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Mod Chip Raids In Perspective
GamePolitics has extensive coverage on the aftermath of this past week's Federal raids on suspected modchippers. There were numerous negative reactions to the action here on the site, and your comments were not alone. Many commenters at the site Dvorak Uncensored expressed similar frustration and disbelief at the federal government's priorities. As stated on the site's original post: "Are you kidding me? With drug dealers everywhere, murder, porous borders, terrorism the Feds are concerned about game mods?? Holy crap. Next I supposed they will be cracking heads over unlocked phones. Great." Meanwhile, one of the raided men is now without any electronics whatsoever as a result of the search and seizure, and feeling very much alone. Another man has (more seriously) been barred from seeing his girlfriend and daughter, and has been reduced to sleeping in his car. As he puts it: "I would like to formally thank Microsoft and Nintendo for cracking down on the little guy with a soldering iron in his garage, rather than going after the people that are responsible for the bootlegs being available."
> With drug dealers everywhere, murder, porous borders, terrorism the Feds are concerned about game mods?? Holy crap. Next I supposed they will be
> cracking heads over unlocked phones. Great."
There's nothing immoral about selling drugs (unless you think we should ban alcohol and tobacco, or that we've criminalised the right drugs and that growing, selling, buying and consuming cannabis somehow requires punishment), but making it possible for people to trivially pirate software is an area I believe to be a little more grey. Also, as someone who's recently been burgled and had his phone stolen, if by `unlocking` phones you're talking about changing the IMEI number so that stolen phones can be reused after they've been reported stolen, then that seems a far more serious offence, in terms of perpetuating crime and suffering, than smoking a bit of weed or taking a few trips or pills.
The DMCA pretty much says that you don't really own hardware anymore. You just allow the manufacturer to store it in your custody, and in exchange you may use it...
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
It's not the end users that are getting in trouble. These people weren't just using mod chips or modding their own systems, they were modding other peoples systems for a profit. If people with mod chips are crack heads, then these people were the dealers.
Of course it's not like the summary (or the summary of the previous story on the subject) really bother to point that out. I guess you can just get more ad views with misleading crap than with accuracy.
How about the United Kingdom?
What you call "the lobby system", we call "cash for questions" and it is a crime.
Most recently, where there was any question that money may have bought political favours (the cash-for-honours scandal), the police pulled in Tony Blair and half his cabinet for questioning under oath.
Sadly, I think many Americans could not even imagine the police questioning Bush over the Rove affair, or misrepresenting facts to the UN, or any of the many other scandals I find it difficult to keep up with on that side of the pond.
There seems to be an attitude of once your representatives have attained a position of responsibility working for you, you cannot countenance them being subject to the same laws and checks that you are.
And as for whether the US would ever invade the UK, I don't think the Chinese would give you permission.
"There is nothing nice about Steve Jobs and nothing evil about Bill Gates." - Chuck Peddle
You, sir, are an ass. (And an anonymous one at that, the best kind.) That's what you get for thinking you know me. I don't have any illegal games. Zip, zero, zilch. If any official-type agencies want to come inspect my computers, they could do so to their heart's content and I would be free and clear because there's simply nothing there. Of course, I would do everything in my power to defend the right to not have my equipment searched, even though I have absolutely nothing to hide, and once they were done, they'd be facing a very costly lawsuit for doing so.
I don't think the law is "silly," I think it's extremely destructive. Not because I can't copy games, but because it tells me what I can and cannot do with my own property, a dangerous precedent with a repugnant slippery slope. My personal freedoms trump the profit-making capability of game developers and publishers. If that means that you or someone else can't make money because of my fair use rights and my right to do what I please with my property as long as it doesn't interfere with other people's rights, too damn bad. Find something else to do in which you can make money without destroying other people's freedoms.
As for your comments about speeding, they just go to show how much of an idiot you are. If you think that driving faster than the speed limit is not giving a fuck about people who get killed by speeding motorists, then I guess that 99.99% of all of the people in this country (including every cop I've ever seen on the interstate) doesn't give a fuck about road safety. Or maybe the simpler explanation--you're an idiot--is right instead. Believe what you want; given your assinine response, I don't really care about your opinions.
I'll take it as a safe bet that owning an XBox 360 or PS3 makes you are one of the people who have money. Especially if you are willing to chance taking a soldering iron to a $400 appliance.
But neither would I be be surprised to learn that your mutual fund or 401(K) retirement plan has substantial investments in Microsoft, Sony, and others who benefit from the DMCA.
If you wish to not be in a situation where money decides power, move to a country with a representative democracy, where the representatives are purely chosen via 1 vote per 1 person, and where lobbying money is not allowed.
Lobbying exists in every political system. In the American system it is simply more open.
Just Internet connections? Clearly computers should be made illegal.
My own brain can remember the tunes to copyrighted songs (and indeed it does). I'm sure you'd agree that it should be confiscated from me for violating the DMCA.