Opinion - Monday, September 6, 2010 17:44 - 7 Comments

Mod chip or freedom to choose?

opinion At the heart of the fraught court battle between video gaming giant Sony and a clutch of tiny Australian technology retailers kicked off in Melbourne this month is a simple disparity between the philosophical way in which each views the PlayStation 3 console.

The retailers view the device — of which Sony has sold almost a million in Australia — more or less the same way most consumers view most things they purchase: As an item which they own by virtue of forking out some dosh.

It’s a simplistic view of things that dates back millennia: If you exchange something of value for something else, you have the right to control what you bought. If you bought a loaf of bread, you may eat it plain, use it as an ingredient for a tomato and cheese sandwich, or sell it to someone else for a profit.

If you bought a car, you may drive it wherever you want, and at what speed you want, as long as you don’t drive too fast or crash it. You may take the car apart and reconstruct it so that it functions more efficiently. You may even, if you are rich enough and crazy enough, crush the car into a small cube of metal and have it dumped at the bottom of the ocean. It’s your car — you can do that.

But in the complex world of digital rights management and content licensing arrangements that rules Australia’s entertainment sector – and that of every other first world country – this view is so naïve that it borders on the ridiculous.

In short, it’s considered a view that a child might hold.

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