The BBC has a truly fascinating read on the world of PSP homebrew. They managed to find Fanjita and Dark_Alex to get them to comment on homebrew, and how it relates to piracy. "My aim is to enable as many people as possible to run homebrew programs," said Fanjita, aka David Court. The 34 year old professional programmer believes that homebrew isn't illegal: "Everyone has the right to do what they want with their own hardware. Piracy does upset me, and because what we are doing opens the way to piracy it's harder to justify it morally. But our stance on piracy is clear, and we hope to be role models. Sony have never been in touch with me, so I am confident that what we are doing is legal."Dark_Alex, a student from Spain, shares a similar sentiment. "I think it is up to users to make the correct decisions about how to use my software," he said. "I believe in the presumption of innocence, unlike the media companies."
Read more about these two famed hackers in the complete BBC report.
[Via DCEmu]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
2-26-2007 @ 2:19PM
emirabal said...
This is awesome. Great find.
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2-26-2007 @ 2:33PM
Saigon said...
Meh. I think homebrew despite having benefits, ultimately hurts the psp. Alot of people who use it are pirates, plain and simple. I think Sony will eventually beat these guys. The odds of another GTA exploit are unlikely and I think Sony is bound to create a uncrackable firmware eventually. Who knows though...
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2-26-2007 @ 2:45PM
spir00 said...
2.
I don't see how you can say that a lot of the people who use it are pirates, plain and simple without proof?
If people are saying this base on what they see on pspupdates or looking at torrent information, then that doesn't say much.
You can't create a 'uncrackable' firmware. Why? Because its call code. As long as code can be look at, it can be crack.
I don't like how messing the hombrew community is in terms of quality features.
If I'm ever giving the option to stream wma, pls, and many other files, I would want to use hombrew. Not the crap thats out for it now.
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2-26-2007 @ 2:47PM
zjoe said...
As much as Fanjita and Dark_Alex have helped the homebrew scene on the PSP, they are mostly enablers of piracy.
And as such I heartily salute their efforts and wish them continued success.
And on another note, if Sony could not release a gaming platform in the year 2005 without proper software security, they've brought this all on themselves. At least with the PS2 physical effort was required to play pirate games, that is, you had to chip it. Even the DS requires a physical solution to enable piracy. But a software vulnerability -- what a bunch of idiots.
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2-26-2007 @ 3:23PM
guerrillatactik said...
oh snap.... i got a macbook too! kwel!
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2-26-2007 @ 4:05PM
4ham said...
The way SONY handles the psp is why a lot of people downgrade. We were all excitied when they announced downloadable PS1 games, but where are all the great titles? Where is the support for people who don't own a PS3? It's in the Homebrew community.
The PSP is capable of using a camera and gps add-on. But where is it? Japan. You have to go through a importer to get one. When at the very least you should be able to special order one from places like gamestop and best buy. The homebrew community put out a GPS-LIKE app, and gave the ability to run programs from unused icons.
Even the media player abilites that make up the core of the PSP are being redone to make up for the shortcomings of SONY. If I want to listen to music and look at pictures at the same time I shouldn't need to look to the homebrew community, but I do.
Who's really breathed new life into the PSP? Sure SONY did release the PS1 emulator, but only after they had crippled it enough to resemble everything else they've done to the PSP. It's been the resources of the Homebrew Community that have really made the little machine shine. They even went saved the un-downgradable TA-82 users.
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2-27-2007 @ 1:32PM
StevenVeneralle said...
HELL I have Dark Alex's Custom firmware. what do I use it for MOST often? playing chrono trigger or super mario world on it. that or Medevil for the ps1 BUT I didn't really need custom firmware to play PS1 games on it. YEa Playing the roms is illegal but as far buying games for MY psp. I bought ratchet and clank on the day it came out. so its not like I just download games to play on it. yea I got a couple but one of them is of Ratchet and clank for the hell of it
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2-28-2007 @ 8:04AM
Kade Storm said...
Saigon, a lot of people use this in a world where a lot of people like you generalise and pass off your fallacies about how all of 'em use ISOs. Get out in the world, and do some first-hand research for once, chump!
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