The Entertainment Software Association claims that the locks are necessary to “to prevent users from making unauthorized copies.” They point out that manufacturers have mail-in repair programs and will happily fix your console for a fee. But pirates and cheaters aren’t deterred by copyright law.
Manufacturers argue that enabling repair will open a Pandora’s box of game piracy and cheating. That’s a shame, because the demand is there-iFixit’s Xbox and PlayStation repair pages get hundreds of thousands of hits every year. The result is that too many beloved consoles are heading for the trash heap rather than getting regifted under the Christmas tree.
The only legal path requires parts so expensive that they’d be better off buying a new console (if they can find one). All too often, he’s had to give a hopeful child a dour prognosis: The only cost-effective way to fix their console is illegal. Harwell has hundreds of Xboxes in the shop basement that his technicians could harvest drives from, but there’s a catch-an obscure part of US copyright law makes it illegal for him to repurpose those drives. Not only does a broken drive mean you can’t play your favorite discs, but on most Xbox and PlayStation models, a faulty DVD or Blu-ray drive will cause the whole console to stop working, even if the owner mostly plays downloaded, digital games.
Kyle Wiens is the cofounder and CEO of iFixit, an online repair community and parts retailer internationally renowned for its open source repair manuals and product teardowns.īut if you talk with expert repair technicians like Bryan Harwell, they’ll tell you that significant obstacles stand in the way.Īt Replay’d, Harwell’s Boston repair and game shop, one out of every 10 customers brings in a console with a broken optical drive.
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