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?

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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.

Re:Er, this is actually about boring old piracy

[squarefish]

sure, you sort of make sense, but I think the point they're trying to get across is that hacking is just like drug use- once you start modding your xbox, it will lead to harder crimes like piracy and raping his neighbor's dog. The fact that he was selling this just reinforces the negativity surround the 'hacking' addiction.

he should definitely get the death penalty for this.
</sarcasm>

Re:Er, this is actually about boring old piracy

[(negative video)]

So, you've bought into the propaganda campaign of the **AA, forcing an inappropriate word to make a behavior seem more heinous than it is, and the guy who understands the REAL meaning of the word is the moron?

"Pirate" has long been applied to much more than just ships on the high seas. For example, Thomas Babington Macaulay used it in a well-known 1841 speech before Parliament, speaking against a proposal to unreasonably extend copyright terms:

"I am so sensible, Sir, of the kindness with which the House has listened to me, that I will not detain you longer. I will only say this, that if the measure before us should pass, and should produce one-tenth part of the evil which it is calculated to produce, and which I fully expect it to produce, there will soon be a remedy, though of a very objectionable kind. Just as the absurd acts which prohibited the sale of game were virtually repealed by the poacher, just as many absurd revenue acts have been virtually repealed by the smuggler, so will this law be virtually repealed by piratical booksellers. At present the holder of copyright has the public feeling on his side. Those who invade copyright are regarded as knaves who take the bread out of the mouths of deserving men. Everybody is well pleased to see them restrained by the law, and compelled to refund their ill-gotten gains. No tradesman of good repute will have anything to do with such disgraceful transactions. Pass this law: and that feeling is at an end. Men very different from the present race of piratical booksellers will soon infringe this intolerable monopoly. Great masses of capital will be constantly employed in the violation of the law. Every art will be employed to evade legal pursuit; and the whole nation will be in the plot. On which side indeed should the public sympathy be when the question is whether some book as popular as Robinson Crusoe, or the Pilgrim's Progress, shall be in every cottage, or whether it shall be confined to the libraries of the rich for the advantage of the great-grandson of a bookseller who, a hundred years before, drove a hard bargain for the copyright with the author when in great distress? ..."

An eloquent speech that shows not just the proper uses of "pirate", but also the evil and futility of the Disney Copyright Extension Act.

What precedent does it set?

[giorgiofr]

A very clear one. Resistance is futile.

Uh, aren't you leaving something out?

[mcc]

From the article:

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

So.. um.. not just mod chips, then.

Precedent or no, this guy no more deserves our sympathy or support than some guy selling bootlegged CDs on a street corner.

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...

Don't Mod Xboxes

[Brainboy]

"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," said Mr Rawlinson, deputy director general of Elspa.

"The modification of consoles is an activity that Elspa's anti-piracy team is prioritising. It is encouraging to see the UK courts do the same."

Don't mod your Xboxes!!!11!!one! It's a moral wrong against society. Remember if you want you play foreign games you are a CRIMINAL! .

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.

80 games

[jotux]

He probably wouldn't have been caught if he didn't include 80 games on the drive of every xbox he modded.

That's like giving out 80 bags of hash with every bong you sell....the cops probly care more about the amount of hash you're giving out than they are the fact that you're selling bongs.

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.

Re:Blame the media and lazy submitters

[king-manic]

As read in BBC news:

Man convicted for chipping Xbox Xbox console

(image)
(NOTE: extra-tiny caption. almost invisible)"The Xbox was fitted with a 200GB hard drive packed with games"

A 22-year-old man has become the first person in the UK to be convicted for modifying a video games console."

It's like seeing this on slashdot front page:

headline "Man convicted for running a distro of linux"

in the story: "-CD through the skull of a apple fan boi."

Re:How can chipping be illegal?

[Mr2001]

Regardless of the fact that this guy deserved to be punished, I can't see how chipping for a legitimate use (ie, to use it as a media centre etc) can possibly be illegal.

Did you miss this link in the submission? The fact that mod chips disable a copy protection mechanism makes them illegal, according to the court, whether or not they're actually used to play illegally copied games. The court makes case law. It's now up to UK legislators to change the situation.

I would hope that if I bought the hardware I'd be entitled to do whatever I liked to it, provided I didn't actually break the law by putting pirated games on it.

I would hope so too, but unfortunately, the DMCA and the EUCD were passed into law. Now, manufacturers can legally prevent you from doing what you want with the equipment you buy from them, by forcing you to disable access controls (thus breaking the law) in order to do it.

Just for fun

[mcgroarty]

The Slashdot writeup was completely rewritten. So people can make sense of comments... Bold face was added. Italic was removed.

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 his modded Xboxs, instead of modding it for personal use, but what modified Xbox consoles which he fitted with a big hard drive containing 80 games. 'This case sets a major precedent does this set for casual homebrew gamers and importers?" 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.

Pleas mark Zonk -1 Stupid

[bmo]

The title of the story is unrelated to the meat of the story. It's like ordering filet mignon at a fancy restaurant from a pretentious waiter and getting a plate of Rhesus Pieces.

This is about copyright theft, not modding. The title is uninformative and flame bait. Zonk should have known better than to release this story with that title.

Watch this post get modded into oblivion. I don't care, my karma is bullet proof, bitch.

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BMO

Jurisdiction

[Anonymous Coward]

This very much depends on your jurisdiction. Slashdot may be an American website, but there are still enough people from other countries here that the blanket statement "It's a criminal offence" is unreasonable.

In Canada downloading *absolutely is* legal. There have been rulings on this point from the high courts, and the CPCC is steamed about it. The comment from the minister in charge of these things was something like "It is very disappointing to discover that this is the case in Canadian law. We'll have to fix that."

They haven't fixed it yet, and Canada is hardly the most IP liberal country in the world. I believe France had similar rulings lately, largely because they have a similar copyright levy system.

Even in the US, though, downloading is *not* a criminal offense. You cannot go to jail for downloading. You can only go to jail for distribution. It's illegal, and you'd have to pay damages to the RIAA, but you will not have a criminal record. The FBI and local police will not and cannot investigate downloading. There will be no wiretaps to find out if you're downloading.

It simply isn't that kind of offense, which is why the RIAA has its own evidence gathering goons.

Even if it were a criminal offense, it would be a stupid thing to try to prosecute. The burden of proof in criminal court is "beyond reasonable doubt." Hard for downloads, only really worth trying for distribution. In civil court it's "the preponderance of evidence", which is easy.