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Modchip
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A modchip (short for modification chip) is a hardware device used to modify or disable built-in restrictions and limitations of many popular videogame consoles and other electronic devices.
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A modchip introduces various modifications to its host system's function, including the circumvention of region coding, digital rights management, and copy protection checks for the purpose of running software intended for other markets, copied game media, or unlicensed third-party (homebrew) software. Modchips are mainly used in CD/DVD based systems due to the availability and low cost of user-writeable media.
Most modchips consist of one or more integrated circuits (microcontrollers, FPGAs, or CPLDs), often complemented with discrete parts, usually packaged on a small PCB to fit within the console system it is designed for. Although there are modchips that can be reprogrammed for different purposes, most modchips are designed to work within only one console system or even only one specific hardware version thereof.
Modchips operate by substituting parts of their host system's hardware or software, or by manipulating the communication between their host system's components, either by directly tapping into the consoles' circuitry or by exploiting existing interfaces.
Modchips typically require some degree of technical acumen to install. Most commonly, modchips must be soldered to a console's circuitry, either by wires, or by directly soldering the modchip's PCB to the console's circuit ("quicksolder"). Some modchips allow to be installed by the precise positioning of electrical contacts ("solderless") or by being plugged into the consoles' internal wiring. In rare cases a modchip can be connected to a console's external interface.
Devices that are inserted into a cartridge-based console's cartridge slot, although sometimes similar in function, are usually not referred to as modchip, but rather as passthrough or flash devices.
In addition to games consoles, modchips are available also for some DVD players to circumvent region code enforcement and user operation prohibitions.
Cartridge based console systems did not have modchips produced for them. They usually implemented copy protection and regional lockout with game cartridges, both on physical and hardware level. Converters or passthrough devices have been used to circumvent the restrictions, later on flash memory cartridges to copy game media became available. Early in the transition from solid-state to optical media, CD based console systems did not have regional market segmentation or copy protection measures due to the rarity of user-writeable media at the time.
Modchips started to surface with the PlayStation system, due to its popularity and the increasing availability and affordability of CD writers. At the time, a modchips' sole purpose was to allow the use of imported and copied game media.
Today, modchips are available for practically every current console system, often in a great number of variations. In addition to circumventing regional lockout and copy protection mechanisms, modern modchips may introduce more sophisticated modifications to the system, such as allowing the use of user-created software (homebrew), expanding the hardware capabilities of its host system, or even installing an alternative operating system to completely repurpose the host system (e.g. for use as a Home theater PC).
Because most modchips open the system to illegally copied media, the availability of a modchip for a console system is, naturally, undesirable for console manufacturers. They react by removing exploitable interfaces from subsequent hardware or software versions, changing the PCB layout the modchips are customised for, or by actively trying to detect an installed modchip. As many modchips exploit functions in their host system that are required by the system itself to function, the manufacturer's measures may only lead in an adjustment of the modchip's installation process or its programming, or modchip makers trying to find ways to make a modchip undetectable by its host system ("stealth").
With the advent of online services to be used by video game consoles, manufacturers have executed their possibilities within the service's license agreement to ban consoles equipped with modchips from using those services. Also, some console manufacturers have begun to include the option to run homebrew software or even an alternative operating system on their consoles,[1][2] which invalidates a major reason to use a modchip.
Depending on country, its legislature and its interpretation, the legal status of modchips varies from completely legal, to some specific functions (e.g. region code circumvention) being legal, to, in most instances, the whole device being completely illegal.
Many countries' copyright laws (such as the DMCA in the USA, the EUCD and its various implementations by the EU member countries, and the Australian Copyright Act) outlaw devices that circumvent copyright protection mechanisms. In addition, other copyright laws may apply to the function of modchips. Some countries' laws would allow the possession, but not the manufacturing or distributing of modchips.
Because of the ambiguity of applicable laws and the diversified function of modchips, its legality under a country's legislature eventually has to be asserted in court. Of the cases that have been brought to court, only few have ended in favor of modchip manufacturers or merchants. Also, while not directly making a statement on legality, there have been raids of modchip manufacturers and merchants on several occasions.