The First 360 Hack!

Why is it I always find out about such things IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT?
In a typical late-night-useless-browsing session, I discover that a guy called The Specialist and some of his very clever friends have managed to hack the DVD firmware of the Xbox360!
Just 4 months after the console's debut, the team have managed to hack the DVD firmware and let it fool the console by telling it that backup DVD is actually an original. The hack is not a modchip or anything, it's just a firmware flash to the DVD hardware.
And again in true first-hack style, they've released a video "just for fun", showing an open 360 booting a backup of PGR3.
The hack doesn't allow running of homebrew/unsigned code nor of out of region discs, cos all it does is make the DVD send the "original dvdxbox360" flag to the processor.
The team have not released the hack publically, cos they don't want it to be used for piracy (ironic cos they were running a pirated game on it). Even if they did, flashing it isn't easy, you need to disassemble your console, un-solder the DVD firmware chip, read it with a chip reader to get your personal DVD key, patch the firmware with your key, flash the firmware onto the chip, and then solder it back!!!

But, this definitely opens the door to all sorts of mods/hacks/cracks and maybe even just plain simple boot disks (like the good old Dreamcast). But in all honesty all of this worries me. As much as it's appealing to play free games (instead of paying £40 a pop), if the 360 were to be hacked succesfully (and with a modchip), then 2 issues arise:

1\ most likely you couldn't go online with a modded console, just like the original xbox. To go online you had to disable the mod, usually with an external switch. That in itself ruins half the enjoyment of the 360, the whole Live! business is amazingly fun and well done, so playing a pirated game offline and missing out on all the Live! options isn't worth it IMHO.

2\ Cheating! if the modded console could go on Live! then that marks the beginning of the end for fair play. All the spotty teenagers in the world would just cheat their way to high scores, and mega kills, and all that cos cheats are bound to be released for copied games, thus rendering both online games and the online leaderboards OBSOLETE.

I guess the best thing to do is sit tight and wait, oh and watch www.xboxhacker.net, www.xbox-scene.com, and www.maxconsole.net with a hawk's eye. How much longer till they release a public method of booting pirated games (be it modchip, firmware, or bootdisc)? anyone's guess but this SoB says sometime in the next 3 months. Prove me wrong Microsoft.