Re:Clarifications (Score 1)

The PS2 validates the inserted disc in hardware before software gets ahold of it. If a disc is inserted that isn't a valid PS1 or PS2 disc, the CDVD drive will simply spindown the disc and return errors on any disc access.

There was a method discovered some time ago that allows you to swap the current (valid) disc with an invalid one and boot it all the same. This requires a PS2 boot disc that was designed to facilitate this and was mostly fixed in later PS2 revisions.

So a pure software loader would be unable to access an invalid disc unless it were swapped, but there are so many obstacles there that it isn't practical to attempt that (if it would even work) with this exploit - I am not naive enough to say it isn't possible - it just isn't practical to implement or use.

I have no idea if I would get burned (as in Sony would have a valid case) legally if this were to happen with the exploit, since the flaw that enables swapping has existed since the PS2 was launched. I guess what I'm trying to say is that the exploit doesn't enable any piracy features not already present in the PS2.

The first site we always recommend is ps2dev.org. You can also find us on IRC in #ps2dev on EFNet, where we can help you get setup (if ps2dev.org or it's links aren't enough).