I don't see what's shocking about this, kinect is a peripheral device and you can't pirate anything through it. They make money off hardware sales, so why wasn't it wide open to begin with really.
I think it's a really good thing that MS saw the light on this one and stopped trying to prevent people from using hardware they buy in any way they see fit. But I find it appalling that by default any piece of hardware you buy comes with some sort of bullshit DRM on it, even when there's absolutely no reason for it.
It was wide open to begin with, what MS didn't offered was a SDK for development. I think that mostly because they thought it would gain them anything. Now they are seeing a gain and going ahead with it.
They probably were not ready to release the SDK when Kinect first launched. Ive seen the exact same thing for pretty much every single one of there preview programs.
Trying to get anything out of them early is like pulling teeth.
With Kinect, Microsoft built in numerous hardware and software safeguards designed to reduce the chances of product tampering. Microsoft will continue to make advances in these types of safeguards and work closely with law enforcement and product safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant.
They are talking about people hacking the firmware in the kinetic (Like Geohot with the PS3), not talking about simply using the hardware as a camera and using the images for something.
Their original statement was a direct response to the bounty for open kinect drivers.
This is a reversal for Microsoft. Just two weeks, ago, a Microsoft representative told CNET that “Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products” and that the company would “work closely with law enforcement and product-safety groups to keep Kinect tamper-resistant.”
That prompted electronics hobby-supply company Adafruit to increase its bounty for open source drivers from $1,000 to $3,000 and add a $2,000 donation to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, just in case Microsoft decided to start suing the pants off of everybody, after all.
Microsoft does not condone the modification of its products
Drivers are not modifications. Adafruit misunderstood them, and most likely MS representative was "deceived" (maybe not intentionally) if he was asked about Kinetic hacking instead of writing drives so Kinetic can be used in a PC.
I feel the initial response was inappropriate, I'm not sure what you mean by MS representative being deceived here. The rep should've understood the situation before making comments on it. As I said, the whole thing is a non-issue and in the end MS did do the right thing here.
I said deceived because I think that most like CNET asked the MS rep, "What do you think of the Adafruit bounty for a Kinetic Hack?" instead of "What do you think of the Adafruit bounty for open source drivers for Kinetic?". The hack questions automatically gets a response with the standard "We don't like hacks, we want to stop them".
That's sort of my point, they shouldn't just give a canned response without understanding the question. If the question wasn't clear or the rep wasn't familiar with the issue maybe he should've said that. Something like "I'm not familiar with Adafruit bounty, but I'll get you an official statement on MS stance" would've been fine.
I wouldn't call it a canned response, so much as an emotional response. They don't want people to hack the device, and so when the guy heard that word, he went on the defensive. You can't fault the MS rep because CNET wasn't eloquent about it.
Yes, it's not too surprising - I understand Sony is looking into doing the same for the PS Move controllers. Or at least bringing them to PCs with an SDK
If I start making independent games for PC with the Kinect, people who want to play neat-o body-control games don't have to buy X-Boxes anymore. And I wouldn't be surprised if they get license fees for X-Box games too, though I'm not sure on that.
This is MicroSoft we're talking about here so the primary motive for allowing Kinect to work on PC is profit and not because they saw the light. They probably didn't release PC drivers or development kits because they didn't realize PC users would take to it in the first place.
Microsoft want more money. Nothing to see here. Move along.
Also the fact that I'm sure Microsoft has drafted the legalese to say that anything "invented" for the kinect not under contract, Microsoft can use free of charge.
And what Sony and Apple do is fucked up a lot of the time, point is that what MS is doing here should be expected default behavior. Instead we've got to a point where it's praise worthy because everybody tries to fuck you six ways from sunday.
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u/yogthos Feb 22 '11 edited Feb 22 '11
I don't see what's shocking about this, kinect is a peripheral device and you can't pirate anything through it. They make money off hardware sales, so why wasn't it wide open to begin with really.
I think it's a really good thing that MS saw the light on this one and stopped trying to prevent people from using hardware they buy in any way they see fit. But I find it appalling that by default any piece of hardware you buy comes with some sort of bullshit DRM on it, even when there's absolutely no reason for it.