Graphing calculator programmer Brandon Wilson likes to tinker with machines and post his findings online, for no reason other than entertainment and curiosity. Recently, he turned his attention to Skylanders, the unique game that uses physical toys to interact with a virtual world. Activision apparently didn't like it, slapping him with a cease & desist order.
Wilson worked out the encryption protocol used for storing data on the toys, and intended to emulate his own Skylanders portal peripheral. While his activities involved working around security chips, his intent was purely innocent and clearly wasn't intended for piracy. Lawyers don't discriminate, however, and Wilson has agreed not to continue publishing his findings.
It's a shame that genuinely interesting projects like this get shut down in the earth-scorching war against piracy. While I certainly understand why lawyers don't discriminate, it doesn't make it any less sad.
Activision delivers cease and desist to Skylanders tinkerer [Geek.com]
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Contest:
10:00 AM on 12.30.2011 | 
But I really only glazed over the article in passing.
Not if circumventing said "encryption" does no harm. Often times, encryption isn't being used to protect anything, and only exists to prevent end users from tinkering, locking them into using the tool the way the designer originally intended.
Plus, like Scuffles said, it probably wasn't actually encrypted to begin with.
Oxymoron: Pirate on principle.
Principals would never warrant piracy, if it was a true case of Principals they would stop playing games by (insert offending developer/publisher).
Except this has nothing to do with piracy.
....Piracy? Where?
Counterfeit Skylander toys != Piracy
Yeah, but isn't that also what Geohotz got taken to court for?
Again, their mistake (and problem) wasn't tinkering with the hardware. It was actually posting delicate stuff online for all to download, as is this case
I myself have pirated software myself before, and i just laugh everytime someone says piracy happens as a statement to "The Man". Brother please...
Piracy happens because it's made easy and free. No way around it, no sugar-coating it.
Pretty much. It was bullshit then, and it's bullshit now as well.
I for one salute Activision for single handedly preventing a full scale nuclear war.
I'd imagine their worries isn't so much in his innocence, but in the fact that that information being made public opens doors to much more devastating endeavors.
O noes! Cheat codez! Say it ain't so! WON'T SOMEBODY THINK OF THE CHILDREN?
Reverse engineering what exactly?
I will almost guarentee that if I ripped open one of the Skylanders figures it would be packed to the brim with an off the shelf RFID module.
That could be ordered from any one of a hundred electronic retailers..... ZOMG lets hope they don't reverse engineer that readily available technology.
What little "Cracking" might be going on would be little more than figuring out what information is stored in something as complex as a serial number.
Its going to likely include a boolean that indicates whether or not its a "limited edition". An Identification block, a section for accumulated experience. Along with additional sub blocks that deal with whatever limited equips and skills can be given to the character.
This isn't rocket science or high level code cracking... this is more on the level of being able to tell what the barcode on a can of soup tells the register at checkout.....
Honestly -and I'm probably off base- but this doesn't seem all that different then sending a friend some MP3's because they had a bad day: Its for a positive reason, but its still not right. If we let shit like this slide then I don't really feel like we can honestly sit here and bitch about the greater, eviler, whole of piracy.