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Ah, I see what you did there... Your original DMCA against ConsoleMods alleged distribution, not just circumvention. Yet you’re now saying: “That claim wasn’t for distribution; it was circumvention.” So which is it? Because: The Tepache article did not distribute your firmware. You’ve now conceded that distribution takedowns were sent elsewhere, but you still targeted ConsoleMods, even though there was no distribution involved. That makes your takedown knowingly false, a misuse of the DMCA. Circumvention is not covered under §512 DMCA takedowns unless it includes actual copyrighted content or violates access control mechanisms under the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provisions and your firmware was published under a GPLv2 label, not protected by TPMs or encrypted systems. The firmware files were at one point distributed freely as recovery XBE's, and were used with an item you willingly sold. There was no additional encryption to break through these files and it was as simple as unpacking said distributions. On top of that, GPLv2 does not prohibit modification in fact, it explicitly allows it. The only thing it requires is compliance with distribution terms, and you yourself didn’t meet them when publishing binaries without source. So again: ConsoleMods didn’t distribute your firmware. You issued a DMCA anyway. Now you're trying to reframe the takedown post-hoc as a circumvention issue. That’s not legal clarification. That’s abuse of copyright enforcement tools to silence criticism and maintain control. GPLv2 requires compliance to retain rights, but the burden of compliance is also on the distributor, not just the user. If you, as the copyright holder, offered binaries under GPLv2 without source that’s your own license violation, not the user's. So the logic of: “they weren’t compliant, so the license didn’t exist” …is invalid. You can’t grant a license, then claim it never existed because you didn’t meet your own obligations. "Nothing changed besides a single line of text" Removing the GPL statement was a material change, meant to alter the perception of licensing. You force-pushed to erase license claim after people began invoking it. Intent matters here.. If you were simply correcting a typo, there would’ve been: A clarification comment in the commit A README note A LICENSE file update But instead it was stealth removed via force push after a legal trigger, and then binaries were taken down later. "The two repos are separate" This is disingenuous. The GPL statement was in the hd-plus repo, a repo you clearly stipulated as a hub for the entire project in this reddit thread, and the binaries were hosted in the hd-plus-app repo both under your GitHub account, clearly connected by naming, intent, and linked purpose. Per the GPLv2: Distributing binaries obligates you to offer corresponding source The binary distribution happened, even if across a related repo That means the license was active and enforceable at the time “As copyright holder, I can clarify how the license applies” This is very misleading. You can clarify intent, but you cannot revoke rights already granted under GPLv2. Quoting Section 4 of GPLv2: “You may not copy, modify, sublicense, or distribute the Program except as expressly provided under this License. Any attempt otherwise... is void, and will automatically terminate your rights under this License.” That includes your rights if you distribute a binary and don’t accompany it with source. That’s a GPL violation on your part, not an excuse to say others never had rights. Furthermore, you state you have no idea what XKUtils is and that is extremely hard to believe considering what you do. It was used in nearly every single homebrew during the height of Xbox modding, and is even included in a repo you forked, on your companies GitHub, of XBMC4Xbox. Which by your logic, is illegal code because it was written using the XDK. As I stated repeatedly, the multiple times this kind of activity has happened in the past, you or one of your friends had decided to be smug and use lose fitting language to try and control a narrative, or attack a project that they *also worked on* to garner brownie points and favor with you.. All if this boils down to marketing, shady use of enforcement, and trying to silence a community that's been established because they won't follow your rules.

More deceit and misleading statements from LMHz. My tweet they show was a response to this: I don't know why or how they're viewing the tweets out of order (more creative doctoring?), but my response about the threat of a lawsuit was about this forum, not about whatever they're pretending I'm talking about. Finally we agree on something, misleading people isn't right, LMHz should stop doing it, especially in the statement above. The DMCA takedowns I was referring to were against Consolemods and every other site they sent a fraudulent DMCA takedown demand regarding something they DO NOT have a copyright to. Consolemods was not the first. "To be clear, I have no legal issue with Harcroft or OX_HD as a product. My concerns are with specific individuals associated with the project. Either directly or not." Again LMHz says they don't have a legal complaint about OX_HD but they continue even on this forum today to make vague statements with literally no evidence to back them up. Nobody ever said LMHz made a legal complaint about Op_enX_HD. LMHz is using this as a straw man argument to continue to push civil complaints they know have no basis in reality. Who exactly are your concerns about? I have made it abundantly clear that it is my project and no specific individuals you refuse to elaborate on are associated with it. This is another completely duplicitous comment by LMHz. Here, today they are saying the concerns are with specific individuals associated with the project. On their blog post (still up today) they specifically claim Op_enX_HD is at attempt to clone HD+ and several other things that they know as a matter of fact are not true. By the logic of their statement everyone who's ever looked at a picture of Op_enX_HD, offered an idea, read about it in text, or heard about it in any way is "associated with it." Their argument is a logcal fallacy, it's an impossible goal post used to excuse continued harassment and deceit. This is a screenshot they are hosting as evidence that Op_enX_HD is a clone of HD+. LMHz can't have it both ways. Either they are lying and claiming it's an attempt to clone their product (which they're avoding saying now), or they are lying and saying there are concerns about people they refuse to name or mention that they know are not associated with the project. Both scenarios have the same ramifications, they are lying. "I’ll do my best to respond, but I want to keep this on the topic of the theft of our work. It’s difficult to have any kind of civil or productive conversation when false claims about us are still being pushed without actually addressing the core issues." Of course LMHz does not want to discuss their false allegations and continued lies about myself and Op_enX_HD. Avoiding those subjects would absolve them of having to either admit that they were mistaken, or willfully deceived the community. LMHz claims they posted here to clear the confusion, but they refuse to do so when it comes to their false statements about Op_enX_HD. They refuse to clear up any "confusion" about their extremely direct statement that "Public reverse engineering of Xb_oxH_D+ continues to guide its development." Again, they can't have it both ways. Either they made false and defamatory statements, or they're claiming individuals that they refuse to mention are tainting the project. The malicious, defamatory and completely false claims about Op_enX_HD and myself are a core issue. The fact that they're pretending it's not shows how they have no intention of entering this "Clearing up the confusion" conversation in good faith. As I stated in my first response, it's impossible to have civil discourse when one party is deceitful. Every single screenshot, especially the doctored/cropped images from my first post shows their clear effort to mislead everyone who looks at their blog post, as well as misleading the members of their discord server, and the XboxDev discord server. This will be my last comment on the scrubbed license as LMHz will always find another lie to try to cover the one before it. There are dozens of screenshots of LMHz going back 4 years ago saying their HD+ is open source or will be fully open sourced shortly after release. You don't do a discreet force push to clear things up, you do a proper PR with a note to show the reason for the push. One more lie in a long series. No PR info, just a line removal. That speaks for itself. LMHz still refuses to link to a single file or single line of code in PrometheOS to show any theft of VSC unlocks. Here I'll help: https://github.com/Team-Resurgent/Prome theOS-Firmware/blob/main/Prome theOSXbe/Prome theOSXbe/hddVscUnlocker.cpp https://github.com/Team-Resurgent/Prome theOS-Firmware/blob/main/Prome theOSXbe/Prome theOSXbe/hddVscUnlocker.h Show us. They can't, because what they are claiming is there, isn't there. As for victory and compromise. There is no victory. LMHz has an agenda to discredit projects and products they arbitrarily deem are tainted, especially my project which they know to be clean. They speak duplicitous and avoid the concerns that their comments are defamatory and deceitful. The damage is done, LMHz has spread false claims about myself and Op_enX_HD across the internet unchecked and refused to even engage in communication about their lies. The only compromise can be LMHz deleting any mention of myself and Op_enX_HD in the blog post, posting on every discord and social media they have lied (or were mistaken) about myself and Op_enX_HD on, that is not a clone, is not "tainted by association", and to stop the continued attacks and deceit about myself and my work. On my end I fully expect xbox7887, Ryzee119, Dtomcat, multiple of LMHz's customers who are watching the project, and anyone else LMHz considers a friend to immediately expose me for any efforts remotely close to what LMHz accuses me of doing. They have not this thus far because none of what LMHz claims I did ever happened.

I'm not sure what XKUtils is, but I'm assuming it's related to some tool for unlocking and/or creating new drives? Unlocking the drive with the EEPROM key is not what the discussion is about. It's about the logic for recovery of the HDD key over the IDE bus without the EEPROM that was stolen from Project S_tellar. That claim wasn't for distribution; it was circumvention. Distribution claims were also submitted at the same time to various website that were hosting the firmware at the time. This is covered here. The license was not removed and nothing in the repo changed besides the single line of text that was confusing to the person that reported it to us. The xbox-hd-plus and xbox-hd-plus-app are separate repositories. GPLv2 is a conditional license. Rights are only granted if its terms are followed. Section 3 states: As the copyright holder, I have the right to clarify how the license applies and any rights under the GPL depend entirely on compliance. If that compliance never existed, neither did the license. --- The idea that "it's GPL, so theft is fine" is an odd one, especially when the license doesn't even exist.

Yes I think so. I have a third party controller so I'll give it a go some time.

I want Dvd2xbox to work with my dashboard network (DHCP) setting. In the "user manual" it says you can select between "dash" "dhcp" or "static" from the dvd2xbox.xml file. The only thing that shows up for network is "IP:0.0.0.0" And if you try Settings > Network it freezes. Inside the xml it says you should leave the network settings as is if you wish dvd2xbox to make use of your dashboard network settings. Someone knows how to make this work with the dashboard settings ?

Thanks for the update. I do have a question, One issue the older versions of Xblast had was Xblast not working with 3rd party controllers. Is there anything that could be done to improve compatibilty if the user doesnt have an official Microsoft controller?

Is it an official game or homebrew?

This is devolving into the same circular what ifs, selective interpretations, and ongoing abuse of the GPL we've seen for five years all for personal gain, advertising, and marketing. "Clones" and the DMCA In your article, you mention going after clones. Fair enough. But the DMCA against ConsoleMods was false. They didn't distribute your firmware in the Tepache article. How do I know that for certain? I wrote it. Tepache was a meme, a play on the SEM tutorial already circulating. It's named after a homemade fermented pineapple drink. You do not have the right to stop anyone who purchases your hardware, from modifying your hardware. This is literally what your flagship product does, to others. Its hypocrisy. GPL Misuse You now claim the GPL label applied to the KPATCH. But.. You ignored a request for source code back in 2021: https://archive.is/UHKWH After the SEM tutorial and Tepache gained attention, you force-pushed a commit that removed all GPL markings: https://archive.is/GOZVH This conveniently fueled your supporters' shifting justifications: First it was a "typo" despite GPL text being present for years. Then, when that didn't hold up, the claim became: “no source was ever released.” Binary Licensing and GPLv2 You clearly stated on the repository that the firmware was released under GPLv2. That’s a binding grant of license including for binaries. Under GPLv2, you cannot retroactively revoke or relicense software you've already distributed. That includes binaries. Section 3 explicitly covers object code/executables, and once distributed under GPLv2, those terms cannot be undone. You didn’t pull the binaries until two months later: https://archive.is/HKBWo By removing GPL markings, deleting binaries after the fact, and refusing source code requests, you're in clear violation of the GPL both in letter and in spirit. You didn’t clarify, you didn’t correct, and you didn’t comply. You only claimed it was a "typo" once someone actually tried to exercise the rights you granted. You also keep saying nobody is addressing you, Team Resurgent addressed you clear as day in their answer. The used GPL code, they added the license to said GPL code. As for the unlocking stuff (I'm not a representative of TR, and was asked to not speak on this further so I wont continue down that rabbit hole again) that same function can be found in XKUtils from the early 2000's so again, you're trying to claim ownership of shared functions for a shared purpose that will likely have similar assembly when used.

Both releases are closed source. That is Project S_tellar and the PrometheOS build in question; which would also include the later source code releases of a different version. But the disassembled code speaks for itself. That trying to say the exact same random delay lengths, in the exact same pattern, in the same functions, etc is absurd. Every part of that is random and unique to S_tellar, but it's appears exactly the same in the PrometheOS build. The blog post is long, but it's worth a read all the way through. It outlines everything and tries to leave no doubt on how we got here. Cerbios is just closed source. But the same PrometheOS logic applies. --- And none of the developers are addressing it. We just want what was stolen from us removed. We're making progress though. We've gone from Cerbios and PremetheOS "hasn't taken anything from M_akeMHz" to at least partial accountability with PrometheOS. Even if this still breaks the license and does not attribute what was taken; it's still the right step. But again, I'm not here to argue the finer points of open source licensing when closed source works are not accounted for.

Hi OGXbox Admin, If it’s okay, I’d really like to say a few words as a neutral bystander and as a member of this awesome community. I completely understand if this post isn’t allowed or doesn’t get approved by the OGXbox admin. I really do. It’s just something that’s been on my mind for the past few days, and I felt the need to say it. Not to add fuel to any fire, but simply because I care about this community and what it stands for. I’m not here to stir the pot or take sides just to share some thoughts from the heart, if that’s allowed. I’ve been part of this forum and the OG Xbox scene for quite a while now, and it’s always been a place where people come together to share knowledge, build cool things, and help each other out. It’s something I’ve really valued. That’s why it’s honestly sad to see how much division there is right now. Discussions and differences are normal even healthy but it feels like we’re being pulled apart instead of working things out. I don’t know all the facts and I’m not pretending to. But I truly hope we can shift the focus back to what really matters: our shared love for the xbox, collaboration, and mutual respect. Let’s not tear each other down let’s build something great together. This community has so much potential, and it would be a shame to lose that over conflict and misunderstandings. I still believe in what this scene stands for. Hopefully, we can all find common ground again. Thanks for letting me speak. Thanks either way for taking the time to read this. Admiralehab

As of right now the big questions I still have are those I don't think I'll be able to get answers to. Why? It would require exposing the very code in question in order to prove who created it. I DO NOT WANT THIS CODE. I don't want to be on the suspect list of a potential leak. Don't give it to me. Not that anyone would, but I just want to make that clear. If someone could figure out how to prove whether the above is true or not, it would end the entire thing... and that's what we should be looking for. It might be fun for everyone to be at each other's throats, but I've been following this for what? 2 days. I'm tired boss. lol I wish I had shut this site down years ago. These are the specific points I would need someone to provide proof of so I could gain any clarity. It seems the entire debate hinges here. Given the unlikely nature of anyone giving this up, I'm afraid I've arrived at the same stalemate everyone else has. I apologize if I've wasted time. I was overconfident in my ability to get to the bottom of things. All along I've wondered why everyone is so confident in their position. LMHz is confident his code was stolen. The people he has accused are confident in their positions based on their rebuttals. I have been unable to wrap my head around everyone being so confident in their position. Usually people consider all the negative ramifications of conflicts such as this EVEN IF THEY ARE RIGHT. That just doesn't seem to be happening here. Everyone believes they are the victim and nobody admits to any fault. Usually everyone has a little bit of fault even if they are mostly victims. Edit: I forgot to finish my thought in the final sentance: Which is why people COMPROMISE.

thanks in advance for any help

Hey everyone, I’ve been diving into some classic OG Xbox games, and I came across FreeCell Solitaire. I know it’s a simple game, but I’m curious, why is it still such a popular choice on the console? Is there something about the OG Xbox version that makes it stand out compared to playing it on a PC or other platforms? Also, does anyone have tips for making the most out of the experience or any memories of playing it on the OG Xbox? Would love to hear your thoughts on this old-school gem!

@OGXbox Admin right now I'm focused on what's in my write-up as it highlights the more important parts. It's a lot of information and I don't believe I can copy and paste it all here. There's a couple of questions you have though that are not covered in the write up though. I'll answers those really quick. X_boxHD+ Runtime This is software from X_boxHD+. Released around the begining of 2020. It's about 4,700 lines of code, but obviously a lot less once compiled. The work was copied to Cerbios and first appeared in the v2.3.2 release on December 31st 2023. It appears to represent the full work. This would also include PrometheOS as it uses the Cerbios BIOS in it's releases. HDD Unlocking This is software from Project S_tellar. Released on December 29, 2023. It's about 1,000 lines of code, but obviously a lot less once compiled. The work was copied to PrometheOS and first appeared in PrometheOS V1.2.0 on February 25, 2024. It appears to represent the full work. CPU Upgrade Support I'm cautious to go into the full details here as it seems Cerbios does not fully understand how this works and it appears only the core of it has been copied and made available. The sample I studied is the v2.4.2, but it could apply to previous releases either via Cerbios directly or PrometheOS. Everything else in the article is provide for context. I started researching this a week before the article was published. I've heard rumors that the X_boxHD+ and Steller were being reverse engineered, but never looked into it until then. This was after the constant claim that I was fabricating that these "projects are based on the stolen work of others". --- At some point, the authors of the stolen work need to respond. Ultimately, it’s up to them to refute the evidence that’s been presented.

Legend

@LoveMHz Ok. Thank you for that clarification. Could you please detail with as much specificity as possible exactly what software you're alleging has been copied or parts of it have been copied? If I can narrow that down to a file or two (I don't need filename per se but just something that distinguishes it would suffice.) I could start to make sense of what is at issue. What I need is: Product name / Creation date of said code / software or firmware? (choose one) / entire code or partial code? (choose one) / How many lines are in the original work? / How many lines do we believe were copied? / To where was it copied? (Name of alleged "product" that contains alleged unauthorized code use.) / when this copy was done or when you discovered it. I am trying to piece this all together.

I’ll do my best to respond, but I want to keep this on the topic of the theft of our work. It’s difficult to have any kind of civil or productive conversation when false claims about us are still being pushed without actually addressing the core issues. To be clear, I have no legal issue with Harcroft or O_XHD as a product. My concerns are with specific individuals associated with the project. Either directly or not. --- As for the GitHub repository that was linked. Yes, that is correct. This part of the project is shared as CERN OHL. The kpatch firmware source was shared under GPLv2, and it still is. That hasn't changed. --- At one point, someone mentioned that the sentence "Firmware is shared under GPLv2." was unclear. It was removed for clarity, not to retroactively change the license. For further context: the GitHub repo never included the on-device firmware for X_boxHDMI or X_boxHD+, in either source or binary form. --- Regarding open source: My long-term goal has always been to open source all of my projects, including S_tellar. And despite everything, that’s still the plan. But saying “I do not expect LMHz to open source anything” ignores the fact that every major release of Project S_tellar has included meaningful open source contributions to the community. I’ll fully admit and apologize for the delay in making more of the work public. But what I’m asking for is some perspective. From the beginning, there have been bad actors who think it’s okay to take our work without permission. That makes it much harder to confidently move forward with releasing more. Respect for open source also requires respect for closed source. Without that baseline, open collaboration becomes significantly harder.

@LoveMHz Do you dispute the validity of the github link above? Help me understand your position better please.

What I want and what would be fair are in two entirely different reams. LMHz absolutely owes an apology for every single comment they made that they knew to be false. LMHz absolutely should delete every reference to myself, Skye and Eaton on their blog post. LMHz absolutely should post a retraction and apology regarding myself, Skye and Eaton on their blog. I expect and honestly have no want for any of these things. LMHz made their choices and they can live with them. I also do not expect LMHz to open source anything for their modchip when they have already deceitfully released a product (HD+) as OS, scrubbed the license discreetly to try to revoke it https://github.com/MosesofEgypt/xbox-hd-plus The original license can be seen here. I posted that screenshot as another data point in the pattern of deceit I detailed in my first response, not to get them to behave differently.

After reading your entire post AND reading LMHZ comments regarding your project on this forum, it seems as though he is agreeing with you now. It seems in the past damage may have been done between you two, but from what I can tell right now, nobody disputes your work on OXHD being original. If I'm wrong then so be it but I don't see anything other than old things you provided. At this moment in time, I think your work regarding OXHD is unquestioned in its uniqueness and validity. As far as the screenshot you provided that said "everything would be open source at some point." I found that most interesting and thought about it for a long time. Then I did some research. Do you believe you or anyone else was deceived into collaborating with LMHZ at that time into providing work you believed would be open source, only to have it be closed source, used for an official product, and the contributor uncredited? If yes, that screenshot and said collaboration can be proven it has a LOT of merit. If no, it has none. Here's why: It doesn't give a firm commitment nor does it give a timeline. Everyone has the right to change their mind. If he were to wait until he was on his deathbed to make it open source, he has complied with that non-binding statement in his post. It just has no teeth unless someone can make the argument that their work was used for profit without their permission due to deceptive practices. It seems you want a public apology from LMHZ. I think if everything you say is true then that would be reasonable... however. Calling someone a liar repeatedly publicly won't help that. Few people in the world would do that. It could be seen as discrediting his other claims as though he could be wrong on them as well. (I would disagree. I think it would actually strengthen those claims because if you're willing to admit you're wrong when faced with proof, then when you won't admit you're wrong it is strong evidence that you are not wrong.) Extremely few people publicly apologize and admit they made a mistake.

I do not feel for a moment that you are attacking me. You may have seen my sympathetic response for your original lockdown post. I respect the extremely difficult position you are in. You didn't choose for clone devices to be posted on your site, you didn't choose for a user to issue you legal threats in order to control what speech is allowed. Rest assured though, if you are under the thumb of a single user based on legal threats like this, that will be the death knell for the forum. Controlling speech leads directly to controlling thought. The message is clear. The only Xbox HDMI talk allowed to be talked or thought about in the entire retro community is about a product by LMHz. I am not here to play for a mock trial. I am here to offer screenshots and links to facts. I have done that. I have displayed a clear pattern of deceit by LMHz. LMHz keeps posting vague accusations without any evidence. Believe them if you want. My experience tells me to not believe a single word they type. If you feel my post isn't safe to host on your site, you have every reason and right to delete it and I respect that. Thank you for giving me the opportunity to show the pattern of attacks, deceit and libel.

I apologize if it seems like I'm attacking you. I'm NOT. Right now everyone feels that if you're not on their side then you are against them and siding with someone else. I don't side with anyone. Who has ever sided with me? Lol... I'm only trying to make this productive. If this were a trial and you were called to the stand, you can't just keep calling someone a liar. They won't allow it. You can have facts to back it up, but everyone else has to reach that conclusion on their own. That is ALL I'm taking issue with. Name-calling even if you believe it is justified only serves to ignite the fuel that is already abundant around this topic.

Please show me exactly where I made any single insulting remark. Literally every word was backed up by facts. If you feel anything specifically is too harsh, please give me the ability to edit it for longer than normal tonight and I will make efforts to be less direct. I provided screenshots for everything I said. Anything you might be missing would be on my twitter posts about the OS video board project I can't name. I blocked several users so they could not keep posting hateful comments about MMHz/LMHz on my posts. I literally bullied the owner of a site called SourPineapples to take their site down off the internet as I felt it used my work in an unfair way to attack and belittle LMHz. I have been civil for over a year and a half. I have sustained all the attacks shown above, and more from LMHz that I don't have screenshots of. I have reached out in good faith. Friends of mine, customers of MMHz, friends of LMHz have reached out to them to tell them that he is dead wrong about the project. Months after explaining to xbox7887 why I chose the specific microtroller I did (to make it extremely difficult for an end user to switch it to use the HD+ MCU) I placed a populated 1.04 board in his hands. His exact words were "Yeah this is Ryzee's board." I have literally made every effort I can do not only do things cleanly, but to share that I am doing things cleanly. I have burned countless bridges with users who tried to get Op_enX_HD to be another HD+ clone. This isn't a matter of opinions. This is a matter of facts. MMHz chooses to ignore reality and continually attacks me and my work with libelous comments and blog posts that can't be interacted with. They have literally doctored screenshots to mislead the viewer into seeing falsehoods. I urge you to read my full response and Skye's full response on the X-S forum. We are extremely clear and direct about everything LMHz falsely accuses us of. We both include private screenshots of conversations that led up to VSC discoveries. I did not, and am not speaking on behalf of TR because I am not part of TR. LMHz' complaints about them have nothing to do with me. My concerns are the blatant lies and misleading comments regarding myself and Op_enX_HD. LMHz themselves have said they don't have a legal issue with the project. This is an admission they know there is nothing nefarious going on with my work. Yet they choose to lie, slander, libel, attack, the work and myself unfettered. Edit: The one good thing coming from all this is LMHz has angered enough of the community that people are actively contacting me to find out how they can contribute to the codebase. Being the sole source of the current hardware design this gives me control over who can and can't contribute. If I start to see anything underhanded I can remove that contributor from the project.

I don't mean to discount anything... but I'm trying to get to the bottom of this. I'm trying to (albeit with very limited knowledge) pretend as though I'm the judge in this case and how I might rule. (not outwardly. I know I have no authority in the grand scheme of things. I'm talking about in my mind to try to determine who is right.) The judge will view the case in the light most favorable to the plaintiff to test and see if it has merit. If I were that judge, I'd first ask for the timeline of when the code first existed and concrete PROOF of WHEN that was, then who created it. Only then is there a case. All of this he said/she said back and forth and character assaults don't matter. The ONLY thing that matters is the timeline and PROOF of it and who created what. Once that is established, this all becomes clear. Until then, it's just a mudslinging circle jerk... one that I'm attempting to avoid. @Harcroft - I can tell you feel passionate about what you say but given that this very easily could go to court I was hoping to keep all of the insulting remarks out of this and stick to JUST the facts. It can only cause the thread to devolve or become ignored. This is tearing up the community at present and it would be extremely beneficial to sort it all out and put it all to rest rather than continue character assaults etc. I understand that both sides feel as though character assaults are happening to them. It's happening to me too. We just have to stop caring about that. What other people think of any of us truly does not matter. Their opinions do not matter. The facts and the truth is what matters. Let's sort this out prior to any lives being needlessly ruined during litigation. If you've seen the leaked screenshots of my chat you know I cannot afford to be sued. I simply cannot afford the representation and even though I don't believe I have any liability to this point, I'd like to end this. So EVERYONE please, let's keep it civil. Let's get to the bottom of this once and for all. Establish your timeline and provide FACTS you created what you created since both parties are claiming credit. Whoever can PROVE what they say is the victor and gets their way. Whoever CANNOT or DOES not prove that, obviously cannot prove what they say and that also puts this whole thing to bed. Let's act like adults and get this over with once and for all.

I'll start with I know this is a giant waste of time. I know even when clear proof of deceit and wrongdoing is shown, LMHz will never admit to being wrong, he will double own, and lie more, feign ignorance, and pretend the proof does not exist. I am used to this and would expect nothing different. With that being said, here we go. Two people can not have a civil discourse if one party is dishonest. This is exactly why I do not communicate with you directly anymore. LMHz, there is one single glaring issue with your post here, one long standing commonly repeated problem with literally any words from you. You are a liar. You are deceitful. I do not mean you may have accidentally misspoken, or incorrectly commented on something you didn't fully understand. I mean you seem to be incapable of writing literally anything truthfully; whether it's a forum post, a blog post, a discord comment in a public or private server. a marketing post on your site, a marketing post on social media. Every single interaction I have had with you, every single interaction I have seen you have with the Xbox community you have either tried to deceive the community somewhat covertly, or you have directly and overtly lied. I am not saying this to attack you, this is something you have shown again and again to the entire retro gaming community. I'm not going to get into details about when you held customer orders for more than 6 months so they couldn't do a chargeback, while ignoring customer inquiries about shipping. I'm not going to get into details about you promising features on your modchip that either get pulled, or show up years later than promised, despite still advertising those features as currently supported on your website. I'm not going to get into details about the many times you claimed features on your modchip are the first of their kind while they have existed in the Xbox homebrew community for well over a decade. I'm not going to get into the details about how you released your firmware under a GPLv2 license, never posted the source, then tried to hide you scrubbing the license from GitHub when you found someone (not myself) was trying to clone your hardware with the intent to use the firmware you lied about being open source. No, instead of focusing on the above things you have absolutely done and are well documented on Github, Reddit, trustpilot.com, etc, I'm going to focus on my direct interactions with you and the times you lied about me and my projects. January 10, 2023 I had a discussion with you and Redherring32 on the Insignia discord server about needing a replacement for XLAST for my Xbox Live data preservation work. You claimed every tool in the XDK had an open source replacement. That simply was not true.The only way I was able to get any answer out of either of you was to answer the question for you based on your unwillingness to be honest and/or direct. The conversation ended with you claiming you were "...just trying to put that into motion." That was a lie. Bonus points for lying about open sourcing any components of your modchip. These things are extremely minor, so lets move onto more important matters. "I do not believe this rule was aimed at O_XHD. We have no legal issue with that project." You have no legal claim against Op_enX_HD because you know it is clean, free from any inspiration from your hardware. You just have many, many lies to tell about the project and myself to discredit it and mislead anyone who reads your words about it's clean development. Lets begin: Early December 2023, on this very forum there was a huge amount of drama regarding hardware that I completely agree appeared to be a clone of your video output board. Instead of joining in to a pointless battle, I in good faith started working on Ryzee119's HDMI concept board to try to bring it to completion. https://github.com/Ryzee119/Xbox_HDMI-Ryzee119 The goal of this was to give the entire community/scene an outlet. Somewhere to focus their energy positively instead of continuing with you feud between yourself/your friends and Nemesis. This worked! It worked for a while anyway. Tensions simmered down, people stopped talking about the Nemesis vs MMHz drama. December 25, 2023 I announced I was working on Ryzee119's HDMI board on Twitter. By then the community had nicknamed it Op_enX_HD. https://x.com/OGX_Harcroft/status/1739303743538037205 On this post, and every post I made about Op_enX_HD after it about your customers told me the way you treated them, or they outright attacked you as a person and a business. I asked every single one of these people to refrain from commenting about you and their terrible experiences with you on my twitter posts as I felt that it was both unfair to you as a person, and unfair to tie your product to this Open Source project regardless if it was positive or negative. I made many shows of good faith toward you during this time. The regular slander back from you proved my good faith gestures were a waste of time and effort. December 29th, 2023, after hearing from GrimDoomer and xbox7887 how gaasedelen engineered HDD VSC unlocks for stock xbox HDDs on an Xbox, and how he gave the code to you many months earlier, you finally released it. https://make*m*hz.com/blogs/news/project-ste**ar-firmware-update-1-4-0 Unfortunately as usual you were deceitful in your marketing. You tried to make it seem the only way to unlock a hard drive with an unknown key was buying your modchip. You also claimed "This is what preservation looks like with Project Ste**ar!" Of course the timing here is suspicous, but that's not the greater issue. This is the one and only time you have mentioned preservation publicly. You used something very important to the future of the Xbox community (especially Insignia), something I happen to be knowledgeable about, as a marketing gimmick. You tried to deceive the community into buying more of your modchips in the process, all falsely in name of preservation. I literally congratulated you on the achievement, and informed owners of your modchip that it was something they could do. It is extremely fortunate the small group of dedicated people we had already unlocking hard ohphaned drives caught other people, not customers of yours before they could scrap their hard drives because they did not want to spend that amount of money for preservation efforts. Who knows how many we missed. You also show off an impressive stack of Xbox hard drives at this time. Nobody has seen you undertake any archiving or prevervation efforts to share the contents or images from your drives publicly or privately. You used something important to the future of the Xbox community as a marketing gimmick. Lets skip forward to April and May 2024 now. You made several accusations about Op_enX_HD (aka OX HD) that you had literally no evidence, proof or even rumours to support. You just made blanket statements to try to smear and discredit the project. Op_enX_HD had no association with Cerbios, EqUiNoX, TeamFoxbox (foxbat?), Phantom as you claim. I did copy one feature for Op_enX_HD from a picture FoxBat posted which can still be seen on their github. Offset resistor arrays. Ryzee119 noticed the same picture and I was able to show him that's where I took the idea from. FoxBat borrowed/stole/copied some of my work from images and part numbers I shared in the Op_enX_HD development channel on the Xbox-Scene discord. They also used Ryzee119's schematic and your microcontroller choice. If your claim of collaboration is based on them taking my ideas, then you are just as much of a collaborator with them on their project. There was no "collaboration" as you claim. Multiple of your paying customers told you that you were wrong. You continued with the lies. The only remotely possible claim you can make to me collaborating with anyone is with Ryzee119. I did not talk about "working with others on this." Another lie. I expressed hope the firmware efforts would be a community effort in the future. Of course you attempt to misguide people into believing I said something else I did not. What team? I was the team, I had hundreds of good and bad ideas from dozens of people, and a lot of helpful advice from Ryzee119. What history of theft? Is this like when you sold a debug unit on Assemblers games, then never shipped it? I am not like you. Please explain to me exactly how Op_enX_HD was or is supposed to your firmware on completely different microcontrollers than yours. The original one Ryzee119 chose lacked a 2nd i2c interface to communicate with the Xbox. This is something you either knew, or could have very easily checked before making your baseless and malicious claims. Shorly after your deceitful and defamatory comments on May 2nd 2024, Ryzee119; someone you collaborate with, someone I know considers you a friend very specifically sent this to you on your discord server: Even if you try to excuse away your previous comments with more lies, this comment clear as day, tells you that the hardware work I was doing was not cloning your product. Later that same day I made the last good faith effort to reach out to you directly on the Insignia and VGPC discord servers, knowing full well you would ignore it, or pretend you did not see either message. I made an honest effort to reach out, clear the air, to show you I was not copying your work and intended to keep the project clean. After the message from Ryzee119 and this one you have absolutely no excuse to ever claim that my work continuing Ryzee119's project is a copy of your work, "tainted" or dirty in any way. Yet you continue to talk slander/libel the project and myself when in fact you simply did not know what was going on with the project. I went radio silent on Twitter about the project as I wanted to avoid any more drama from you. You still found a way to lie about myself and the project though. September 12th, 2024, XboxDev discord: Team Resurgent was not leading or contributing to the project. The only contribution anyone from Team Resurgent has given to the project is EqUiNoX designing a 3D model of a spacer and back cover. This occured around April 25 2025, you may notice that is over 5 months after your slander here. You would not have seen an update on the project being on hold due to technical difficulties since that simply did not exist, ever. A complete fabrication from you to once again discredit the project. Refer to my opening comments, you are a liar, you can not communicate with the community without lying. EqUiNoX responded to you on this and you did not respond. You were again informed that you had lied about the project, is anyone else seeing a pattern here? There are a few more scattered comments here and there, but let's get to the meat of it. The elephant in the room, your complete fabrication of events and alternate reality hit piece blog post: https://love*mhz.com/blog/xbox-scene-theft/ I responded to this false claim here: https://www.xbox-scene.info/forums/topic/981-truth-in-the-xbox-scene-a-united-community-response Since I know you either did not read it, or are pretending my response didn't exist, I will repeat it. "I am Harcroft. To be absolutely clear, I am not Cerbios, I am not Nemesis, I am not Foxbat, and I am not a member of Team Resurgent and am not affiliated with the development of any of their projects." You cherry picked an old screenshot from a mistake on a readme from a github repo to support your point here. This mis-credit was a mistake by Haguero/HoRnEyDvL when I was a smartass to him about not crediting me with running a bios he asked me to test. This mistake was corrected in this update, an update from August 24, 2024, ten months before your lie filled blog post. https://github.com/Team-Resurgent/CerbiosTool/commit/b687cf4e711759deaaab131f42fd294118269e09 You had to go back almost a year to try to find evidence to support your deceit. You chose to ignore reality, to push your lies again. Onto your doctoring of screenshots to again support your malicious and deceit filled blog post. This is a screenshot you included on your post. This is the rest of the conversation you chose to omit, to support your lies. I specifically say I'm not going to buy your modchip or undertake any reverse engineering efforts on it. I suggested founchki, a user with limited technical knowledge, but big ambitions about things he does not understand, go on an impossible fetch quest. Founchki directly states that he is unable to do any of the things he suggests. I later removed founchki from that discord server partially due to the constant suggesstions he made about hardware and software he did not understand. In your blog post you seem to blame me for founchki knowing something about an XBE in your modchip firmware. Once again, more comments meant to mislead the community. You also cropped out something absolutely critical: Skye talking about finding VSCs in C code, which we did with the Open Source HDD Super Tool/Clone. Again you doctored this image to lie to anyone who would read your libel piece. Skye also documented where she found more VSCs that she shared with Eaton in her response. Her response completely debunks your fraudulent claim that Eaton and/or Skye stole anything from you. In your blog post you also shared screenshots of random reddit users not affiliated with myself, Team Resurgent, or Op_enX_HD suggesting people not buy your product. You then once again mislead your audience saying: "Stop promoting the idea that an open-source HDMI mod like OX_HD is going to exist." and "Claiming OX_HD will be open source is dishonest when it depends on CERBIOS to function and is being developed alongside the same people who have cloned our work before. Public reverse engineering of Xbo_xHD+ continues to guide its development." The pattern repeats itself. You made misleading, false and malicious claims that have no basis in reality, claims you know simply are not true. I have not, will not and will never have any of your products in my posession, and believe me people did offer to send them to help with development. I have taken the hard road, designing everything myself and iterating again and again until things work. Op_enX_HD currently, today, using Ryzee119's FW functions on a stock console, or with any other bios. Cerbios is not required. There is no development like you are describing. You fail to show a screenshot, even a doctored on to support the claim that public RE's of your video product is being done publicly. Another series of complete fabrications. No reverse engineering of your products were done at all, let alone publicly. This picture was posted on the Xbox-Scene Op_enX_HD development channel on June 2nd, 2025, almost three weeks before your hit piece: This is a sample of several of the iterations of a 1.0 to 1.4 flex cable for Op_enX_HD This is not cloning, reverse engineering, copying, stealing, borrowing, or taking from your video output device in any way. This is honest, clean development work. If you had seen talk of the project being "on hold for technical difficulties" you must have seen this post too, before your fraud blog. Here's an older message from Ryzee119 that clicked in my brain between P11 and P12. Taking ideas from independent development and putting them into hardware iterations. Real development work. One of the screenshots you included on your blog as a citation while claiming Op_enX_HD would not exist was this: The pattern repeats again, you crop out my response to the user making this comment (with an early development picture from a board I never had produced). I showed the user the current board as of June 18th, 2025. You can even see the top of my message and icon in this crop. You again try to mislead the reader, albiet poorly this time. The board I displayed shows significant changes from the boards posted in the past, signs of independent development that you chose to try to conceal. Frankly I am amazed you chose that reddit post specifically to support your claim with how easy it was to expose your again misleading doctoring of images in an attempt to distort reality. You have absolutely no excuse for this veritable cornucopia of deceit. The only appropriate response from you on this subject is to recant your statements about myself, Op_enX_HD, Skye and Eaton, to apologize for the lies you have spread, for the libel you have commited on your blog, and to take down all parts of the blog post referencing myself, Skye, Eaton, and Op_enX_HD. I am not asking you to do any of this, I know better than to ask, I know you wont. You have fabricated a false reality around yourself where everyone is out to get you, meanwhile you attack and deceive the very community you want to buy products from you. Finally I will end with these points. LMHz has not once shared any actual side by side code for a number of reasons. - Doom created the VSC unlocking tools the modchip in question uses, it's possible LMHz does not even have the source code for that. - Functions that complete the same task compiled from different C code will look extremely similar in assembly. - They refuse to show any C code because they know it will not match the code shown on GitHub, likely proving it is not stolen. If LMHz is willing to blatantly lie about myself and my projects, to doctor screenshots to tell a narrative they know to be false, to mislead their customers with obvious fallacies in their marketing, to make baseless accusations about myself they know to be false so quickly, easily, and often, why would they for a moment be honest in this forum? Why would they come forward in good faith and honest intentions now, after being so willing to lie to anyone who will read their words in the past? Please forgive any typos or grammatical errors, I only have so much time to clean up a mess LMHz created. Apologies for the bad abbreviations and edits for product names and LMHz name, I had no choice if this post was allowed to be submitted at all.