Microsoft (Accidentally) Giveth, Microsoft (Intentionally) Taketh Region Code Work-a-Round Away

If a recent post I mentioned that some clever users found a way around Microsoft’s XBox 360 region-specific Market Place movie and video demo download restrictions. The trick was to take advantage of Microsoft’s free XBox Live Accounts. A user in one jurisdiction could create multiple silver-level (a.k.a. free) accounts by simply stating in the online sign up process that they live in a another download-frinedly jurisdiction. Paid movie downloads, trailers, game demos etc. would then be available available through the alternative silver-level account in jurisdictions that Microsoft did not intend.

After only weeks of being out in the wild, Microsoft has patched this work-around. Now only users that have credit cards with billing addresses that match the purported region can download content for that region. Happily Microsoft is not banning these extra accounts, they are simply restricting their access to region-coded content.

As a lawyer, this is understandable. As a user, this is sad. Having previously lived in the U.S.and having access to virtually anything the Internet can deliver, it is a very rude awaking to move back to a 2nd tier jurisdiction like Canada where so many Internet-based services are either not available, delayed, provided at higher price points or provided with less functionality. Microsoft’s new movie download service is a perfect example of this regrettable phenomena.

Presumably a Canadian with an American credit card and billing address could still circumvent the system for instance. Humm… as a holder of several U.S.-based credit cards, I wonder which of my U.S. buddies would allow me to use their address for credit card statement receipts?

Sources: TeamXbox | Major Nelson | Xbox 360 Fanboy | Hexus | Pro-G | EuroGamer | PlanetXbox | Gamasutra | Joystiq

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• Users Find Work-a-Round to Defeat 360 Marketplace Region Coding

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