December 13^th, 2002 (12:00am) - An amateur PS2 developer is up in arms after discovering that his Naplink software has allegedly been copied to disc and sold without his permission.
Andrew Kieschnik, a member of the Napalm group who wrote Naplink, reports that the illegal disc also infringes the copyright of Datel’s DVD Region X disc.

Naplink allows you to download executable code from a PC to a PS2, using a USB cable. Because the legitimate version of Andrew’s program requires a mod-chipped machine (you need to burn your own CD), it’s been restricted to the "homebrew" community. These devoted hobbyists are creating their own software to run on modified PS2’s, for example retro game emulators and even Mp3 players are now available.

The illegal Naplink CD has been edited to display the text ’Hacked By Paul’ on the main screen. Andrew says he believes that the culprit is Paul Herbert, an employee of Future Console Design (FCD), an English subsidiary of Fire International. According to Andrew, the Naplink CD has been pressed and published by a Hong Kong company called Success, which he says is affiliated with FCD. Success also sell mod chips and "backup" carts.

"We have been able to examine one of these discs and have learned that Success have employed (stolen may be accurate here) the file layout AND protection scheme that Datel uses on their DVD Region X 2.0 disc," says Andrew. "The transparent plastic inner ring on the Naplink disc even says ’DVD REGION X VERSION 2.0’!"

He adds: "It is astonishing that this circle of companies could demonstrate such a blatant disregard for copyrights and licences. We have no choice but to recommend that the public AVOID doing business with these unscrupulous companies."

At the time of writing, Success has not replied to any e-mails that Andrew has sent them.

A spokesman for Datel said: "We take all reports of intellectual property theft very seriously, and will bring the full force of the law on any company found to be flouting international copyright laws by copying our products," said Datel’s spokesman. "We are following this case with interest, and will be referring the matter to our legal department."