Slashdot Mirror
Chip a Playstation, Go to Jail
perogiex writes "A man in Ottawa was
convicted of selling and installing mod chips out
of his computer store. Sony is overjoyed, man is less than thrilled. This is the first time such a case was tried in Canada." From the article: Garby said he didn't know he was committing a crime and would have never gotten involved in selling mod chips if he had known the law. Update: 07/24 21:53 GMT by M : Headline corrected; it's clearly mod chips for the original Playstation, not the Playstation 2.
But it's rather more dubious to void your warranty by installing a chip deliberately designed to bypass copy protection and allow owners to run pirated games. Therein lies the problem for this chap...
Troll bait, but, frankly, I agree.
-Sean
Even for Slashdot, this is depressing - Slashdot paints the guy as the victim. Read the freaking story guys - this guy is part of the reason all the regulatory crap and bills are being put forth. Let's see - he sold 400+ pirated games, and installed a mod chip that did nothing more than allow pirated games to be played.
Huh? No performance increase? No fair use? Just for pirating games? And he's the victim?!?!?! He's just plain stupid - and knew exactly what he was doing. How do you not mod a PS2 to play pirated games and sell those games without knowing it's wrong???
Read the article before you post it - he should have gotten hard time. There's a big difference between a mod-chip that enhances performance and a mod-chip that facilitates an obvious crime. He deserved more than what he got and I hope they track down those modded ps2's - that kind of crap makes it harder on the rest of us who try to do what should be legitimate and fair use excepting the harrassment we get from MPAA and friends. This guy just gave them fuel for the fire to screw the rest of us. Get over your fanatisism and see crime as a crime for crying out loud!
I've seen a few japanese games, and there was no doubt in my mind that the games were morally good. I think that everybody on the earth should have a chance to control a squid that is making love to a Japanese school girl, of course, I didn't know they made these games for the PS2, might have to go buy one...
Xaotik Designs
He was convicted of selling 413 pirated video games and Playstation mod-chips.
;-)
Yes the convinction was that he was giving 413 pirated video games and taking money for mod-chip installation since installing mod-chips is not illegal. Basically, joe smith would walk into his store and purchase a mod-chip for $30 or so and then walk out of the store with 413 new games and a playstation that can play them too.
I know that there aren't 413 GAMES available for the Playstation 2!
For someone who read the article you sure didn't pay any attention to it. Never did anything once claim to even incinuate that these were PS2 games. It quite clearly stated several times that the games were for the Sony Playstation.
Sony doesn't call their Playstation 2 the PS/2, perhaps because they don't want to get sued. Does slashdot want to get sued?
You should actually read the article you claimed to have read and at least state where this PS2 stuff is coming from. Journalism here is not the problem. Illiteracy is
Jury nullification hasn't been used in like 50 years, and 20 years in between that one and the previous one. Try bringing that up in a court room or to a lawyer and watch them laugh you out of the building. Uhg.......My guess is that you don't pay income taxes "because they're unconstitutional" or don't have license plates or a registration for your car either. I know that crowd well.....Conspiracy theorist nutcases.