security flaws, piracy problems and other software glitches.

The company released Vista to computer manufacturers on Nov. 8 for them to build into new laptops and desktops available for retail sale in January 2007. Consumers can start buying individual copies of Vista on Jan. 30.

Microsoft also plans to have Vista in the hands of business customers by the end of November. It has scheduled a Vista launch event in New York City on Nov. 30 at which the new Office 2007 and Exchange Server 2007 will also be introduced.