IndyDDR.com

DAVE101 wrote:Woah, someone mention ITG?

You should try the dragonforce ultrathon

Quadded it last week. Get on my level.

Heh, the machine is r21, but I don't think I'd be able to get the people there would allow me to tamper with their equipment sadly.

What part of hacking a machine has anything to do with 'tampering'?

Well, there are two ITG machines in Lexington: one in Colbowl and one in Gattiland. Gattiland let some people hack the machine and it pretty much ruined the hard drive and ITG is basically unplayable if you play anything higher than a 7 there. Colbowl probably heard about it and won't let any hacking be done on it, which is just as well cause I wouldn't know where to start.

Should also have mentioned, they hacked the ITG machine so that they wouldn't have to pay for the games anymore. Kinda miffed the owners off when they found out.

BRO ARE THERE ANY SUPERNOVA MACHINES OUT THERE THAT WE CAN PLAY BALLIN' ASS ONI COURSES ON?

To my knowledge, there aren't any fully functional DDR machines around Lexington. :/ I went up to Arcade Legacy in Cincy to play on their Extreme, but an arrow on both sides weren't working and it was way too loud (WHHHAAAA???).

I failed the Regular Nightmare Marathon on the final step. I was so ticked.....

DAVE101 wrote:What part of hacking a machine has anything to do with 'tampering'?

Um, contrary to what is apparently popular belief, unauthorized access to equipment you do not own is a crime. I think the term "tampering" pretty accurately describes the situation. If you break the equipment (i.e. render it unusable or unable to substantially perform its intended function), you may also be guilty of destruction of property if someone has an axe to grind. Pretty much no matter what, you can probably get nailed for trespass as it's pretty implicit in most environments that you're not supposed to be accessing the "guts" of these machines as a regular patron of the facility. Altering the game to grant free play may also be good enough to get you popped for theft of service. You could go to prison, but you're more likely to just get spanked in civil court if the owner decides they don't like you.

Of course, if you have PERMISSION, then you should be good.

I am not a lawyer, but I can tell you that if I were an owner/operator of an amusement/gaming establishment and someone decided to "hack" my games without my consent, I'd be pretty miffed. I might even be miffed enough to sue the perpetrator or press criminal charges, depending on the severity and difficulty/cost of repair.

Not to mention that if it is condoned by the arcade, they could potentially be sued for unauthorized usage of the unlicensed music that's been placed on the machine. All in all, there's pretty much nothing legal about hacking songs onto a commercially placed machine. :/

I think he was joking...

Tim you bring up a good point though! The vast majority of DDR machines in the US are bootlegs, their music isn't licensed in the US, and all that nonsense. Has any arcade here ever actually been sued for having an Extreme cabinet or something goofy like that?

I've never heard of any arcade incidents, but it has happened in rhythm games. Recently too.

http://gamepolitics.com/2012/03/29/emi- ... tar-makers

And hey, maybe they'll pay someone to rat you out.

http://consumerist.com/2012/06/record-c ... peers.html

I've certainly heard of ASCAP and similar going after people. Those entities are somewhat noted for "shakedown" tactics to begin with, but it has apparently happened in both situations with legitimate, ostensibly licensed games (I think the situation I remember was a machine running fully legit PIU NXA) as well as very, very hacked ITG setups.

In general, it's considered a jukebox, so you need the same level of licensing. IIRC, there's a flat rate option. It's not cheap in that it would certainly eat into the revenue earned by most games, but it's not outrageous, either (~$50/mo comes to mind, but don't quote me on it). That license should also permit you to make other public performance of music in your venue e.g. on the PA, karaoke, etc.

These guys shake down places with karaoke, even if their system is fully licensed for use in the USA. It's generally cheaper to just pay them rather than fight them. Places go out of business over it, occasionally, if they can't afford the (unnecessary) license but don't have the legal means to make them go away.

And he may have been joking, but his general attitude toward this sort of thing leads me to believe he wasn't. I've seen far too many "hacked" ITG machines in the area that are just ruined, anyway.

MonMotha wrote:These guys shake down places with karaoke, even if their system is fully licensed for use in the USA. It's generally cheaper to just pay them rather than fight them. Places go out of business over it, occasionally, if they can't afford the (unnecessary) license but don't have the legal means to make them go away.

Interesting. I am an idiot and have next to no understanding about our court system or music licensing laws, but how can the ASPCA even threaten these people with fully licensed karaoke set ups? I feel like this would be a very open-and-shut case and the burden of proof would fall on the ASPCA. I can see the owner of a karaoke bar not knowing their rights and paying the extortion money, but I don't see how the owner could be taken to court and lose. You wouldn't really need to hire a lawyer, just show up with proof that your karaoke setup is licensed and leave it at that.

ASCAP, not ASPCA. Totally different organiztions :)

1) ASCAP may not be sure that the karaoke is properly licensed. Many systems are not. For this reason, it may not be a "shake down" per se. ASCAP is simply being "very zealous" in asserting their rights, sometimes.
2) The owner of the system may not be fully sure that his/her system is properly licensed. Even if his/her vendor assured him/her that it is, getting the documentation to prove it can be difficult (the same applies to arcade games, btw).
3) It's often cheaper to just pay ASCAP their fee than to go to court with them, especially if you then take advantage of the new license you were just forced into buying (e.g. with house music or other performance) It's a sad state of affairs, but it's the nature of the beast. And yes, this could start to border on racketeering, depending on how hard they push it. There have been rumblings in the past of class action suits and even trying to get AGs to go after the under RICO, but nothing has ever happened (and they're a prominent enough and ostensibly "legit" enough organization that the latter probably never will).

I have no idea how hard they push it. I don't run any public venues, so I've never dealt with it.

Pwease don't sue me master!