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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."
Timothy: 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
Article: Pandora's Cube, Wright said, sold $500 "Super Xbox" consoles, modified versions of Microsoft Corp.'s (MSFT.O: Quote, Profile, Research) Xbox video game console, that had been modified to hold larger hard drives and play pirated games. The modified consoles, some holding 15 or more games already copied to the hard drive, were on open display in the stores
It sounds to me like they'd stock up the drives with ripped off games to warrant the $500 price tag. After the modchip, hard disk and cost of the XBOX itself there isn't a lot left from the $500 to go towards games.
Trolling is a art,
"The modified consoles, some holding 15 or more games already copied to the hard drive, were on open display in the stores."
Yeah, that sounds like an open and shut case of stupidity to me.
Conspiracy to commit copyright infringement... I didn't know it'd gotten that bad yet.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
...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.
As a result of this arrest, I'll feel a little bit safer tonight when I go to sleep.
You were mistaken. Which is odd, since memory shouldn't be a problem for you
Or does the phrase "conspiracy in the video game industry" really not sell you on the idea that the federal government needs to get a task force to eliminate it?
Seriously... it sounds like EA executives have imprinted subliminal messages to assassinate the president, until they are sniffed out by the ESA black-op soldiers!
Seriously, though... we have to hold off judgement until we know exactly what they are being arrested for. If they are just modding the boxes or are offering something on top of that.
Good quote, too many chars. Seriously, the slashdot 120 char limit sucks!
before we get all uppity, the headline written by reuters is a lie. they were arrested for modding xboxes, loading them with 15 games, and selling them as "super xboxes" on the store shelves.
They were NOT arrested for "modding xboxes". They were arrested for being idiots.
It was only a matter of time before something like this happened. The employees worked for Pandora's Cube apparently. This company is very active on the anime convention circuit and sells their wares there. I've never seen them sell these Super X-boxes at conventions. Perhaps the employees were doing this independently of the store?
AnimeNEXT anime convention
RTFA, heh. The Entertainment Software Association said the Dec. 1 raids at three Pandora's Cube stores in Maryland and Virginia were a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Justice's computer crimes unit, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Quidquid latine dictum sit, altum viditur.
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
In other news, federal authorities raided and destroyed core Internet routers citing that the hardware was facilitating piracy.
"Oh dear, she's stuck in an infinite loop and he's an idiot" -Prof. Farnsworth (Futurama)
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?
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...
Although it's against policy, you'll still find a lot of, *ahem*, back-up games on Ebay.
I bought a Dreamcast a while back, and the guy threw in a sampler pack that had come with it originally. Upon lifting the CD out, it turns out he had forgotten about his lovely CD-R with Ready to Rumble 2 on it.
The moral of the story here being, make sure you're buying from a trusted source if you want legit games. And more often than not, you do, or you'll risk being arrested one of these days, yourself.
"An infinite number of monkeys typing into GNU emacs would never make a good program."
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.
Well, now that the gaming industry has caught these two guys, their billions in lost revenue will be made up in no time!
From the sounds of it (though we know how news spin can warp a story), they were selling pirated games preinstalled on the X-Boxen.
Why is this a criminal offense? It would have been just as easy for Microsoft to send them a C&D and sue their asses. Why is taxpayer money going towards protecting the copyrights of megacorps?
If I wrote a small piece of software by myself, and found someone violating my copyright, I would be forced to sue them to protect my copyright. I doubt I could get the cops to raid them. Megacorps, on the other hand, get to use law enforcement to take down violators.
Can someone with detailed legal knowledge explain this to me?
"You spoony bard!" -Tellah
Just FYI, here's the language from 17 U.S.C. 506 which describes criminal copyright infringement:
"(a) Criminal Infringement.--Any person who infringes a copyright willfully either--
(1) for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain, or
(2) by the reproduction or distribution, including by electronic means, during any 180-day period, of 1 or more copies or phonorecords of 1 or more copyrighted works, which have a total retail value of more than $1,000,
shall be punished as provided under section 2319 of title 18, United States Code. For purposes of this subsection, evidence of reproduction or distribution of a copyrighted work, by itself, shall not be sufficient to establish willful infringement.
(b) Forfeiture and Destruction.--When any person is convicted of any violation of subsection (a), the court in its judgment of conviction shall, in addition to the penalty therein prescribed, order the forfeiture and destruction or other disposition of all infringing copies or phonorecords and all implements, devices, or equipment used in the manufacture of such infringing copies or phonorecords.
(c) Fraudulent Copyright Notice.--Any person who, with fraudulent intent, places on any article a notice of copyright or words of the same purport that such person knows to be false, or who, with fraudulent intent, publicly distributes or imports for public distribution any article bearing such notice or words that such person knows to be false, shall be fined not more than $2,500.
(d) Fraudulent Removal of Copyright Notice.--Any person who, with fraudulent intent, removes or alters any notice of copyright appearing on a copy of a copyrighted work shall be fined not more than $2,500.
(e) False Representation.--Any person who knowingly makes a false representation of a material fact in the application for copyright registration provided for by section 409, or in any written statement filed in connection with the application, shall be fined not more than $2,500.
(f) Rights of Attribution and Integrity.--Nothing in this section applies to infringement of the rights conferred by section 106A(a)."
So yes, there canbe criminal penalties for copyright infringement -- its already built in to the statutes.
"That's not even wrong..." -- Wolfgang Pauli
While I don't have a problem with someone being arrested for selling unlicensed versions of games, as is the case here, I do have a huge problem with laws being in place that make it illegal to do things like view any region DVD, skip the FBI warnings on DVDs, etc. The congressmen that are taking money directly from the entertainment industry as campaign donations (which are nothing more than loosely veiled bribes) need to be brought to task. Someone putting a bigger harddrive in an X-Box should not be a crime unto itself. That's the kind of nonsense you get when you let corrupt companies directly fund corrupt politicians.
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.
Is this illegal in Canada? I know that we are sort of allowed to copy software/music because of the tax on the media, but how does it work for modifying technology so the copied media works?
spend money here
the 11th commandment would read "Thou shalt not make copies of the previous 10 commandments."
No data, no cry
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.
GeekNights!
Late Night Radio for Geeks!
Before non palladium drm crippled pc users who want to run Linux get thrown in the slammer?
After all its pirating since you did not pay ms the Windows tax so you must be trying to run software on your own system without Microsoft's approval.
I am getting real sick of not owning the products I buy.
What about fair use?
The whole reason mod chips are used is because all the apps are encrypted and need to be signed by MS to run. THis creates a virtual monopoly for htem and brings in a shitload of money.
The pc does not need modchips because its free.... for now??
http://saveie6.com/
God, FINALLY. We (some people in the dc area) have been trying to get Pandora's Cube taken care of for ages.
Admitidly, it was because of all of the bootleg dvd's and fansubs of anime that they sell, but still, a bust is a bust! I hope they get hit hard.
I used to shop at the College Park location that these guys ran, and I have to say that if there was ever a poster boy for the copyright-free movement, these guys were definitely not it. These weren't folks who just modded a few playstations. They sold lots of blatently pirated games and videos, at outragous prices. They pulled all kinds of tricks to pull a fast buck at their customers' expense. As an example, one time they went to an Anime convention, grabbed up all the free samples of a particularly coveted product that another vendor was giving away, then promptly resold them at the same convention. These guys would pirate anything for a quick buck. Good riddance to bad rubbish.
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.
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.
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.
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
There are more of these "illegal consoles" on Amazon.com for $500. They are listed as used, so they don't come directly from Amazon, but some of the ads openly say they are preloaded with games.
Used XBoxes
first off if your going to sell modded systems with pirated games you dont put them on the display shelf in a puplic llocaltions such as a gaming store its only a matter of time befor some copyright loving persion is going to rat you out. secondaly if they where selling linux loaded system with bigger hds and cromwell legial bios they would have never had a problem being that setup cannot play pirate games and can only boot linux. they might have still been busted but they would at least have good grounds to fight back on and probly would win. shure after someone bought it they could reflash the chip with illagle bios and stole games but that falls on the persion who bought the system not the store. this was a case of pure stupity and like everyone else said no matter what side your on these guys blantly voilied copyright with intent of making profit.
maybe a lot of you aren't in the xbox modding scene but I only noticed one person who picked up on this.
To run microsoft-signed code with a mod chip you need a hacked M$ BIOS. These are illegal, no questions about it. The cromwell BIOS is legal and can run Linux/Homebrew apps.
If these people were selling the xboxes with a hacked M$ BIOS pre-loaded in the mod chip's ROM then it doesn't matter if the game discs are provided or not, they are still providing the illegal BIOS.
maybe if they wiped any copyrighted games and cleared the chip's ROM before selling them they might have a chance.
that's my take on it anyway.
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!
I clicked on the article thinking I'd see something about a couple guys who were modding consoles as a service to those who brought them in, but then I read:
The modified consoles, some holding 15 or more games already copied to the hard drive, were on open display in the stores.
$500 modded Xboxes on open display with warezed games? Open and shut case, these guys deserved to be pinched.
-R
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...