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Arrests Made Near D.C. Over Modded Game Consoles
multiOSfreak writes "According to this Reuters articl, two video game store employees have been arrested for modding video game consoles. From the article: 'Authorities arrested two store employees on charges of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and conspiracy to traffic in a device that circumvents technological protection measures, the ESA said.'" It's not clear from the article whether the modded consoles were sold without copies of the games which had been installed on their hard drives, which would seem to be the most important distinction between convenience for buyers and actually ripping off game makers. Update: 12/08 22:43 GMT by T : This thread on boing-boing includes a comment from a would-be customer who says (among other things) that store employees "were also preloading the XBox systems with tons of emulators (arcade and console) and as many ROMs as they could find."
...and I'll bet you thought the war on drugs was bad.
Besides industry efforts, some individual game companies have taken steps of late to stop piracy. Last month Nintendo Co. Ltd. (7974.OS: Quote, Profile, Research) won a court order barring the sale of devices running pirated copies of classic Nintendo video games.
Wouldn't that make every PC illegal?
Ooh, a sarcasm detector. Oh, that's a real useful invention.
Sure, modchips can be used to boot Linux from your XBOX and other cool stuff, as playing imported games on your PS1, etc.
But let`s be honest. 99% of modded Xbox and PS1/2 serve a lone purpose : playing games without paying for them.
Of course, we must also realize that the popularity of the PS1 compared to the N64 was probably due to this 'feature'...
Eureka Science News - automatically updated
This store was pretty blatant about it. Selling a $500 "Super Xbox" preinstalled with a modchip, upgraded hard drive and a few copied games on the hard drive. That's just asking for it.
Any business should know not to participate in such behaviour, especially openly. What people do in the privacy of their own homes is one thing... but selling Pirated material? Sorry, no matter what side of the fence you stand on, and wether you think it's right or wrong, it was pretty stupid of them.
-Vendal Thornheart
Quoth the article:
Now, I assume the reason that the feds were involved is that this was for-profit copyright infringement, which is a crime.
Who did what now?
I did read the article. While it was bona-fide infringement by selling the console with games already on it, the charges are exactly what I have stated...
The wording of the charges would make it seem that felt-tipped pens are illegal (for being a device to circumvent copyright protection).
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
Not only were they modding the consoles, but they were selling them with pirated games already installed for $500 a pop.
If that's not blatant piracy deserving of jail time then I don't know what is. Whine all you want about your right to do what you want with your own hardware, but these guys were begging to get busted.
Presenting the tools to a user to allow them to infringe on somebodys copyrights: Legal
Using those tools and infringing on somebodys copyright: Illegal
Hardware that circumvents restrictions put in place to keep me from accessing my legally licensed software should always be legal.
This reminds me of the old PS mod chip stuff I used to do for my gfs mom. I modded a few PSs, and copied rented games for her. It worked out great, because I _knew_ her. If you're going to do this kind of thing for pocket ching, keep it discrete. Like when you get offered Gillette Sensor Excel Titanium Pro(whatever) blades at the local barbershop at like %30 of cost because they fell off a truck somewhere. That's relatively discrete. Putting those same blades in the store window, not discrete.
Darwinism applies to illegal activity also. The stupid get busted, the smart don't.
Do you see the sig? Do you have it in your sights? Why yes, Miss Moneypenny...
No ripped-off games here, no sir! We all know that people only use modded consoles for purely legitimate purposes.
What's that about 15 games pre-installed on the hard drive?? You're just a facist pig!!
There's a Mercedes gap too. I want one and can't afford one, but it's not government's job to do anything about it.
,They were arrested for being idiots.
Would that such laws applied to administrative as well as clerical staff.
~Tirinal
the legitimate charge here is the copied games -- which wouldn't have been, had they distributed the game discs with the console. this is a case of a person profiting off someone else's copyrighted works, which is what copyright law is designed to prevent.
as for the circumvention charge, the evidence is on the console. my hope is that this case isn't extensible to any modchip installation. modchips have legitimate uses as well, and i'm a firm believer that once i get a piece of hardware, i can do whatever i want with it, as long as i don't hurt anyone else.
the legal system of the US seems to disagree, though.
-- build a man a fire and he'll be warm all day. set a man on fire and he'll be warm for the rest of his life.
If you write video games for a living, then it is highly likely that you will feel a little safer.
Video game manufacturers probably don't care if the guy who stole your car is arrested, but I'm sure you do...
Note to Taco: It's sloppy headlines like this that puts me off from getting a /. subscription. It's also getting to be the sight of certain editors' names next to headlines that signals a sign of sloppy/inaccurate headlines...which means I end up ignoring the discussion and giving you 1 less page impression.
Bill Clinton: Pimp we can believe in. - The Shirt!!!
It's a federal offense, punishible by jail time.
Pop in any DVD, read the FBI warning at the front.
The FBI will become involved if you give them a ring and can give enough evidence that someone is intentionally and systematically violating your copyright. A Cease and Desist/lawsuit doesn't discourage people as much as 10 years in jail does.
If your code is acting bloated, and is running rather slow, it's likely and predicted that some loops you will unroll.
Nowhere in what you quoted does it actually say that they were selling the consoles with games on them. It simply states that they had display models that had pirated game son them. It doesn't state that they were selling them.
Hence Timothy's comment. Some people need to learn to read.
"They were burning games onto the hard drive and equipping the hard drive with copying software so that the average consumer could just go ahead and copy the software themselves," she said.
Well, I can't imagine the hard drive worked afterwards, since they were burning games onto it.
"creative-type people are motivated by money"
Yeah, like Galileo, Einstein and Isaac Newton...
What a bunch of greedy bastards.
These guys are well known in the local circles of being complete and utter cockmonglers.
They sell bootleg dvds and tapes, on the shelf, at exorbant prices. Theyve got a copy-system in the back, so when they sell one of the bootlegs, they just replace it with another copy.
They've been kicked out of several anime cons before for selling bootleg dvds and merchandise (Very frowned upon, as the anime companies and the fans have unspoken rules)
And the guy who runs it makes cowboy neal look skinny.
I am in total shock and amazement no one has bothered to mention that even to get thier "super xboxes" to run they have to use illegal cracked bioses so right from the get go they are infringing. cut and dry no matter what they will not get out of this unscathed.
The boxes were on open display in the store. There were 15 or more games on the boxes. They sold them.
That's all we know.
What we don't know is if the original hard-copy of each game was included with each sold box or if each original was destroyed as it was copied.
If either of those were the case, I'd have to say that there's nothing wrong with what they were doing. In the end, the buyer had their own single, legitimate copy of each game.
Assuming they were making sure each box had it's own individual copy of the game, this statement is nonsensical (even if you ignore the 'burning games onto the hard drive' idiocy). Providing a means to make a fair-use backup copy of purchased software is not a crime
... although at the rate things are going, it will be before too long.
The real issue here is probably the bullshit that is the DMCA, and hopefully this will grow into being a case that tests the validity of it. Though, if I were a betting man, I'd wager that the store employees did not make an effort to ensure they were within the law and don't stand a chance
Sure, the article is vague, but I can confirm it. I dropped in the store recently to ask about mod chips.
They were selling modded XBox systems with larger hard-drives and games preloaded. Each box had a printed sticker attached with the size of the drive and a list of included games. You could pick your XBox based on the size of the hard-drive and the list of included games. And it was current games - things like Burnout 3 and Halo 2.
They were also preloading the XBox systems with tons of emulators (arcade and console) and as many ROMs as they could find. I watched a customer walk in and ask about a specific original GameBoy game - the employee immediately fired up a GameBoy emulator with the appropriate ROM right there on the demo XBox and handed the customer the controller to play with.
They appeared to be to be doing pretty brisk business. I left the place seriously disturbed by what I had seen and wondering whether to report them. Guess somebody already had. They definitely crossed the line. And it is sad to see that happen with one of the few reliable local suppliers of mod chips.
I think they were doing the same practice with PS2 systems as well. I recall seeing a game list that was split into domestic and imports and imports really aren't an issue on the XBox.
Do you know how long it takes the US to come to that point? See Vietnam, the war on drugs, and coming soon, possibly Iraq.
If you have enough money to invest in "lobeying" congress, and you don't piss off someone with more money, then your future success is guarnteed and enforced by all three branches of the government. It used to be that the judicial branch, high enough up, would actually perform their duties properly, but they have been slowly replaced with people of political motivation, and thus have something to loose in the case, and thus have a conflict of interest.
The US government is no longer serving it's population's interests. I do think it's more through ignorance than corruption, but the corrupt are driving the ignorant, be it through partisan loyalty of voters, or someone on the payroll of the RIAA/MPAA offering advice of questionable objectivity to congressional commitees. No one reads the bill, they just sign off on the one that the congressional comitee most relevant came up with. Oddly enough, I don't see any congressional comitees that don't involve "big business" as advisors. What's worse is that through their ignorance or corruption, they actually believe that a representative of that company will tell them what is best for the nation rather than what is best for their company and shareholders.
All this goes on, and people say "the people elected them, it must be what they want!" People don't want to be screwed. They work 40+ hours a week and have too much time worrying about whatever the ads tell them to worry about. It turns into something akin to the superbowl. If the election was held on Friday/Saturday, there would be parties and bets on who wins.
The contention in the election has come to the point that both canidates demonize each other, so that no matter who is elected, half the people hate the president, and the other half roll over and take it. The tactics used in elections are not far from terrorism itself. Whoever is in power convinces the population that Hell could come up and swallow the world at any point, so they trust that even though the last 4 years have been near hell, that the president somehow did a good job because it isn't hell. Whoever is looking to upset the president, can't. If you undermine the president in such a time, you look like you are welcoming hell, and that you are undermining the presidents ability to effectively keep the nation secure.
It's a disaster, and there is no end in sight. Orwell was only 20 years off.
first off if your going to sell modded systems with pirated games you dont put them on the display shelf in a puplic llocaltions such as a gaming store its only a matter of time befor some copyright loving persion is going to rat you out. secondaly if they where selling linux loaded system with bigger hds and cromwell legial bios they would have never had a problem being that setup cannot play pirate games and can only boot linux. they might have still been busted but they would at least have good grounds to fight back on and probly would win. shure after someone bought it they could reflash the chip with illagle bios and stole games but that falls on the persion who bought the system not the store. this was a case of pure stupity and like everyone else said no matter what side your on these guys blantly voilied copyright with intent of making profit.
conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and conspiracy to traffic in a device
:(
Funny how the government makes all sorts of conspiracy theories but when one of us points out the obvious, we're off to the nut house
I am NOT a number! I am a - oh wait, I'm number 761710. Look! 761710!
Installing to the hard drive has usefulness beyond piracy. It's useful for exactly the same reason it's useful on a PC game - it's a hassle to have to keep the disk cases all nearby the player, and it's slower to read from CD or DVD than it is to read from the hard drive.
That a technology can and is used for piracy is no excuse for making deliberately crippled merchandise, and is no excuse for criminalizing non-criminal behaviour. It's already criminal to copy the games and give them to people who didn't buy them. That should already be enough right there. Anything that criminalized an entire group for what only some of the group did is BAD. Period. Percentages do not matter. "Kill 'em all, God will know his own" is NOT acceptable law enforcement behavior.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
So it is alright to steal like the man I voted for.
Regardless of everything else, this is actually a reasonable use of a modded console, IMO. Have you seen the wear on in-store Gameboys? Being able to demonstrate in-stock games on a more rigorous system would definitely be of advantage to a store.
Ah, well, in that case, they were just greedy morons :)