Hacker gets cease and desist after messing around with the game's action figures.
We're living in what can be honestly and soberly considered a "weird" time technology and ownership rights. Specifically, when you buy something from a hardware manufacturer, to what extent are you allowed to crack it open and tinker with it for your own use? And to what extent are the manufacturers protected against illegal or at the very least unintended use of their product by consumers? There are degrees of magnitude between taking apart your watch, to creating a case mod for your iPod Touch, to hacking your console's firmware.
Activision's cease and desist action (you can read the .pdf here) against hacker Brandon Wilson, who dismantled one of the figures from the new Skylanders, and after collecting data from the RFID chip in the figure's base, uploaded it to his personal website. Wilson insists that it was for his personal use, but Activision accuses him of colluding with other hackers to break and disseminate the code in the toy in a broader effort to find workarounds to winning at Skylanders without actually playing the game.
Wilson, of course, vigorously denies the allegations, but nonetheless has removed the code from his site.
Here's Wilson's response to the letter:
Mr. Mayer,
I have and do intend to comply with your request (attached) to cease research into how the game Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure and its USB peripherals work.However, I would like to address some inaccuracies in your letter dated October 26th, 2011.
You have indicated that I am collaborating with others to reverse engineer and hack the Skylanders game, and publishing the findings to the website http://www.rarewarecentral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=6113, which is not correct. I have no affiliation with the maintainers of the site nor the original poster. The original poster of the thread (whom you have quoted) has stated a desire to work on an "iPod/iPhone app which will let you trick the Wii into thinking the app is the portal and allow you to select any character you want."
I have made no attempt to help this person nor sent any material to him/her towards this end. I have made one (and only one) post to the thread consisting of no text and only a picture. This post is completely irrelevant to the topic at hand and can in no way be construed as collaborating with this person.
You have also indicated that I am distributing to the public a "zip" file containing extensive data concerning my "hacking" activities. This "zip" file was placed in its location for my temporary use and was not intended for public consumption. The general public was unaware of this file's existence during the brief time it was located on the server, and I am aware of no evidence to the contrary.
I currently have no intention nor have I had any intention to create or distribute iOS software for any purpose, let alone for the circumvention of Skylanders' access control systems. To my knowledge, I do not even have the tools necessary to produce iOS software. I have expressed no desire to make publicly available measures to circumvent Skylanders' access control systems. In fact, the partial documentation previously made available by me at the website http://www.brandonw.net/consoles/skylanders/ intentionally did not contain the encryption key vital to the access control measures in place in the Skylanders game.
This research project was for my own personal knowledge and to satisfy my own curiosity as to how the game interacts with its USB peripheral. I have expressed no desire to release to the public tools that circumvent Skylanders' access control measures, and I continue to express no desire toward that end. I do not and did not have any intention to harm Activision or cause harm to its products or investments.
I re-iterate that I have and do intend to comply with your request to cease any and all research and development into how the game Skylanders: Spyro's Adventure works. Any and all publicly accessible documentation and/or source code has been removed to the best of my knowledge and ability.
Please confirm your receipt of this letter at your earliest convenience.
Brandon Wilson
So what do you think? And answer honestly here, not just with the typical "big business bad, little computer guy good" that many of us jump to in situations like this. Beyond the initial accusations from the publisher (many of which appear to be categorically erroneous), what do you think about companies' rights to litigate when they feel an end user is using a product in a way in which it was not intended or, crucially here, telling the entire world how that product works? Where do corporate rights end and consumer rights begin?
[Source: Geek.com via Game Politics]
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