Just an idea thats been running through my head!

[antime]

Ooh, I feel silly now. The modchip then probably just eats up the validation request and returns an "OK" to the SH1. But I still don't understand why there aren't tons of pirate discs with the logo present. Trademark infringement might be easier to prosecute, but if you're selling pirate copies for a living that shouldn't matter much, should it?

 

[ExCyber]

Ooh, I feel silly now.

In all likelihood, I probably only recognized it due to what I already knew about the SCD boot process. Anyway, I like to content myself with the notion that the people who write patents in such ridiculously confusing and generic (can't risk minor variations not being covered by their shiny new government-granted monopoly, you know) language are the ones being silly, and I misinterpret them because I'm trying to be reasonable.

But I still don't understand why there aren't tons of pirate discs with the logo present.

Probably because it is/was trivial to get a mod in markets where silvers are/were popular, so it's not something they really needed to bother with. Path of least resistance and all.

Trademark infringement might be easier to prosecute, but if you're selling pirate copies for a living that shouldn't matter much, should it?

In theory, it increases the damage that Sega could do to a company by taking them to court. I suppose it's entirely possible that is also meant to be difficult to copy, even though I didn't see anything in the patent to suggest that.