Electronic Frontier Foundation is working to make console modding legal

[PharaohsVizier]

Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is an organization that basically tries to keep the world informed about the latest leaps in technology, making sure the public, the government, etc use it fairly and effectively. More recently they've been fighting for consumer rights, and one of the more important things they are aiming for is using their connections to the government and their legal team to try and make modding consoles legal.

I believe this is only in the US. AFAIK it is already legal in Canada (though in sort of muddy waters with recent attempts to bring in new bills). But obviously this is something I highly support. You can help out the EFF on this page:
https://www.eff.org/action

They accept donations, you can send emails for some of their other tasks, etc. If you want to get something out of it, buy a Humble Indie Bundle, half of the money you earmark for charity goes to them.

Source: http://www.joystiq.com/2011/12/02/eff-working-to-make-console-modding-legal/

[DeltaBurnt]

While it's great that they're fighting to do this, it's an absolute shame that this is a grey area in the US. It is supposedly legal, as anything you buy you should be able to destroy, tinker with, etc, but there have been cases where people have been successfully sued. It's even more sad that companies can copyright such ambiguous things to try and stop us from doing this. Geohot was sued for releasing a number randomly generated on one of Sony's computers.

[PharaohsVizier]

Well I can certainly understand trying to undermine piracy. I mean let's face it, a huge chunk of modders are also pirates. But there definitely needs to be some reform for the sort of blanket statements and laws they are making that hurt genuine gamers as well as pirates. The really shocking thing about US law is how damages are awarded. I mean a guy that gets sued for modding a console seems to get bills for tens of thousands of dollars on the low end of the spectrum. I wonder what judges are thinking when they hand out those hundred thousand dollar charges...

[DeltaBurnt]

Well I can certainly understand trying to undermine piracy. I mean let's face it, a huge chunk of modders are also pirates. But there definitely needs to be some reform for the sort of blanket statements and laws they are making that hurt genuine gamers as well as pirates. The really shocking thing about US law is how damages are awarded. I mean a guy that gets sued for modding a console seems to get bills for tens of thousands of dollars on the low end of the spectrum. I wonder what judges are thinking when they hand out those hundred thousand dollar charges...

I suspect that the judge is in favor of whatever company is suing morally, but legally can't say the modder is guilty without getting a ton of crap for it. So he bankrupts the kid(s).