An article on SecurityFocus heralds the coming of the book Hacking the Xbox: An Introduction to Reverse Engineering.

What makes the self-publication of this book by hacker/author Andrew Shane Huang of interest to an audience broader than the hacker community is the fuss over whether Microsoft will attempt to stop the publication under the DMCA, or take other similar action.

Huang, of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has done his undergraduate and PhD studies at MIT and has a fascinating list of projects he's done over the years.

The question of the future of this book became uncertain when the publisher (John Wiley & Sons withdrew their plans to publish the book after the manufacturer of "mod chips" for the Xbox was sentenced to a jail term.

Huang is now publishing the book himself and is selling it on his web site. It's sad that the political and legal climate has gone this far awry from our essential freedoms (remember The Constitution?), but perhaps by helping the process through purchasing a copy or two, we can encourage the freedom to express (even unpopular) ideas