In an intriguing turn of events, very contrary to the way our archaic IP law here in the USA is run, a judge in Spain has ruled that you CAN modify your Xbox any way you want. According to El Pa�, the ruling comes after the Guardia Civil charged Barcelona video games shop Innovagames with offering its clients "alteration of Play Station 2 and X-Box games consoles to allow them to read games from other parts of the world or downloaded directly from the Internet... by carrying out modification of their components as per diagrams found on the premises". (I wonder if they printed those diagrams out from Xbox-Scene?)

The loophole exists in article 270 of the penal code, which mentions "the manufacture, distribution or possession of means to crack computer programme security codes". It does not, however, cover "components of video games players nor, in general, equipment designed to run image or sound software".The judge concluded, therefore, that he must reject the Guardia Civil's case.