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Xbox Modders Charged Under DMCA
JamesAlfaro wrote to mention a News.com article about a pair of game store owners charged with Xbox modding. From the article: "Jason Jones and Jonathan Bryant, two Los Angeles residents who own the ACME Game Store on Melrose Ave., allegedly sold Xbox game systems that had been modified by Pei Cai, of Pico Rivera, Calif. Cai allegedly equipped the Xbox consoles with modification chips and large hard drives to allow the user to copy rented or borrowed games onto the device for future playback. Buyers would pay from $225 to more than $500 for the changes."
a mod chip becomes a copyright protection circumvention device when that's what you use it for.
But will that be the standard the DMCA uses? Or will it be more like "a mod chip becomes a copyright protection circumvention device when that's what you can use it for."?
That's why this case is so troubling...it has the potential to become a very bad precedent, and ruin mod-chipping for everyone. It doesn't help that these jerks were also distributing pirated games, making the case a virtual slam-dunk and cementing the 'mod-chipping == piracy' stereotype in the minds of everyone concerned.
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~ |rip/\/\aster /\/\onkey
I'd have a lot more sympathy for them if there weren't for the pirated games installed as part of the purchase. Real stupid move there.
No matter how you look at it, people are still up against hard time for simply copying and modding stuff. No, there is still plenty to say because, like as with most copyright related "crimes". These people are not criminals, and the punishment is WAY WAY out of line in relation to the supposed harm done to society.
Now if in addition they robbed a bank, and beat an old lady and left her for dead ... then I might have some sympathy, but then again that wouldn't be charged as a DMCA crime would it?
Harsh punishment for minor offence is not always wise.
During the frirst all-China empire Qin, legalist Li Si held a great power and established harhs penalty for any minor crime. A group of peasants was drafted for labor service. Heavy rains made his group late in reporting for duty. Knowing they would be killed for this offense, the group members decided they had nothing to lose and became an outlaw band. Soon their ranks swelled with thousands of malcontents, making the band of outlaws a sizeable force. Similar uprisings took place simultaneously in other parts of the empire, and empire Qin collapsed.
reference here