Posted Apr 21, 2006 at 09:10AM by Dan E. Listed in: News
Ó


While many places in the world take piracy very seriously, there are countless other countries worldwide that do not. Many people know this fact already, but it is hard to understand just how much piracy really goes outside of the internet unless you see it for yourself. Recently, I had the opportunity to browse one of the malls in the Philippines (which is a beautiful country), which definitely does not operate the same as any mall in the United States would, but is still fun to visit. Aside from many other things you can buy there, my mission was to get the underground story of the PSP, namely: the services offered to upgrade/downgrade your PSP, the service of loading ISOs, pre-formatted PSP movies, mp3s, and installing PSP wallpapers which, of course, is all done for a price.



The voyage started with an always-exciting-ride in a taxi, arriving to the front of the giant mall of just-about-anything-you-want. There were hundreds of technology shops in the mall, cell phone bazaars, PC, PS2, Xbox software, and of course the PSP services. Just to get a feel of what is offered: you have the option to upgrade your PSP, downgrade your PSP, buy ISOs and have them loaded with UMD emulator (and other varieties of such loaders), and get free ISOs with the purchase of a memory stick duo. The prices varied for ISOs, with some stores charging Php150-350 per ISO: the equivalent of USD$3-$7, and the price of a real UMD comparatively USD$50-$60, depending on where you go.



So, with these services offered, I thought "why not see how their upgrading/downgrading process works." (And I know two things will be asked, so I'll clarify now: 1. I did not buy any ISOs, and 2. There is no downgrader for 2.01+ on the other side of the world, sorry.) So I went to a nice little shop which offered the upgrade/downgrade service for the equivalent of $10USD. The task: upgrade my 1.50 to 2.0, and then downgrade it back down to 1.50.



The first thing the kind man did was to make sure I had a 1.50, which I did, and then swap out my battery with the one in his PSP since mine was a bit low on juice. From there, he opened up a folder on his computer containing a myriad of familiar programs, all to be run in an automated process for easy upgrades and downgrades, including an appearance from the Wab version changer as well. For some reason, he started the upgrading with a 1.52 update, and judging by the way the files are setup, it is their procedure to first upgrade to 1.52, and then 2.00. Anyways, needless to say, my PSP safely upgraded from 1.50, to 1.52 and then to 2.00. Afterwards, he opened their self-extracting auto downgrader for the PSP (note: a password was needed to run the file), and did the process once again, ultimately ending up with a 1.50 version PSP.


Now that the upgrade/downgrade was complete, he tried to sell me on some games, on which I said no thanks, but they did offer a large selection along with a latest release list. I then asked if they sell homebrew (aside from loaders), and thankfully they do not. Alongside the PSP, the NDS is made its own appearance for ISO loading as well. On another page, they also offer PSPs with different firmwares selling at a different price respectively. For example, a PSP with firmware 2.60 sells at approximately $230USD, while a 1.50 will fetch an extra $80-120USD.


What are your thoughts on this situation going on, is the country at fault, are the software giants letting it slide, and what could be done to have it stopped? Let us know in the comments below.


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180 Comments


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   by jas0nuk - 2006-04-21
 » hehe

Just come to one of the markets here in North England, you'll see the same stuff going on :p

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » woiw

thats gr8 im goin philippeans

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » ARGGGGGGGgg

gahh priacy i hate it.
hope it dont kill the psp like it did dreamcast

p.s. first :D

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » tight

thats tight i wish i could see that first hand...

its crazy how they can do that and make money but in the next firmware version not even HOMEBREW will be allowed...

   by IronBob - 2006-04-21
 » Sony should encourage homebrew

I don't see why sony don't release something like YBasic for the psp in the new firmware version. Let people make their own software and have the advantage of sony being able to control what you can and can't do. Though saying that we wouldnt have all the great programs we have at the moment.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » Lame

I think it's horrible. I'm strapped for cash but I wouldnt go and buy ISOs. I will say tho that a service offering to downgrade your psp is a good idea tho. I dont see the harm in that if that's all they did. I'm running 2.0 and want to downgrade mine but i cant bring myself to do it for some reason. I dont know if my games will work with 1.5 even with the loaders and I really want to try out the shells.

   by bonzai10 - 2006-04-21
 » It sux

People do everything to make money. In my country it's forbiden, i didn't see anything like that before

   by mupet0000 - 2006-04-21
 » lol

I dont buy isos, i download em! I mean, whats the point buying em when you can get a UMD.

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   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » Piracy doesnt hurt a system

The dreamcast wasn't killed by piracy! it was killed by the ps2 and the fact that sega had a long history of making crappy systems and then abandoning them when things got tough(segacd,32x,Nomad,Saturn) Customers trusted sony and they won big...Another thing The ps2 has the worst copy protection and the largest piracy rate but it is still the top system.. Piracy has been around for a long time and it actually stimulates sales of hardware and software ..if people like the iso and then go to walmart and see the game for 19.99 or a reasonable price they will most likely buy it but 50 for a portable game is a little stupid.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » Piracy fancy

welcome to the rest of the world. good report let everyone open their eye.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » hmmm

Well i wouldn't buy any ISO's off anybody if i wanted them that bad i would download them, oh wait there i guess that would make me the bad guy but hey at lest i don't sell them in a shop.

"What are your thoughts on this situation going on, is the country at fault, are the software giants letting it slide, and what could be done to have it stopped"

Well people are dyeing, children are crying, bombs are flying and all most people care about is how ISO hurt less than 1% of Sony's profits

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » come to ukraine

and you will find the same stuff

dvds with loads of isos and downgrade and homebrew and the whole s**t

a psp with 1.50 is ~200$

a psp with 2.60 is ~180$

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » hahaha

thats pretty funny, I never had any idea piracy was taken to this extent

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » yay ppl actually know philippines now *my country

u have no idea what else in philippines, fake stuff, imported stuff , philippines are smart , and best in hacking ;) i remember some young kid hacked a bank and got 3 million canadian dollars

so if someone knows a filipino who's good at hacking, plz let them know that we need some hacking on 2.6



   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » it is open world

you have no right to make judgement on this. while you consider US do not have piracy openly, but ppl are downloading openly.

and you guys are raping iraq on the good fake name of protecting democractic pracise, but it is raping the iraqi for gas.

   by s_h_a_d_o_w_s - 2006-04-21
 » iso?

what is an iso?

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » Dreamcast

The Dreamcast wasn't a crappy system, it was brilliant, and It's still got a strong following. It was just Sega themselves not advertising enough, and also EA refusing not to back the machine due to Sega's own range of Sports titles. It was also internet ready out of the box, and paved the way for the Xbox and PS2 online services. I certainly still play mine more then my PS2.

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   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » yayyyy

piracy heaven! :)))))

fekk all teh corporations!!!

lets ALLL get it for free hahahahahaha

we shuld all download teh ISOs from kazaa for FREE :D

im moving to thailand soon! yayyy

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » PIRACY SUXXX

SPEND MONEY ON GAMES GOOD.

DOWN WITH PIRACY.

   by Disjunto - 2006-04-21

what you gonna do, it aint against the law over there, so techinically they are doing nothing wrong :P

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » hoho ha ha

i think its funny that this would be on a site that promotes any kind of piracy except PSP piracy (snes, genesis, etc)

yes, there is a piracy problem, but what can we actually do. it's like saying "yes there is a mafia" but what CAN you do?

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » Travel time

Time to head to the Philippines I guess...

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » no to piracy

If we don't buy games, who is gonna make better and newer games?
don't say that you are like one in a million that pirates, coz that's just not true
plus, all new games nowadays require the latest firmware anyway, so unless you want to get stuck with all the old games.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » this things needs in the semi-periphery countries

without piracy the country would lost much of this economy and make them more "poor".
Wouldnt USA do the same thing if they hadnt the ability to develop new stuff?

   by Jaris - 2006-04-21
 » About the articles

Well as the comments quickly turn into a cesspool of idiocy, i hope that they will disable anonymous posting in the future.

Anyways, the Philipines is governed by the same Copyright laws anywhere else is, but they aren't enforced to the degree that they are in many other countries, such as the USA.

This is nothing, apparently taiwan is easily ten times worse.

The reason we have such a crackdown in the US on it, where law enforcement is actively persuing and enforcing the law, is to prevent it from becoming like these countries, where it is so widespread it is unstoppable.

In many areas of the US, though, you can find people selling DVDs on streetcorners, since those tend to sell well and are easily made. It is much more uncommon to see someone selling cds of ISOs or having a downgrader kiosk in the mall.

Lately, I must admit, I have seen an influx of nintendo ripoff systems being sold in the malls, where it plugs into the tv and has maybe 50/75 NES roms, with like 10 hacked versions of mario. All of them are poorly worded with engrish, and shoddily made.

To those that think they lose 1% in sales due to piracy. Wake up. they are losing much more than that.
PSP is controllable, with firmware updates, so they may only be losing a small amount there, but PS1/PS2 and sony's extensive DVD and CD selections are hurting them a lot more than people realize.

I really dont care if someone wants to pirate media. just dont justify it. You are more or less stealing a game/movie/song. Period.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21

Nothing anyone can really do about it. They don't have laws protecting software.

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » isn't there interpol --hahaha

----> what the f*%$ man ???

You said:
The first thing the kind man did was to make sure I had a 1.50, which I did

And then you are saying
he upgraded and then dowgraded to 1.5
what the hell man, why the f*** is he upgrading then downgrading? is he an philipo idioto?

I wouldn't have any bastard lay his hands on my psp, especially in a third world country.

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   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » I'm Filipino, and...

here in the Philippines, you can get all the best games for the ps2 for $2 or less just 5 days after its official release. for the PSP games, I've already seen dvds full of ISOs.. The pirates here don't really have the latest downgraders and other programs, so I don't think it's safe to have them downgrade your psp for ya. Just thinking of some pirate holding my psp makes me wanna cry. Mr. Dan E., in what city here in the phils. is the mall you went to?

   by Anonymous Coward (Unregistered) - 2006-04-21
 » here

its the same in south wales there are places like that that pop up from time to time and no one really cares

   by hAiLiE - 2006-04-21
 » thoughts on piracy

II have always been a strong advocate of anti-piracy...until I took up communication theories at school. The thing is, yes, piracy is bad in that it steals a part of the publisher/developer/producer's cut in the sales. But the truth is, whatever piracy steals is a very minimal cut. See, piracy's target is not the 'normal' target of the original CD/VCD/DVD/games being sold in the market. Pirated stuff usually appeals to those who cannot afford the original; and rarely does the 'can-affords' opt to buy pirated copies. Hence, there's so little percentage being taken away from the origianl sales. And piracy is even good for the media and entertainment industry. With the low prices for the CD/VCD/DVD/games, media and entertainment reach the market that they fail to touch with their unbelievably high price. So if you love your CD/VCD/DVD/games but can't afford the real one, I say go and purchase the pirated ones. It's not gonna hurt (much) the industry anyway. ^__^

"what you gonna do, it aint against the law over there, so techinically they are doing nothing wrong :P"

FYI: There is an anti-piracy law in the Philippines. We even have what we call OMB (Optical Media Board), which is soooo stupid because they always go after the small fishes in the piracy world and fail to catch the big ones. This is because they really don't want to crush piracy...they just formed the group for media attention - just so the government can pretend that it's doing something important. Rawr. >_



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