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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."
So the display ones had games on them but did the one for sale?
A lot of people make the moral argument against copyright infringement. As well and good as that may be, and as much as I may agree with it, that argument is pointless and naive.
For every "pirate" they arrest, ten spring up in his place. For every p2p network that gets shut down/investigated/compromised, ten faster, more secure, more anonymous networks spring up in its place. Furthermore, many developing (and some developed) nations have absolutely no incentive whatsoever to enforce copyright law.
Bandwidth is increasing. Users are becoming more and more techno-savy. The technology is getting better.
This cannot be stopped. Legislative measures end at national borders, and do not effectively deter (see the drug war). Technological measures will always be circumvented. Moralistic measures have no power of enforcement.
It's not a matter of whether this is right or wrong. It's not a matter of whether intellectual property is legally protected.
It's a matter of technology existing that cannot un-exist.
Entities that rely on intellectual property protections have only two viable long-term paths at this point:
1) Adapt to this new world.
2) Be destroyed by it.
Yes, it may be wrong. Yes, it may be stealing. Yes, it will put people out of work. The sad fact, however, is that these points are irrelevant in the face of the simple truth that it can not and will not be stopped.
There comes a point in any losing battle where you cut your losses, step back, and re-evaluate your situation. We passed that point long ago.
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The wording of the article is very vague on a very key point, and it's a key point that decides whether or not I agree with the store or with Microsoft on this.
It says they modified consoles to have larger hard drives and play pirated games. (Dubious claim because that's what ESA will say about ANY modded xbox, regardless of intent). Then, in a second sentence it says there were modded xboxes on display that had 15 games or more copied onto the hard drive. What is unclear is this very important point: Were those boxes with 15 games ONLY display models, or were all the xboxes sold ones that had pirated games on them (as opposed to ones modded in such a fashion that they *could* have pirated games on them.)
Basically, if they sold modded xboxes that had pre-installed pirated games on their hard drives as the article heavily implies without saying outright, then ESA is in the right on this. If they merely were selling modded xboxes that *can* store games on the hard drive, but started out without any stored on them, and their 15 games on the display models were just examples to demonstrate this feature, then ESA is in the wrong on this (yeah, I know the law says otherwise, but the DMCA is wrong.)
Basically, the article doesn't provide enough information to explicitly state that actual piracy (actual piracy, not the DMCA newspeak version of piracy) was taking place. It states outright that mods that could be used for piracy were being *sold*, and that copied games using those mods were on *display*. The connecting of the two together to mean that copied games were being installed on the new xboxes being sold was merely heavily implied without being stated explicitly.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
So, that means i can pirate upwards of 60 music CD's every 180 days and not be commiting a crime. ( for personal use, not re-sale )
( not that i can even think of 60 cds i want at this point. but that isnt the point )
Now, considering its a criminal issue and not a civil issue, the burden is on the court to prove the timing of the copying..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
I've shopped at the College Park and Baltimore stores in Maryland. Their prices are very high! However, in this case my own observations led me to the following opinion: the article has the correct spin, i.e. pro-government, pro-console manufacturer, and pro-software publisher.
It's not unique to Pandora's Cube. Every import store I've visited sells grey/black market items in plain sight, with large signs, and sometimes light ropes! Depending on the quality of the copy, you may inadvertantly be purchasing illegal copies. Be wary when they say "They're from Hong Kong."
I'd venture to say they collected a bit more evidence in other areas (*cough* video/dvd *cough*), too. If you're gonna play, don't get caught. I mean, the probable cause was out in the open and the FBI HQ is 20 miles away?
The saddest example of law enforcement was when Pokemon: The First Movie was out, I was catching a preview of it at the store. Not only was this a week before theatrical release, but I was watching it along with four police officers who were in the store at that time. In the end, I guess it was truly a Federal case.
Sour grapes: Customer service sucked, too.
I neglected to mention before (and Xeni has already updated my remarks over at BoingBoing)...
Pandora's Cube keeps electronic records of who you are and what you purchase. Not so much with the game and DVD purchases, but defintely with the system purchases.
I doubt that the Feds will pursue the buyers, but if they obtain the records they will know who bought what system with the pirated games...