Man Convicted For Hacking Xbox

PipianJ writes "Remember the ruling in Britain which outlawed mod chips last year? BBC News is reporting that a man has been convicted of modding an Xbox and sentenced to 140 hours of community service, a fine of 750 pounds (about $1300), and the confiscation of his PCs and Xboxes." From the article: "The man had been selling modified Xbox consoles which he fitted with a big hard drive containing 80 games. 'This case sets a major precedent which marks a milestone in the fight against piracy,' said games industry spokesman Michael Rawlinson." Update: 07/04 22:12 GMT by Z : Updated to more accurately discuss the story.

Comments

Er, this is actually about boring old piracy

[rimu guy]

Kinda relevant, but somehow missed from the main slashdot post:

The man had been selling modified Xbox consoles which he fitted with a big hard drive containing 80 games.

There are legitimate reasons to chip consoles, e.g. to run your own OS on them. I wonder how the case would have gone had the guy just been selling modded console sans illegal software. Anyone want to turn themselves in and find out?

--
DNS Checking Tool

Re:Er, this is actually about boring old piracy

[Ford Prefect]

I wonder how the case would have gone had the guy just been selling modded console sans illegal software.

I read the story on the Beeb earlier and thought just that - it really sounds like a case of piracy (cough, sorry, copyright infringement) which has by virtue of Press Release has been trumped up into entirely about modding a console.

Selling consoles with loads of copied games on them is just plain dim-witted and the guy deserved to get caught - but conveniently for the sake of scare-tactics, there had to be that mod-chip as well...

Re:Er, this is actually about boring old piracy

[RonnyJ]

The ELSPA statement is also strange.

"It sends a clear message to anyone tempted to become involved in chipping consoles that this is a criminal offence and will be dealt with accordingly "

I don't understand why that statement is so focused on the chipping part, when the guy was doing a great deal more than that (i.e. selling pirated games). The only reason I can think of is that ELSPA are spinning this as a way to deter a larger amount of people from the lesser 'crime' of chipping.

Re:Er, this is actually about boring old piracy

[Anonymous Coward]

it really sounds like a case of piracy (cough, sorry, copyright infringement)

Actually, in this instance, piracy is the correct term.

Piracy refers to large-scale copyright infringement for monetary gain.

Right, so he deserved it ...

[TheGavster]

Mod your x-box, put Linux or what-have-you on it: OK. Mod your x-box, put 80 pirated x-box games on it, and sell it: Not OK. Seriously, what did he *think* would happen? Even the most liberal interpretations of copyright prohibit making a bunch of copies of something and selling them at a profit ...

Re:Well...

[ZephyrXero]

Modifying hardware that you bought is not illegal, nor is selling it. Including a harddrive full of ROMs however, is...

Rewrite the summary

[suparjerk]

The headline / summary of this article needs to be rewritten to mention something about selling pirated games.

It never ceases to amaze me.....

[slicenglide]

That they would label this article as, "Man busted for chipping box." When in fact it had nothing to do with the chip itself, but the PIRATED SOFTWARE the hard drive contained. It should be properly labeled as "Man busted for selling pirated Xbox software." if he had been selling Linux running xbox's with homebrew apps, it would have been a nonissue. As the slashdot commmunity, we do ourselves a disservice by labeling stories this way and spreading F.U.D. that would lead us to believe that chipping your box is illegal.
Next time excercise some editorial control and highlight the fact the man was selling Pirated Xbox software and that this was all part of a greater nonissue. You pirate software and sell it(Whether in Hard Drive or Disc Format) you are going to get the hammer. Guy got off amazingly light in the face of what he was doing.

The point....

[ogdenk]

I'm against laws prohibiting modification OF MY OWN DAMN POSESSIONS. That's like saying I can't put a heavier recoil spring in my handgun, or improve the fuel mileage in my car with a better carb.

HOW LONG BEFORE I NEED TO HAVE A FEDERALLY APPROVED "SOLDERING IRON" OR "OSCILLOSCOPE" LICENSE?!

Now this guy got nailed for piracy but the quote about "chipping consoles is an illegal act" towards the end makes me uneasy. Real uneasy. It's only a matter of time before people get nailed like this under the US DMCA.

They aren't using this guy as a posterboy for generic anti-piracy, they are using him as an example for mod-chipping.

I'm sorry...

[Khyber]

But if I want an X-Box to be able to play games from another country that I've actually bought and had shipped over, and modding it is the only way to do it, shouldn't I, as the owner of this licensed box, be able to modify how it operates to work with software I own? Am I violating a copyright or am I violating the DMCA in any way? (I don't ethically think I am, since I legally purchased the items in question, and while I'm no lawyer, I believe it's my right to be able to make something made for the same platform, but from a different country, able to work with my system.)

I personally think (mod me up/down/whatever) that this kind of ruling is stupid. I do not like this one bit, this seems to screw over everyone who wishes to make sure their system works with any software they buy that's "designed" for such a system. (This also makes me wonder, why develop PAL and NTSC? I mean, if you're going to make the system, (from now on replace system with XBox) and distribute it worldwide, should this XBox not have the same hardware, same BIOS, etc? Why the hell would I need to buy the same XBox, TWICE, from different countries just so I can play a game from a differnt land?

Just to clear it up, I don't own an XBox (The whole statement above is a theoretical/POV one) and this is one of the reasons I'll *NEVER* buy a console, and instead wait for emulation.