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Game Pirate Sentenced To Jail Time
A man charged in a case separate from the much-publicized anti-modder raids last month has been sentenced to ninety days in prison, another nine months of work furlough, and five years of probation. "Police seized over 1,000 pirated game discs during the raid on Brown's home, along with 'numerous' mod chips. Ric Hirsch, Vice-President of Intellectual Property Enforcement at the ESA, said, 'Sentences that include jail time send a clear message that violating intellectual property rights is a serious crime with significant consequences and violators will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.'"
I hope they cleared a few of those pesky rapists and murderers out of the prisons to make room for the awful, awful crime of INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT!
I feel safer now. Nothing scares me more than the thought of walking down the street and having my IP stolen at gunpoint.
Well, it has never been successfully tested.
Now they're going to stop intellectual property theft with the threat of jail time! Just like they did with murder, rape, breaking and entering, counterfeiting, and all of those other crimes! I feel safer already.
A ton of policemen who could've done something useful (like finding some people who do actually rob and steal, in the actual sense of the law) for society were kept busy to stick a guy in the can who doesn't affect me or 99% of the population in the slightest.
And for what? 90 days of jail. Whoo boy. He must be a really tough criminal! I dunno about your country, but 90 days is about what you get when you drive with the subway and refuse to pay the fine. For the third time. After being tried and told that paying the fee of 60 bucks is PROBABLY more interesting for you.
In other words, the damage this guy did must've been somewhere around 60 bucks. At least we now have found a reliable value for IP.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Brown was facing 10 counts of felony offenses, including grand theft, computer crime and trafficking in counterfeit products. In August, Brown pleaded guilty to two counts of counterfeit trafficking and today received a one-year sentence, the first 90 days to be spent in prison and the rest in work furlough. He was also given five years probation and a fine of $100,000, and will be required to pay $10,000 in restitution to the ESA.
Which sounds to me like its for selling pirated copies of games. I don't see an issue here. Don't sell copies of games, and you've got a lot less (or maybe nothing at all) to worry about.The people doing this don't give a rat's ass what your opinion is.
The only way to make them stop is to insist with all force necessary.
If you're not willing to get your hands dirty to stand up to this scum then no one HAS to care what you think..so why bother shaking your little fist and writing scathing condemnations?
Cut word lines
Cut music lines
Smash the control images
Smash the control machine.
- William S. Burroughs
I would love to see some RIAA high priests locked up (even for 90 days). Big media has truly done more to hurt us than any pirates.
It's important to note that he was a "mod chip seller," not a normal Joe who downloads pirated games and then plays them on his modded consoles. The grand theft charge was dropped in the plea, of course.
U.S. law makes copyright violation a crime -- for the distributor. It has yet to pass laws against the distributee. And won't, otherwise you could be prosecuted for buying a plagiarized book at the bookstore.
He didn't go to jail for owning mod chips, or having "over 1,000 pirated game discs" in his house. If you RTFA, you'll see he pleaded guilty to two counts of counterfeit trafficking. That's right, he was selling mod chips.
No one ever goes to jail for just having pirated materials (regardless of the law against it in some countries). The only people who get in trouble are people selling/distributing it.
God made me an atheist. Who are you to question his wisdom?
I get the sneaky suspicion that he wouldn't have been raided, and hauled up if he hadn't been selling the pirated games.
Personally, I pay for all the games and stuff I have, but I'm indifferent to people using copies. Where I do draw the line is commercial infringement. I actively dislike the making of money from an infringement setup. For that, I think 90 days is fair. It's not throwing the book at him and making him out to be the root of all evil, and up there with the terrorists.. It's saying "You've been very naughty. Really, don't do it again, or else"..
He really did wrong, and got caught. What were the cops to do, turn round and say "Never mind. Be a good boy. Off you go now!".
-Rick
"Most people in the U.S. wouldn't know they live in a tyrannical state if it walked up and grabbed their junk." - MyFirs
That said, he did break the law when he pirated games
And that is most likely also what the verdict is about. Notice how the modchips are mentioned, but nowhere that it's illegal to have, store, own or sell them?
However, the punishment should fit the crime.
Personally, I'd say that's about achived. He had "over 1000 Pirated Games" and got 90 days. Now, in many legal systems you'll find a system that trades "daily earnings" against a day in jail (provided you cannot pay or refuse to pay). I.e. 90 days jail is comparable to 3 months wages. In other words, the punishment per infringed copyright is (provided you earn, say, 2000 bucks a month) 6 bucks per infringement. Actually, less than 6 bucks, since it wasn't 1000 but "over 1000" copies found.
I'd call that sensible.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
For what it's worth, the police involved were doing their jobs and doing them correctly and efficiently. Sure, you can disagree whether or not IP infringement (in whatever form) should or should not be a crime, but as of right now it is one. A police officer, presented with a crime in plain sight, cannot (and, I would dare to argue, should not) ignore it because they disagree over whether or not it should be a crime.
Their job is to uphold the law. They did so. There is nothing wrong with that.
If you're angry, then I seriously suggest that you write your Representative(s) and Senators.
Misery loves company. Online misery loves unsuspecting random strangers.
If you're going to pirate, don't do it for profit. I can't support piracy for profit, sorry.
"Thanks for all the money you paid to us. We've used it to buy off ISO among other things" -Microsoft
Actually, that was a pointless rambling.. I sincerely doubt the ESA would do something so laughably foul.
The comments (so far) on this story are unbelievable. If you don't want to buy the game, then don't buy it. If you don't want to pay for the game but you steal it to play it anyway (or sell/distribute it illegally), then suck up the consequences.
Real, actual, non-fictional people's salaries are based on the fact that if people play these games (or music, or movies) then they will pay for them. If you don't like the way the market works due to levels of compensation, etc. then feel free to get your media from those that offer it freely or at a rate you agree with and who base their economic plans on that fact.
However if it's a commercial product and you steal it, then go to jail and shut up. You broke the law. Quit whining, quit the straw man style "rapists and murderers" blathering and learn something for a change. If you advocate open source and freely available media, quit giving our community a black eye by encouraging theft and cheering on pirates. If the new media model is going to work, it will work by being a better model, not by undermining the current system we have. Undermining rather than supplanting only encourages harsher laws and more intense DRM which will make the transition harder to accomplish in the end. Like I said, unbelievable.
I don't know you, but the paranoid in me likes to make 25 backup copies of each game I own, just in case...
OK, I suppose I'm a little behind the times and I apologize for that. I also don't wish to start a flame-war here and I do believe that some people have pretty heated opinions about this.
There are mod chips for my Prius. There are performance mod chips for lots of cars. While they may invalidate an owner's warranty (in some cases) one has purchased the car and is willing to install it and take a chance that maybe, perhaps, they either won't pass their vehicle emissions inspection or they may wear the car out a little sooner.
So why is it illegal to make or sell a mod chip to make a game console work differently? If it invalidates one's warranty, well that's the chance you take--you cannot take the console back and get warranty service on it.
I cannot see or understand a law that would prevent you from doing a mod on your PSP or X-Box. After all, you bought it; if you mod it it's yours so who cares?
Gods don't kill people, people with gods kill people.
He was a counterfeiter. He should be thrown in jail with the rest of the drug dealers, prostitutes, con men and other smalltime ne'er-do-wells until he sobers up. This kind of thing must be pursued and stopped for the health of the industry, and the rule of law in general.
This is going after the dealers instead of going after the junkies, and it's the right way to go. I applaud the San Diego police (and prosecutors) for going after folks are causing true harm.
On the other hand, the punitive fine ($100,000 - ten times the awarded damages of $10,000) seemed absurdly steep. Without knowing the man's means, it's hard to believe that this was a fair judgment. It's a warning sign when the jail time and the punitive fines are so completely incongruous.
--
Toro
"A intellectual property holder has a right to control their assets just as much if not more than individuals." And I'm yet to be convinced piracy does anything but benefit the intellectual property holder. As an artist in any medium, your job is to get your material as much exposure as humanly possible. The more eyes the better. A producers's job is to find a way to make money from all these eyes. If you don't know how to do that, you shouldn't be in producing.