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California Student Arrested For Console Hacking
jhoger writes "Matthew Crippen was arrested yesterday for hacking game consoles (for profit) in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He was released on a $5,000 bond, but faces up to 10 years in prison. This is terribly disturbing to me; a man could lose 10 years of his freedom for providing the service of altering hardware. He could well lose much of his freedom for providing a modicum of it to others. There is no piracy going on, necessarily — the games a modified console could run may simply not be signed by the vendor. It's much like jailbreaking an iPhone. But it seems because he is disabling a 'circumvention device' it is a criminal issue. Guess it's time to kick a few dollars over to the EFF."
oh right, they're just "doing their job"
Do it now or do it later, but do it !!
I misread this as "California Student Arrested for Console Hating."
I imagined a college student having an impassioned argument with a police officer on whether the ps3 or the xbox 360 is better. The student goes too far and insults Halo and he's lead away in handcuffs.
"Computers are useless. They can only give you answers." - Pablo Picasso
The DHS wants you to think of them like this: http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm
But this is what they really are: http://www.ice.gov/
No quarter to tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
And hundreds, if not thousands, of violent crime offenders go without jail time every week. I love a functining legal system.
As our way of thanking you for your positive contributions to Slashdot, you are eligible to disable Slashdot 2.0.
This is most likely a student helping his friends, not a commercial profit-driven entity. I would hope penalties would be minimal. This case is one that will be diverted short of a conviction upon a submission to sufficient facts-- then continued for dismissal at a later date. At least this is likely what would happen in my state (MA).
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
It's terrifying to me (and a sign of the times) that we can't do what we please with the material we've paid for. Sure, violating copyright is counter productive in the long-run, which is why we have it, but tinkering with stuff has a long proud history. Imagine if the guy who invented pneumatic tyres was taken to court because it violated the bicycle company's right to sell him replacement solid rubber rims? I doubt this guy was doing anything innovating, but he sure won't be doing so now.
Scientists point out problems, engineers fix them
altslashdot.org: The future of slashdot.
more like he was jailbreaking an Iphone for idiots who don't know how to do it but they just want it done. so they pay this guy to do it for them.
Its not my fault, someone put a wall in my way.
The land of the free. On less Trollish note, it's time you do something about this corporation laws, I can't understand how the freedom of a business comes before the freedom of the people.
Love many, trust a few, do harm to none.
This is behavior you'd expect from the Mafia. It just underscores the fact that there's not much difference between our government and an organized crime syndicate.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
Thanks for the mini-editorial and half-baked legal theorizing in the summary. I look forward to the scintillating and insightful conversation this invitation to discuss will bring!
(Especially the OMG MAH FREEDOMS replies sure to follow this comment, despite the fact I took neither 'side.')
Industry and trade associations estimate that counterfeiting and piracy now cost the U.S. economy as much as $250 billion a year and a total of 750,000 American jobs.
I mean, aside from being pulled out of thin air that is?
I Am My Own Worst Enemy
And Now they expect you to only lease hardware as well?
If he owns an xbox he should be able to do whatever he damn well pleases to the xbox, it is the same as any other computer. It's fair for the company (microsoft/sony/nintendo) to make it so that their games will not work on a hacked system, they shouldn't have to guarantee the games will work unless you use their specifications, but it's not fair to take him to jail even if the modifications allow him to use unsigned software. hell, I build computers that have the capability to play pirated games all the time. How is this different?
PS: in before RTFA, he's modifying consoles for financial gain, how is this different from building a computer for financial gain?
Simply ridiculous! When will this end?
I remember back when the WIPO copyright treaty that would lead to the DMCA was being quietly passed by member nations. Only a few of us were even talking about it at the time. But the implications were pretty clear to me even then. Making it illegal to even CIRCUMVENT copy protection measures would inevitably lead to people being prosecuted for even the most innocuous and widely accepted activities (at that time, it was mostly stuff like bypassing Macrovision, copying videotapes, copying CD's, and taping stuff on cable). It was quietly outlawing activities most people considered sacrosanct, and we let it happen. The U.S. signed onto the treaty, the Congress passed to DMCA to implement it, and everyone just sort of ignored it--figuring that the local guy in the neighborhood who copied a CD or VHS for you would never be effected. But it was always only a matter of time before they got down to enforcing it in at the local level. It may have started with the big pirate operations, but it was bound to come down to local modders too. It was only a matter of time.
SJW: Someone who has run out of real oppression, and has to fake it.
I agree that it's not a guarantee that every system was used to run pirated copies of games. I have friends who have an old hacked xbox and all it does is run XBMC. but in all likelihood they were stealing software. this man knew what he was doing and for the majority of his customers that was providing a means to steal console games. he may not have provided the isos, but his work is the critical step in enabling piracy on a console. this is far less of a moral grey area than downloading is.
This is insane. This kid is looking at 10 years for modifying hardware while another story linked right at the bottom of the same article describes a cop getting a one day suspension (with pay) for running down a child with his car
on the right hand side of the article, did anybody notice the poll that allows you to rate the story?
... "We are ..." a.) Laughing b.) Furious c.) Bored d.) Sad e.) Thrilled f.) Intrigued
... cause the charges are kinda ridiculuous ... and I'd be pissed if it happened to me.
... Laughing 50%, Furious 33%, Bored 17%, Sad/Thrilled/Intrigued 0%
your options are
I voted Furious
But the current scores are
Time to go out and arrest all those people who modify their cars with after market equipment.. and the makers of the after market equipment.. and the publications that advertise and showcase that after market equipment. I'm sorry, but once the hardware is purchased it should not matter if I play games on it, install linux or turn it into a f**king planter. If I want to see the hardware after modifying it then that should be my right, it is my property why can't I? Because it circumvents some DRM??? If I tweak a car until it can do 180mph and then sell it is that illegal? It can break the speed limit... oh wait.. most cars can..hmm WTF? We can manufacture cars capable of breaking the law but can't modify a game console that may or maynot then be used to break the law? I'm sorry, if you need restrictive technology (DRM) just to make your business model profitable then you need to change your business model. I don't think we need laws to prop up that business model either.
Ok, I'm going to say something that I'm certain will be enormously unpopular here - what he was doing is a crime and he almost certainly knew it was. Sorry. He got caught breaking the law.
Now, should it be a crime? Should it be a crime with a possible 10 year penalty? Should law enforcement resources be wasted on inane garbage like this while there are real, serious criminals out there that are still walking free? I think the answers to all those questions are obvious (at least I hope they are...) but the reality is what he was doing is a crime and thus he broke the law. I would hope people will be sufficiently bothered by this situation (and the ten year sentence for something so insignificant while people who commit violent crimes get much less time...) that they will be motivated to write their government and demand a change. If enough people raise their voice, maybe, just maybe, the government will pay attention. As it is, the only voice they hear are those of lobbyist for major media companies who want laws like this on the books. They got their way and now this guy is (presumably) guilty of something that shouldn't be a crime, but currently is...
The DHS wants you to think of them like this: http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm
But this is what they really are: http://www.ice.gov/
No quarter to tired, poor, huddled masses yearning to breathe free.
Well, from Wikipedia:
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) is a federal law enforcement agency under the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) ...
Of course ICE is a agency under DHS ... I don't understand what your point is. So they have a division that deals in customs and immigration. Can you just shut up? There's no need to post on every goddamn story.
Unfortunately, with more cases like this erupting lately (insane punishment over inane actions) there are no legal routes to take.
This man should escape from his detainment and go into hiding.
[quote]âoePiracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers,â[/quote] Right. A kid in his basement modifies a Wii and this poses "a significant health and safety risk"??? WTF? Piracy like this is mostly a victimless crime. It's a crime created artificially by a corporate culture. Crimes are supposed to be something that hurts real people directly. Piracy doesn't do that.
"they [Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations] can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers"
Robert Schoch, ICE/DHS (from the article/link)
health and safety risk!?
wait, what - piracy/counterfeiting poses a health/safety risk because the ps3 game they buy is safe for them? then whats with all the warnings?
nintendo has warnings, playstation has warnings, xbox has warnings. not to mention the ratings for games being "safe" (laughs) for certain age ranges/restrictions.
what about the RF radiation from electronics?
the RF radiation from most consoles these days (wifi, bluetooth controllers, etc)?
It's a sad sad day when you can get more time in prison for manipulating electronic hardware than for say vehicular manslaughter...
From the article
Counterfeiting and piracy have grown in recent years in both magnitude and complexity, according to ICE.
That's nice. Now how is that connected to the "crime" of modding a console? How is what he did connected to piracy other than the strained connection that modding consoles inevitably leads to piracy which he should be held responsible for? Even if you buy that, how is any of it inolved with "counterfeiting"? No one is stamping out illegal copies of games to be sold as the real thing here. Wrong issue entirely.
Some estimates indicate that 5 percent to 8 percent of all the goods and merchandise sold worldwide are counterfeit.
Again, a completely irrelevant fact mentioned only for the purpose of trying to connect his "crime" to a larger and more obviously illegal sounding one.
I wish mainstream news outlets would hire people to do research and write informed articles, because the alternative seems to be just parroting whatever the alphabet soup of government agencies tells them about the issue. Though, I guess now I know to watch out for those counterfeit modded game consoles.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
>> âoePiracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers,â he said.
Health and Safety risks? Give me a f*&%ing break... at least with regards to Intellectual Property. Sure, counterfeit aircraft replacement parts pose a real safety problem (and it's a real problem... go after that one, guys!), but copying videogames?
If the guy was overtly doing this to enable the use of pirated games, then sure, he's guilty. But if the majority of his work is to enable homebrew or emulation software, they should set him free and give him a pat on the back. I lose all sympathy for the copyright holders when they try to use FUD about "Health and Safety" to prop up their failing business model.
MadCow.
I used to have a sig, but I set it free and it never came back.
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I'm sure glad that the Homeland is secure from this miscreant.
Um...exactly how does a pirated PS3 game create a health or safety risk?
Joe Public will read this story and think "so what, some kid who helped destroy game company profits got his comeuppance," but the technically astute on this site will notice that this law, while currently applied to a trivial domain like game consoles, will be affecting the whole computer industry for years to come. The iPhone, like most game consoles, has a mechanism to prevent unsigned code from running. It is protected by the DMCA. The Kindle from Amazon is probably protected by the DMCA.
Your legal ability to do what you want, with the hardware you own, is slowly being eroded by new hardware with DRM baked in, and lawsuits like the one in the article. The issue is about personal freedom as much as it's about piracy.
Wait until the US and it's socialist/communist collaborators pass the ACTA.
If you think reverse-engineering is your right as a human being; you should be buying your guns and ammo now, and start preparing to use them on our tyrannical government officials should something so fundamentally flawed be passed into law.
"Be prepared, son. That's my motto. Be prepared." --Joe Hallenbeck
...then people who modified generic PCs to run "unauthorized software" would receive the same sentence.
Frightening.
This space left intentionally blank.
I'm curious if the Pirate Party will start getting enough traction in the U.S. to matter.
Cases like this only really piss-off young, highly technical persons. But if you factor in the RIAA's and MPAA's actions over the last 5 years, it makes me wonder.
From the article:
"Playing with games in this way is not a game -- it is criminal," said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE investigations office in Los Angeles. "Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers," he said.
Emphasis mine. What health risks are there? Pac Man fever?
Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations . . . can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers,â he said
Wait, what? How?
"Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers," he said.
Really? Health and safety risks, from modchips? Perhaps they could elaborate on that one?
I can't understand how the freedom of a business comes before the freedom of the people.
There is a quote attributed (perhaps erroneously) to Mussolini, but he is alleged to have said "FASCISM should more properly be called corporatism, because it combines the power of the business sector with the power of the state".
I do believe America is suffering now under a kind of corporatism. The term seems more accurate than capitalism. At least since we are also a democracy there may be hope.
Those are my principles, and if you don't like them... well, I have others.
Aug. 21--A former Spokane Valley car dealer, who now sells used cars in Post Falls, avoided a likely prison term and a substantial fine by helping investigators unravel an international odometer rollback case. Instead of low-mileage bargains, more than 135 buyers were stuck with high-mileage Canadian imports with altered mileage gauges. For his part in the conspiracy, Richard "Rick" Shafer got no prison time Thursday, but must complete six months of home detention when he's not at work and repay a Spokane credit union $172,792.
There's another where a dealer got 10 months.
Anyway, last time I sold a car (In Indiana), when you sold the car there was a checkmark on the form where you could say that the odometer was not correct. (I knew it wasn't because it rolled around past 00000) Modifying your own odometer was perfectly legal, as was paying someone to do it, as long as you didn't sell the car as having that mileage.
Modifying game consoles isn't fraud, unless you don't tell a future buyer that it's been modded.
They say it's a circumvention device, but like the Sony Betamax case, if he can show that there are significant, non-infringing uses of a modded console, he could win. (If he has the resources to fight)
All ideas^H^H^H^H^Hprocesses in this post are Patent Pending. (as well as the process of patenting all postings)
http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news?prov=ap&slug=ap-stallworth-pedestriankilled&type=lgns
It's a good thing that the punishment fits the crime. Kill someone get 24 days in prison. Hack a console, it's 10 years for you. Once again this proves that money is more important than life.
I've been involved in a Civil Liberties group that reviews and lobbies legislation for appropriate changes prior to them becoming law, something quite different from the EFF. From my initial conversations organisations like this are in need of people with a technological bent to advise them on the ramifications of technology legislation before it passes into law.
It's not the first time I've done it and I've found that if you you are polite to the ministers involved they are quite responsive and will listen to what you have to say and if they see your name often enough they will ask you for advice, they asked me. It's interesting to see the changes you suggest actually either make it into law or not make it into law due to your lobbying.
Thing is, it's not a game. If you don't act then, incrementally, freedoms will be whittled away. If it's not by the lobbying of a special interest group (for example Microsoft with the Xbox) then it will be by a knee jerk reaction to something else that has happened. Once it's passed into law it's very unlikely that it will *ever* be rolled-back.
My ism, it's full of beliefs.
"Would you be 'disturbed' if someone went to jail for modifying odometers on automobiles?"
I would be even more disturbed if someone went to jail for putting in new car stereos (that enables the owner to use USB-sticks instead of just CDs) in automobiles, which is a better analogy.
Both are examples of modifiying hardware in an effort to cheat someone, and both are against the law.
The article gives no evidence of what kind of "pirated games" the accused was dealing in. If I develop a game for my Wii console, and I mod my friends' Wii consoles to play it, who gets cheated? Certainly not Nintendo, who wouldn't sell me a devkit anyway because students and hobbyists don't qualify.
You don't want to go to jail? Don't break criminal laws.
And especially don't make a full-time business out of breaking the law..
It was once a crime to possess alcoholic beverages.
This is what happens when lobbyists have more influence over laws than voters.
Table-ized A.I.
Please provide a list of, preferably all, the games that are not signed by the vendor.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
I would guess that being locked up in a federal prison is a significant health and safety risk.Especially for a geek wiyhout the right connections to protect his a$$.
wait until he tries to fix the air conditioning. /he can haz grappling hook gun too?
If you are going to write a summary, write it non-biased. I really don't care what you find distrubing. If the guy gets 10 years, that is certainly excessive. But he wasn't doing this for himself, he was selling it to others for a profit. He should know better. And try to be a little honest. If you really believe that this would be used for anything other than piracy for the vast majority of cases, you have been drinking the Slashdot kool-aid too long.
Support a great indie game: http://www.abaddon360.com
We are in an economic depression, lets spend millions of dollars prosecuting pointless cases.
Just because you are wrong and I called you out on it doesn't mean I am a Troll.
Next time student will get arrested for picking in his nose. Imagine that some TinySoft will patent or copyright "nose content".
Well, if someone modifies, actually "tunes" the car for money, it is OK. If someone "tunes" some electronic devise - it is crime! Ridiculous!!! Incredible!!!
Guys, USA is very very strange country, isn't it? I am happy I live in Ukraine, fellows!
That would certainly be disturbing because I just had a nice man install just such a head unit in my car.
You don't want to go to jail? Don't break criminal laws.
You don't want people to break criminal laws? Don't write shit laws.
"Welcome to our world. We are the wasted youth. And we are the future too." Yes, I know these are stupid lyrics.
where are my points when I need them ?
Those letting pass those treaties and laws are arsonists ; they intend to burn down big pokets of wild bush at once instead of getting dirty by doing a correct job with axes and chainsaws (ie, crafting good, reasonable laws with balance and exemptions clauses), but like fire itself, once the target has been burnt, the thing they created keeps on spreading by eating everything around, good crops and all.
Will someone please explain to me why something that took place on US soil and was presumably committed by a US citizen falls under the jurisdiction of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency to investigate?
This stuff is part of a much bigger issue ... govt. transitioning towards fascism. We're rapidly turning into a police state, under the guise of "keeping us safe from terrorist threats".
The Pirate Party only focuses on one specific issue that interests them, so MANY people who fully agree with their stance still wouldn't take them seriously as a viable political party. (I expect a political candidate I elect to handle a myriad of issues thrown at them. As such, they better have a fairly comprehensive list explaining their positions on the topics. The Pirate Party, last I checked, really didn't even try to weigh in on topics like foreign relations and wars, economic strategies, taxes for small businesses, gun ownership rights, healthcare, public schools (and vouchers for students opting to attend a private school?), or even term-limits for politicians.)
I'd suggest that if you want reform with these issues, you look for candidates advocating smaller government and less govt. control. A "lean" govt. that sticks to the basic, vs. a bloated one with a department for everything imaginable is FAR less likely to waste their time and money prosecuting nonsense like a guy making hardware mods to game systems for a living.
democracy?
What is next 10 years for loading linux?, 10 years for using a non dell video card in a dell system when you can get the same card for $100 less at a on line store vs dell BTO, 10 years for not using apples over priced ram? If the people at pystar are not looking at 10 years why is this kid?
What if you got 10 years for non using the car dealership to change your oil as the car has a light only they can turns off and they call it hacking if you trun it off or jiffy lube does it for you.
Ten years for hacking consoles? He should have stuck to arson and murder, he'd have gotten less than five.
I would.
If someone then tried to sell the car claiming the odometer had not been modified there would be a problem.
Just as their would be if someone tried to sell an modded XBOX and claimed it hadn't been modified.
But if the modification is disclosed why would I care?
Yes it's illegal under the DMCA and hence not surprising, that doesn't mean people aren't "disturbed" when unjust laws are enforced.
I'd be disturbed if someone was sent to jail for three months because they cheated on their wife in New York even though that's what the law says.
I can't comprehend how this should be a *criminal* offense.
Really? This person is so dangerous we need to lock him in a metal cage for ten years?
I agree if we allowed people to completely, freely, brazenly enable piracy on a commercial scale, there might be some damage to the production of video games that might hurt us all. Confiscate the guy's hardware, take his profits, and figure out how many consoles he sold, and fine him the cost of, say, two or three video games per console.
Honestly, it's this kind of batshit-insane loss of all perspective that makes young people hate The Establishment so much. I swear, if prison times reflected actual *physical peril* that someone represents to society and fines represented *actual damages* (plus a slight disincentive (like 10%, not 10,000%)) the relationship between authority and youth in this country would be dramatically different.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Drug_paraphernalia#Legal_restrictions
And hundreds, if not thousands, of violent crime offenders go without jail time every week. I love a functining legal system.
It functions as it was built to function.
In the American federal system, violent crimes are traditionally prosecuted at the state and local level.
The federal government has no general criminal jurisdiction outside of Washington D.C., its island territories, military bases, Indian reservations, and similiar enclaves.
The Secret Service was orginally organized to fight counterfeiting - a purely economic crime with an interstate dimension. ICE is the criminal enforcement division of the customs and immigration service - and these are not guys you want to fool around with.
Violent offenders who do enter the federal system get hammered. There is little willingness to plea bargain. When the judge says twenty-five years to life, you serve twenty-five years to life.
What gets me is this... all many writers in mainstream outlets have to do to get an opinion on how ridiculous their tech writing is would be call up one of their solid I.T. guys at their organization.
But the arrogance level of most reporters is way too high to admit that some tech guy (a job that holds a lowly place in their mind) might know more about this stuff then they do. They are way to self-absorbed to think that they might be getting it wrong. But they are actually good writers so they can put it into a piece and make it make sense therefore people without tech knowledge think it's legitimate white all the people with any tech knowledge are laughing their ass off behind their backs...
shit! I guess I know why I'm not a copy editor now...
Link
The 750k jobs is a dubious claim from 1986 about counterfeit goods. The $250 billion is a 1993 figure given for the worldwide market of, again, counterfeit goods.
But it seems because he is disabling a 'circumvention device' it is a criminal issue.
He's disabling an anti-circumvention device. If he was disabling a circumvention device, he'd be restoring protection to a modded system.
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
Besides the fact that this shouldn't be illegal...
The most frightening part of this is that you can kill someone and get less jail time. How can this be seen as a greater threat to society than killing someone?
Remember the case of PGP? Phil Zimmermann faced more then 15 years for just publishing in Internet source of his cryptography program, based on published in books algorithms.
As Time Robbins said in the flick "Yeah. The funny thing is - on the outside, I was an honest man, straight as an arrow. I had to come to prison to be a crook." I fear we'll be turning a whole generation into crooks for mild infractions.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
"Specifically, the college student is accused of modifying for personal financial gain technology affecting control or access to a copyrighted work, according to an ICE statement."
Specifically, that's not very specific. Was he selling pirated games or modded consoles or possessing and not paying for pirated games or modding consoles? I'm assuming the former, but the article is a tad murky outside of the piracy = evil stance. If it is the former, than yeah, he broke the law and was selling non-taxed counterfeit goods, something that will send you to jail. I may not agree with that sentencing, but you don't screw with Mama Gov't and her bread and butter.
If it is a latter, then this is entirely messed up, though I couldn't imagine a judge sending a 27 year old to prison for 10 years for two counts of stealing a game or ordering a mod chip. You know, cruel and unusual punishment and all. Maybe this will finally shine some light on the nuke-kills-ant mentality of the DMCA, though I seriously doubt that. I'm sure it will probably be used as another 'you act like children, we'll treat you like children' scenario.
Look, we all know that the DMCA is evil and has been repeatedly abused. This is not one of those cases. The guy was modding consoles for profit. You can go on and on all you like about homebrew, but *you* know, *I* know, and *everyone else* knows that's not why he was doing it. He was doing it so cheap bastards can play copied games. This has nothing to do with your rights. If there was no DMCA, he'd be gotten on other laws - this was just the most convenient one. He's a stupid-ass student criminal, plain and simple. Now, feel free to debate the severity of the sentence - that's legitimate. But defending him as some noble kid who got put down by "the man" just hurts our cause. Pick your battles, people.
And also, stop putting out the crap of "why aren't they working the important cases?". Ever think that some officers/agents are assigned to different areas based on their expertise? And perhaps putting these cops on the homicide or gang squad isn't going to catch a killer or shut down a gang any faster? To put it in terms you'll understand, you don't want the guy who wrote Notepad working on the kernel. Just because you have resources spent on many tasks, does NOT mean that putting them all on a particular task will get that task done any sooner or better. I would have thought technical people would have understood resource allocation better, but the amount of stupid and kneejerk reaction around here really surprises me sometimes.
Welcome to Slashdot. I must be old here...
I don't know what kind of crack I was on, but I suspect it was decaf.
So, you solution to people breaking the law is to do away with the law. What an interesting suggestion. What laws should we do away with? Just the ones you don't like? Or should we include the ones I don't like as well?
Of course, getting rid of the ones I don't like could very well be fatal to you.
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
When you buy a game console, does the store have you sign some licensing document? No? Then the "you don't own, you're just licensing" theory is a steaming pile of horseshit.
These game consoles are the rightful property of their owners, who can rightfully use them in an consensual act, including hiring someone to repair or modify them.
Ah, but most of the consoles people care about these days haven't reached the age of consent...
Bow-ties are cool.
Let's be honest here; they do charge you by the button press on your game pad if they can get away with it. With the way things are shaping up of late, I would be surprise if they aren't in another decade.
ELOI, ELOI, LAMA SABACHTHANI!?
We Didn't Listen!
A unique way to learn a language: http://languageloom.com
How the fuck are we, the average americans, supposed to do fucking anything about the laws that are written? I vote. I don't believe voting does fuck all in this broken system, but it's all I have. Going to a protest will get me arrested. Posting on the internet will get me ignored. Writing a letter will get me an insincere and derogatory reply that lacks any consideration. There is NOBODY WHO WILL LISTEN.
Why can't the rest of the world understand? Some of us are TRAPPED here having to deal with these unjust laws as an accident of birth. Many of us don't have the resources to leave. What are we supposed to do? How are we supposed to change the world around us?
I can see guys in vans stopping next to you at a stop light saying "pssst.... hey man you want to buy a hacked console?"
I think laziness and incompetence is the culprit here, less so than arrogance, although that may still play a part some of the time. The writer of that article probably thinks he understands the issue, and never bothered to check if he was getting something wrong.
If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
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Here you go. Another comparison for you to attempt.
Who benefits from this?
The MAFIAA.
Who owns the media? Who tells you what to think every day, through almost every channel you get information from? Who owns the publishing industry?
The Democrats.
Who would put somebody in prison for ten years for this 'crime', but would never imprison a 'rabbi' who sexually tortures babies and sucks their penises?
Citation needed.
Clearly that's doing a lot of good.
Game... blouses.
What's the problem with counterfeiting anyway? If I can afford a Rolex, why shouldn't I just get a fake at a lower price and get some of the benefits? I'd only have a problem if a fake was fraudulently sold as the real deal.
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he is alleged to have said "FASCISM should more properly be called corporatism, because it combines the power of the business sector with the power of the state".
I knew that was wrong, but SO many people here may not... C'mon, Mods, get with the program!
Uh, they do that. There are thousands of laws. Many not enforced in practice.
If they enforced them all, they might not even get out of their neighborhood. Might be a bit like Robocop when he was loaded with hundreds of directives :).
According to the laws in Michigan, committing adultery would get you a life sentence. Seems the courts and prosecutors there are talking about repealing the relevant law. So that's selective prosecution as well.
But you know, maybe one should take a poll of betrayed spouses (and maybe even their children) and ask them what their opinion on adultery is. Do they view it as less or more negative than being mugged at gunpoint? How about being beaten up (but resulting in no broken bones or major scarring)? I won't be surprised if many of them would get over being mugged at gunpoint far more easily.
The average sentence for robbery in the 1st degree when armed with a deadly weapon (not necessarily a gun) appears to be 10 years.
http://www.cga.ct.gov/2000/rpt/olr/htm/2000-r-0510.htm
Of course one has to factor in that a robber could in theory more easily rob more people than a person could commit adultery with. Perhaps a robber is a danger to more people and thus should be put in jail for longer?
Welcome to the New World Order! What? Did you think that nothing would change? Info wars dot com.
Seriously? Are there legitimate applications for modifying an odometer other than cheating people?
There are legitimate reasons to jailbreak an iPhone, or a game console: running unsigned binaries on equipment you own.
The government shouldn't take your liberty to protect a business model.
True. But it is usually an effort to cheat the game programmers/studios/publishers out of their work.
Well then just like with an odometer alteration, where you have to show that fraud took place in order for it to be a crime, and the crime is fraud not odometer-diddling, here they should have to demonstrate that he actually made unauthorized copies of games, and then that would be the crime. Not modifying game consoles.
But because we have a shit law in the DMCA, even if nobody was copying games illegally, it would still be a crime.
The enemies of Democracy are
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"There is no piracy going on"
This is laying it on a bit thick given that the number one reason to mod a console is to play pirated games. I'm sure Crippen will be performing his Claude Rains impression in court that he was shocked, shocked to find out his customers were coming to him to enable pirated game play. Plus this guy is not some hobbyist, he is doing it for profit. This guy is exactly the criminal Congress had in mind when they drafted the DMCA.
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you mention a very important distinction. There is a huge difference between marketing the modding service to simply run unsigned code, even for legal uses (XBMC comes to mind), and telling people that his for-profit service will allow them to play pirated games. I wouldn't want to be him if the plaintiffs decide to call his customers to the stand and ask why they wanted their xboxes modded.
To continue with the jailbroken iPhone analogy, there is a world of difference between jailbreaking with the intent of running SwirlyMMS or Winterboard, and jailbreaking to run Crackulus. The former are simply unsigned apps that Apple won't let me run. The latter is designed to simplify the pirating of official apps. The former are officialy distributed via Cydia directly from the writers, the latter is not. Pirating applications using crackulus is and should be illegal. Making jailbreaking illegal because of this is pointless, because iPhone app pirates are already committing an illegal act, thus adding another to the list isn't likely to dissuade them.
How does modding a console pollute the environment or endanger the safety of other people?
Those laws you refer to are actually for our safety. The DMCA is to safeguard corporate America's profits.
Maybe someone here can explain this statement in the article because I just don't get it!
"Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers."
"significant health and safety risks to consumers"??? You've gotta be frikin' kidding me!
As a starting point I would suggest that "shit laws" would include any law making actions that are not harmful to others (or their property) illegal. I would think that this isn't a controversial choice. Preventing people from rewiring a computer that they own (or paying someone else to do it) would fit this definition nicely.
"Welcome to our world. We are the wasted youth. And we are the future too." Yes, I know these are stupid lyrics.
I'm curious if something like Wiibrew counts as circumvention. I used the Twilight Hack to install the Homebrew Channel. Mostly I use it for listening to my favorite radio station on the nice stereo in the living room. Though, I have downloaded some of the free applications from the website. I bought the Space Quest collection and play it under Dosbox* on the Wii on my TV. In the future, I might consider playing Gauntlet on it, though I might buy a used NES version to make myself feel better about it.
Is that so wrong?
-l
* I tried the ScummVM port, but it was crashy. The only problem with Dosbox on Wii is the mouse emulation for the Wiimote.
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The problem there is that we all seem to have this sense of entitlement. Many people apparently don't consider it an option to simply do without these things.
I can't think of a car analogy, so I'll think of a soft drink analogy. Imagine a market for cola in which 50 million people drink Pepsi and 50 million drink Coke. If a million Pepsi drinkers stop drinking cola, Pepsi's market share drops to 49.5 percent. But if instead a million Pepsi drinkers switch to Coke, Pepsi's market share drops further: to 49 percent. So letters to PepsiCo stating "I'm switching to Coke" would appear more effective than just stating "I'm not drinking Pepsi anymore".
Honestly, its hard enough to justify buying such crippled hardware in the first place. Now the evil capitalist pigs are going after people who want to use their hardware as a multi-function device?
This nation (and California) have sold out to the entertainment industry. They produce a bunch of brainless drones who have no real technical knowledge (except for clicking buttons). God forbid someone actually learn how to get more out of a device they *paid for* and *own*.
I do wish the game industry would crash again (as it did in the "80s. The publishers have no respect for the customers. I do everything I can do drive the game business down. I only buy used, older titles. :)
could lose 10 years of his freedom for providing the service of altering hardware.
Yeah he could lose 10 years of his life because he lost the gamble that he wouldn't be prosecuted for something he probably knew was illegal.
I don't understand the righteous indignation of law breakers caught breaking the law.
And before the anti-dmca idiots can say so, we live in a state that is governed by the rule of law.
Don't like the law? Then change it by any legal means available to you. But please quit bitching when someone gets arrested for breaking it.
Set up a fund for this guy's legal defense and try to take it to the supreme court but please enough with the crap.
Why bother
The 'corporations' referenced by corporatism does include business groups, but also includes trade unions and guilds, military organizations, religious groups, farming lobbies, etc...
So Mussolini's conception of corporatism involves rule by unions. In that case, is there a place for a consumers' union?
So yes, it is definitely a legal grey area. Basically, it is illegal to sell/make modchips and provide modification servcies in the United States IF their primary and only real purpose is to get around a copy protection measure.
Console modification has the primary purpose of enabling the play of legal imported games and fair use backups, as well as enable the use of homebrew code that GREATLY expands the capabilities of the system (a perfect example of this is Xbox Media Center for the original xbox) and thus isn't just about bypassing a copy protection measure to enable piracy. In fact, if you have an original xbox and your hard drive dies, the only way to replace it is with a chip or with a TSOP flash, as the stock bios doesn't recognize non-locked hard drives (and the drives don't just have to be locked, they need to be locked with the key stored on the onboard eeprom). A modchip/tsop flash with a modified bios lets you bypass all that nonsense and just use any standard IDE/ATA hard drive with the system.>
The DMCA is a seriously terrible law to begin with. It fundamentally changes the way traditional copyright has always worked, and violates consumer rights in the name of helping big business. To quote one of my law textbooks on it:
As a side note, nowhere does the DMCA say it is illegal to USE or BUY modchips, just to make and sell them. So that leaves the end user (you) in the clear so long as they're not using it for piracy.
The sellers and makers of "anti-circumvention" devices and services on the other hand seem to be where the law is aimed at, and while I honestly don't believe the DMCA applies to chips and modding servcies, apparently the US government and the gaming industry disagree.
The only precedent for chip sales and the DMCA I could find was a September, 2006 case in which Sony sued Divineo (SCEA vs Divineo Inc, et al(457 F. Supp. 2d 957; 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74878; 81 U.
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power." -- Benito Mussolini
from:
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/fascism_should_more_appropriately_be_called/163211.html
Unless, of course, the re-wiring job resulted in overheat and a fire killing people. But, that is just crazy talk, right?
Here, let me make your post more clear:
There is no "-1 offended" or "-1 you don't agree with me" mod options for a reason.
It appeared in a translation of Mussolini's work Enciclopedia Italiana. More here:
http://www.publiceye.org/fascist/corporatism.html
We question the ethics of the arresting officials, but we understand the issues. Do we honestly think whoever processed this warrant comprehends what it means to "hack" a console? That sounds evil and nefarious. Compare it to if someone said your car was boosted - that could mean it was stolen or that you put a new turbo in it. Yet we blissfully embrace ignorance, choosing to perpetuate these loaded terms. Not only the popular media, but Slashdot too apparently. (Console "modding" carries with it a much different perception.)
The best thing about a boolean is even if you are wrong, you are only off by a bit.
For bonus points, when I blew away "PC Angel"'s hidden partition full of restore data, was that a violation of the DMCA? How 'bout when I changed the BIOS passwords? When I flashed my firmware?
Next they'll arrest me for installing (or even just having an executable copy of) nmap.
His involvement will follow him forever, conviction or not. Basically, his life is over.
"The Brady Bunch is back...working homicide"
when we don't like a law, a violation is described in the most vauge terms possible so as to make it sound even more inane than it really is.
I don't believe the DMCA anti-circumvention clause is a good law. I'm also disinclined to believe that this guy's clients were on the up-and-up, though I'd have a hard time finding evidence that meets the criminal standard of proof to convince me one way or the other. As it stands, the criminal law doesn't hinge on that quesiton, though.
Regardless of my personal view of the law, what I really want to rant about at the moment, is this ridiculous description of the act in question - he just modified some hardware! Gee, O.J. Simpson probably just flailed his arms around a bit, and he was found liable for wrongful deaths. Bernie Madhoff just provided a financial service, and look what happened to him!
The details and the context are everything. Don't discredit those who oppose the current law by misrepresenting what the law addresses.
I love how people here take his side..but he was SELLING his service of circumventing disk protection. If he was not selling the service I would have supported him too. I would still say no more then 6 months jail time and maybe a stiffer fine however...
Whine about it all you want. Want some real action?
Vote with your wallet, stop buying stuff that has ridiculous strings attached to it.
Mandatory term limits! Clean out ALL the incumbents in congress in 2010!
You know, with cases like this, I sometimes wonder : do these people facing incredible charges - thinking also of that woman who had to pay quadrizillions for downloading one album on bittorrent - actually exist, or are they faked just to scare people ?
I was trying to suggest laws that ban actions that have no effect on anyone else (I admit that phrasing it as harm rather than effect was probably a mistake). I thought it would be uncontroversial because people can't really have too many objections to things that don't harm (or affect to use the better phrasing) them.
Unless, of course, the re-wiring job resulted in overheat and a fire killing people. But, that is just crazy talk, right?
Failure to do things safely can affect others and wouldn't fit into the suggested criteria for shit laws.
self-serving asshole.
Who else would I serve?
"Welcome to our world. We are the wasted youth. And we are the future too." Yes, I know these are stupid lyrics.
cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue
There are now three keys to the Constitution:
Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?
So yes, it is definitely a legal grey area. Basically, it is illegal to sell/make modchips and provide modification servcies in the United States IF their primary and only real purpose is to get around a copy protection measure.
Console modification has the primary purpose of enabling the play of legal imported games and fair use backups, as well as enable the use of homebrew code that GREATLY expands the capabilities of the system (a perfect example of this is Xbox Media Center for the original xbox) and thus isn't just about bypassing a copy protection measure to enable piracy. In fact, if you have an original xbox and your hard drive dies, the only way to replace it is with a chip or with a TSOP flash, as the stock bios doesn't recognize non-locked hard drives (and the drives don't just have to be locked, they need to be locked with the key stored on the onboard eeprom). A modchip/tsop flash with a modified bios lets you bypass all that nonsense and just use any standard IDE/ATA hard drive with the system.>
The DMCA is a seriously terrible law to begin with. It fundamentally changes the way traditional copyright has always worked, and violates consumer rights in the name of helping big business. To quote one of my law textbooks on it:
As a side note, nowhere does the DMCA say it is illegal to USE or BUY modchips, just to make and sell them. So that leaves the end user (you) in the clear so long as they're not using it for piracy.
The sellers and makers of "anti-circumvention" devices and services on the other hand seem to be where the law is aimed at, and while I honestly don't believe the DMCA applies to chips and modding servcies, apparently the US government and the gaming industry disagree.
The only precedent for chip sales and the DMCA I could find was a September, 2006 case in which Sony sued Divineo (SCEA vs Divineo Inc, et al(457 F. Supp. 2d 957; 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 74878; 81 U.S.P
He broke the law, he should take the punishment. There is no way he didn't know that what he was doing was against the law. Yet he did it anyway. Even if the law is completely ridiculous, it can still be enforced. Take responsibility for your actions.
As a side note:
IF YOU DON'T LIKE THE LAW, GET IT CHANGED! Write to your representatives. Sue the companies. Start a campaign to get the law changed. If enough people stand up and demand change, it can happen. It is your right and responsibility, as an American, to raise your voice if you feel you are being treated wrongly by your government.
Otherwise, leave the country. Emigrate to a different country. Maybe you'll like their laws better.
*but I doubt it*
Does this count as Godwin's Law?
If you could buy a modded Xbox/PS3/Wii at BestBuy, would you even consider the non-modded version?
Would you ever pay money for another game?
Yes. Buying a game is a vote with my dollars for more games / sequels from that company. (For the same reason, I buy games either near release or used.) Piracy has been nearly trivial on pretty much every console ever. No one buys games because piracy is too hard.
"Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers"
Ok, WTF? If I use a mod chipped console then how will that effect my "health and safety"? It seems like whenever the government wants to pull the wool over citizens eyes for ulterior motives they tell us that whatever they are doing is for our own "health and safety". No doubt the MAFIAA would like to have Joe Sixpack believe that using mod chips causes blindness, brain cancer and impotence but why should the public money be spent tracking down console modders? If the MAFIAA wants to bust these guys then they should foot the bill, not the much beleagured American taxpayer who is already reeling from the prospect of paying for ever increasing bailout deficits and a US Government take-over of the health care system.
If you really are outraged about how the legal system is working and how the law has progressed than you need to do something about it. One easy way is learn about Jury Nullification and tell your friends about. It only takes one person in twelve understanding the power available to them by this concept to stop this kind of prosecution.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jury_nullification
Player HATER.... doh!
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
This is bullshit, but it's one person who made himself obvious. As much as I'd love to see these awful laws overturned, it's easier to make breaking them a natural habit for everyone so that one day the laws will be forgotten to all but the most pragmatic.
Of course, that won't actually work, because we all know that Orwell was right and the government is destined to have the all-seeing eye and will eventually have the resources to pacify every thought-criminal. Instead we should focus on la revolution.
"Most people, I think, don't even know what a rootkit is, so why should they care about it?"
This guy was hacking systems, to make money for himself, so that people could allow their systems to read pirated games, because they are thiefs and don't want to pay people who worked hard to create the games. No ifs ands or butts about it. If you wrote a book, and someone went out and copied all those books and sold them and reaped the profit for it when they did jack sh*t, don't you think that would be illegal? What you are going to say is that this is a bad analogy, because the guy wasn't copying games. But he was allowing the systems to play copied games, without which the people copying games would have no job. And he is therefore an accomplice. And should be punished. Pot smokers support drug dealers supports the drug trade which results in countless deaths and costs each year. The drug user is just as guilty in creating the drug trade. This guy is just as guilty in the piracy. Boo Hoo.
I can really go for a starbux right now but i dont think we have time for a gentleman's late........ only in america can a man be prisoned for for interupting someone from watching ouch my balls!
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There are legitimate reasons why you may wish to "circumvent" the copy-protection on your game console. For instance, suppose you have a XBox, and you want to run the XBox Media Center (xmbc.org) on it. Guess what! The XBox won't run unsigned code. XBMC is not signed. The only way to run XBMC (the "award winning free and open source software") on the XBox (which you **own**) is to either install a modchip, or use a "softmod" -- both of which actually do "circumvent" the copy-protection scheme in the XBox. A Federal Crime. That's a sad state of affairs, and why the DMCA is bad.
Modding your console for your own personal use to run F/OSS software (or something else) is not going to attract the attention of the feds.
Running a business (that's the "for personal financial gain" in the complaint) modifying game consoles so people can run bootleg (or other stolen) games -- well, that is criminal behavior. This guy had it coming to him.
there are 3 kinds of people:
* those who can count
* those who can't
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I admit I'm probably over-generalizing "you." Maybe a tiny handful of you, Slashdot users, actually did. But most of you voted for keeping DMCA. I did too. I hate DMCA, but when I was in the booth, for all seats in Congress in all the time since DMCA became law, I voted exclusively for Democrat and Republican candidates. No one else was running, in my state. Presidents have been the only positions where I've voted against the worst of the bad guys, and I'm not even sure my presidential candidates actually favored repealing DMCA. I don't remember them talking about that particular law.
Name a candidate for any office, legislative or executive, that ran on repealing DMCA. If you can name one, then: did you vote for him? Three presidents and hundreds of congressmen can't be wrong, especially when the voters continually say they are right.
If we want government to not be evil, then we need some serious candidates for government. Who is willing to actually step up and run on a non-evil platform?
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
This is exactly what happens. A significant proportion, even a majority of newspaper articles are touched-up PR pieces.
What is important to understand is why. It is not because journalists are lazy or corrupt. But there have been huge cuts to staff over the past couple of decades as media companies became larger and more concentrated. The news business has become part of the entertainment business, and is expected to generate similar profits. Just as TV networks produce cheap reality TV instead of expensive dramas, news organizations are forced to to more with less. Local news has been cut, foreign offices have been cut, and expertise has been cut.
PR people take advantage of this. They send journalists nice, neat summaries of issues. If you're a journalist who needs to file a certain quantity of content in a short time-frame, this helps you do your job. Journalists use the PR materials because they need to in order to keep their jobs.
The whole system sucks. It's broken. But it doesn't do much good to blame the folks writing the articles. I have been interviewed several times about copyright. The journalists impressed me. They were thoughtful, intelligent people who wanted to understand. But they didn't have much time.
Those of us in the copyfight need to do the same thing the PR flacks from Big Content do. We need to make the journalists' jobs easier. Give them the press releases, the summary sheets at relevant times and events, point them to concise resources. Make it easy for them to report accurately, and many of them will.
Unless, of course, the re-wiring job resulted in overheat and a fire killing people. But, that is just crazy talk, right?
What part of "harmful to others" did you not understand, fuckwit?
"Industry and trade associations estimate that counterfeiting and piracy now cost the U.S. economy as much as $250 billion a year and a total of 750,000 American jobs."
Where is this money going?!? Are pirates burning the money or something? I cannot understand how this money disappears.
To me it would seem that this actually introduces money to the economy. This guy hacks consoles for a fee, thus creating "money." Since there is a monetary transaction, this is good for the economy, at least in the short run. But why are people paying this student for his services? To save money that they would have otherwise spent on games!
What's happening to that money that they have saved? That must be the money that the pirates are burning, since it isn't going back into the economy, that is, if we are to believe the "Industry and trade associations." In reality, that money is either being spent or saved. If these console hacker customers are spending the money, then the economy benefits in the short run, and, indirectly, the long run. If it is saved, it should still benefit the economy in the long run, as it makes more money available for loans, which would then be used to make business more efficient, allowing for job creation, or just spent outright on a house or car or something.
So how is this piracy costing the economy jobs? I just donâ(TM)t get it. I get that this is costing the âoeindustry and trade associationsâ money, and thus costing money to all those who are along the supply lines of the video games, but really, this money is just being spent elsewhere, not disappearing.
Now donâ(TM)t get me wrong. I think that this guy deserves to be punished. He broke the law and should be punished. I do not agree with piracy and understand the harm that it does to the creative process. Less money for video game makers means worse games, etc. I just hate this specific argument.
But then I realized the cable was blue, so I only gave it one star. I hate blue.
I'm dissappointed at the comments on this website. It seems very few of you read the source article that this originated from. The "kid" is 27 years old and is altering the consoles for PROFIT. There is a line in this little piracy game that you cannot cross without putting yourself at risk of breaking some laws and landing yourself in prison. That line is distribution.
I am capable of learning how to mod consoles and profit from it because it is illegal and hurts our country. He is not paying taxes on his income, causing hundreds if not thousands of video games not to be sold, causing a loss of revenue to businesses that in turn takes jobs away from people like me.
Do you remember the Minnesota woman who was fined 1.9 million for downloading 24 songs? That is false, She was distributing them. Anyone who is arrested for distributing is a moron. If you are capable of doing what he is, then keep it to yourself and friends. It will then not result in an investigation that lands you in prison. Why should any of you be on his side? What he is doing hurts you!
This is just so outrageous. This was from the article from an ICE agent âoePiracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers,â he said. What? There are LOTS of reasons to mod a system that do not cost any jobs, any loss in revenue or any health and safety risks to customers. To backup a copy of a game I bought, I shouldn't have to buy it again. To create homebrew software to run on a system (It's just a computer in a fancy case) I shouldn't have to open a huge development studio, to learn about how circuits work and possibly be the guy who develops the next gen system, you shouldn't have to go to jail. The DMCA has been twisted in to all kinds of garbage. Its original purpose is good and all, to prevent people from illegally distributing digital goods, but the things it's been used against customers is appalling. I'm already boycotting the RIAA, Microsoft Xbox, Nintendo and Sony will follow.
You think the laws are shit? Vote for decent politicians. Harrass the reps that are voted in with letters and phone calls. Yeah I didn't think so.
You could also go make your own country.
"Counterfeiting and piracy have grown in recent years in both magnitude and complexity, according to ICE. Industry and trade associations estimate that counterfeiting and piracy now cost the U.S. economy as much as $250 billion a year and a total of 750,000 American jobs."
He altered the consoles, he as far as the report says, was not copying games or selling pirated versions of games.
You can have chips in cars replaced to remove RPM limiters, You can't then blame the person who installed it if the owner THEN breaks the law.
But throw up a smoke screen of he's a pirate, and everyone wants him to burn.
Counterfeiting and piracy are bad things, these people do it with the motivation of making money.
Little Joey down the street who downloads a song to see if an album is worth buying, should never be thought of in this category, but all consumers are thought of as thieves now.
$250 Billion - are these numbers backed by actual hard facts, or just parroting the special math allowed to big IP owners?
750,000 jobs - thankfully these people were purged so that the execs could keep their bonuses, they are to big to fail after all. So what if they keep technology and innovation out of the marketplace, their dinosaur business model must survive!
Want to do something shitty? Blame it all on piracy.
"Guess it's time to kick a few dollars over to the EFF."
I don't know how effective the EFF is at lobbying, but perhaps it would be more efficient to contact your congressional representatives who have the actual power to vote on these matters.
I guess its time for me to destroy all evidence of my modded xbox. I can hear the feds coming now.
A thousand people saying "this is wrong". That's the easy part. The question is, What Are You Going To Do About It???
1. It is not clear whether he received pay on his suspension date. The pay he received was part of the time due to the investigation, when he was placed on leave.
2. He did not run down the child. He (merely) struck the child. In other words, there was no pursuit, no intention to hit the child. This was manslaughter not murder in the first/second.
3. He's still subject to other punishment, and probably a civil case soon.
4. Yes, 10 years would still be an insane amount of time for what equates to money lost on the order of a few thousand dollars by his clients. But I strongly doubt that he'd get the ten years. Remember: this is a maximum penalty, not a minimum.
by jumping into Chinese, Russian, Mexican, or Swedish embassy where these countries respect IP laws.
New Economic Perspectives
It's rather silly to blame yourself for not voting against the DMCA when you literally did not have the option.
How is modifying a console an attempt to cheat someone?
The Nuremberg defendants were charged with crimes against humanity - and, and among the specific changes, the crime of institutionalized murder on an industrial scale. That is why the defense of "just following orders" does not work. They were the ones giving the orders.
(Emphasis mine).
This makes no sense.
Does the "just following orders" defense not work because the magnitude of the crime, or does the defense not work because "they were the ones giving the orders?" You need to pick one. Or, if both are the reason, you need to put the second clause before the phrase "that is why" or it doesn't make any fucking sense.
(Incidentally, the people claiming to have been following orders during the Nuremberg trials were not the ones giving the orders. I mean, just how fucking stupid is that? "I'm sorry, your honor, but I was just following my own orders.")
Of course! Didn't you watch Live Free or Die Hard?
I think you completely missed his point. Try rereading his post.
What is next 10 years for loading Linux?, 10 years for using a non dell video card in a dell system when you can get the same card for $100 less at a on line store vs dell BTO, 10 years for not using apples over priced ram?
What if you got 10 years for non using the car dealership to change your oil as the car has a light only they can turns off and they call it hacking if you trun it off or jiffy lube does it for you.
If the people at pystar are not looking at 10 years why is this kid?
If you have non-minimal gov, there is power to be bought, and the political system is the auction. Who has $ to buy power?
Thus, corporations and special interests come to dominate in some mix of oligopoly.
People have a mix of traits, which we call human nature. Among those traits is a complete inability to NOT take advantage of the situation we are in. Thus, spouse abuse, elder abuse, child abuse and abuse of trusts of all kinds.
Human nature is the constant in history, we recognize all of this in all of written history.
SO, if you want to change things, you fix the problem of non-minimal government. The early US experience wasn't perfect, by any means, but it was and is the best technology of gov so far. We know a lot more about the specification of systems than the people who wrote the Constitution, should be able to do a better job next time.
You can already run unsigned binaries on an XBox 360, just go download the XNA dev kit. You can run unsigned binaries on a PS3 too, go install Linux.
There seems to be a mass delusion on Slashdot that there are armies of wannabe home-brew console developers out there, when 99.9% of people who get their console modded want to play pirate games. End of story. And yeah, I think inconveniencing a tiny minority of people from selling (!) modded consoles is alright to encourage better and more numerous games, so sue me. If you want a 100% open platform, buy a PC.
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Would you be "disturbed" if someone went to jail for modifying odometers on automobiles?
Extremely, since modifying an odometer is not a crime. Trying to defraud someone by lying and claiming it is true when you know it isn't is a crime. The odometer being wrong is not. You modifying it is not.
So yes. Being put in jail for doing something that is not a crime, would disturb me.
In fact, the DMV has a specific form to fill out if your odometer is off and by how much and how you determined that.
One common case is changing out the odometer with a 2nd hand part. Another common case is driving for more than a couple weeks on different sized tires than the current odometer is calibrated for.
Another common reason is changing an engine. Miles is only tracked PER ENGINE, not per car. You are not required to sell your odometer with the engine.
In fact, if you never plan to sell the car, you can almost ignore all of those laws. They only come into play when you hand off ownership and inform them of the total millage on the engine.
Never sell it, it never matters.
Both are examples of modifiying hardware in an effort to cheat someone, and both are against the law.
In this case, I will admit that is most likely true. But it is so far from a given that the way you state it is always true sickens me.
My 3 xbox are modded. Not a single pirated game on them either. I use it for xbox media center and watching video files on my TV.
Since you are clearly arguing that a mod has no other intent than defrauding game programmers, you are trying to claim the fact I pirate no games, is the very and only reason game developers are going out of business.
I guess you share the blame with me, since you purchased some eggs at the store thus defrauding the game companies (Eggs and TV have the same lack of relevance to game companies here)
You don't want to go to jail? Don't break criminal laws.
You seem to be under the impression that going to jail has anything to do with breaking laws.
lawls!
Modifying hardware for compatibility reasons is LEGAL. The DMCA you haven't read specifically says so.
Now, while the crime that he did (copying games) is no doubt the Only charge that will stick here, the fact remains is that is the only crime he comitted. When the cops claim he broke one minor law, and did all this other crap that isn't illegal, then one tends to disregard everything they are accusing him of.
And especially don't make a full-time business out of breaking the law..
Tell that to Sony, or Nintendo, or the banks, or car manufacturers, or pretty much most of the top 100 companies in this country.
Breaking the law is factored in under 'expenses'.
Your advice would have prevented them from becoming worth billions, and would be extremely poor advice today. They would laugh at you.
The 10 years is simply the maximum sentence.
If he has no prior convictions, he will likely be sentenced to something substantially less.
But his crime was on a computer.
The magic words 'on a computer' with the rest of the ignorant FUD means he will get slammed with a max sentence.
And you might want to talk to the thousands of people sitting in jail for months still waiting for their trial, or the few people that shared a CD or two and now are in debt for multiple millions of dollars. They would disagree, and anyone who's actually paying attention would say their 100% track record of using the max penalty by default has held true.
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Just think. The cops spent money arresting him and now the jails are spending money. Soon the courts will spend money on him followed by some nice prison expenses. Maybe the tax payers could keep a bit more of their money if law enforcement stops winning in these stupid arrests. Maybe the prison can put some real beast on the street to make room for this guy who has done nothing at all!
You don't want to go to jail? Don't break criminal laws.
You don't want people to break criminal laws? Don't write shit laws.
You don't want shit laws written...don't vote for shitty legislators....uhhhhh nevermind.
I'd understand the kid getting arrested if he was putting in modchips to play pirated software, but was it for that? Or import games?
How come the cops/elected officials/DA, whoever (lets just call them "law enforcement") can track this guy down, but can't find those responsible for stealing my stereo/car/bike?
I guess I should save up for some lobbyists.
Our freedom is threatened more every day. Total control, abuse of authority, repression laws - it's our depressing society. // kyle, PT
The time to kick a few dollars over to the EFF was about 10-12 years ago, before the DMCA was enacted. Still, better late than never. Makes me wish I'd gone to law school instead of becoming an engineer. I keep telling my wife I want to quit my job, go to law school, and then go work for the EFF. If only I could afford it. In the meantime, the EFF is on my short list of charities that I give to when I can.
The Libertarian party has always been the Pirate Party.
Let's get it right:
Voting for opposition candidates gets your phone tapped.
Participating in a protest gets you points on your driver license.
Posting on the internet gets you a sneak-peek warrant.
Writing a letter to your representative gets you disappeared.
The rest of the world is already finished the race toward tyranny and the USA is already in the home stretch.
Submission as evidence constitutes plaintiff and/or prosecutorial misconduct.
Modding a car to go faster is not illegal, but other modifications (such as removing the Cats, tinting the front windshield, installing radar jammer, etc...) are illegal.
SO basically this kid gets screwed up the ass in jail, literally because he modded an XBOX wow. What an asshole, soon he will be robbing liquor stores and selling crack. DOWN WITH THESE CRIMINALS. Yes that was sarcasm.
But cops don't wear Level IV body armor. Level IV body armor is usually a heavy metal/ceramic "impact plate" that covers only the most vital organs in the center of mass. It is generally only found on military infantry, or occasionally on very few SWAT teams. Level IV impact plates are really heavy, bulky, and uncomfortable. They are completely impractical for a patrol officer, and even rarely found in SWAT/Entry teams.
Level III or IIIA soft vests, which is what 99% of cops actually have, is only effective in defending against handgun calibers and shotguns. This is usually 'good enough' for cops since handgun calibers compose the majority of their threat. But don't think cops are trotting around in level IV impact plates, because they're not. The worlds best IIIA vest can't even hold up to 'small' centerfire rifle calibers like 5.56 NATO, 7.62x39mm. And even Level IV impact plates can only take a couple shots from big game calibers like .30-06 or .300 Win Mag before failing.
Ok us, 30 year olds that grew up with computers, through the bbs years, and warez scene.... with our nes, and our c64, and first macs, and 286s pcs....
We're still a minority relatively speaking.
Give it 40 years...
Those in their teens the past 10 years will have grown up with a better understanding of sharing information due to youtube, torrenting, napster... etc
They will grow up into the leaders of tomorrow. Granted relatively few... but we will have a better chance winning this war once the "infected" are in power :)
Right now... its still the Bush's, the Clintons... and older...
They dont get it and they never will.
This is a new world view that the old will never understand.
The question is... will power and corruption alter the leaders of tomorrow in the same way that it currently does now?
Just maybe we have a chance... that one day someone who grew up as a file sharer, a youtuber, a slashdotter, an anonymous member, etc... just maybe the kids of today will retain some sort of sense of what free information and fair use means to them.
Right now, its hard to be of our generation and in power because so many still are of the old world. So much that we look bad standing up for these issues. BUT.... give it 40 years and we will see many adults around us... who understand because their idea of information will be based on what they do today as a teenager/young adult. On that day we can look around and see others who understand.
Right now its like trying to explain to grandpa how email works.
You don't want to go to jail? Don't break criminal laws.
You don't want people to break criminal laws? Don't write shit laws.
this man is my hero lol.
You make a good point about the "crime". What people do with their modded consoles is up to them. A metaphor would be to say "Albert Einstein's Theories led to the development of atomic weapons" (for example), so does that mean it's his fault? Of course not.
I think it's fair enough for him to charge for modding - he should be able to put value on his time for performing the service and procurement of the mod-chips etc. He was not selling pirated games.
I think there is this American fantasy that because you can all vote and own property, there is no such thing as privilege and power. Feudal kings didn't have the sort of relative wealth that these people do - whatever made you think that your legal system wasn't going to be just as rigged to make their behaviour legal and yours not?
Take the money away from them, or get used to being a serf. But please stop complaining that their wealth makes them powerful, as if the world was some sort of game where they have to play fair.
Modifying hardware or software in any manner that makes it function differently than it was intended has long been illegal (unless specified), and with good reason. What if this 'student' created a bomb out of the components instead? Should they allow that too? What if his modified XBOX blows up in the customers face. Who is responsible? And why the hell should this individual profit from thousands of people's real hard work in researching and developing the games and consoles? What right does he have to deprive these people of their profits? Just because he knows how to? He deserves the punishment he's getting.
All my teens I grew up hearing that America is a free country but what I see today is exactly opposite. A guy can loose 10 years of his life for modifying a circuit ? And the homeland security is after a college guy instead of chasing a criminal ? Clearly this seems to be an act written by a manger who is trying to spoil others lives just to save his high paying job... or homeland security guys are getting scared of being laid off in times of recession so they are running after low hanging fruit like college kids to rake up brownie points in the eyes of seniors ? I cannot understand how can people accept DMCA, something that takes away your freedom. You paid full price for the hardware and you are not allowed to modify it, why ? If this violates the guarantee/warranty I can understand but sracthing the itch becomes a crime can only be classified as blunder by the lawmakers. Each innovation is a modification of an existing design/solution and now laws are being passed not to allow anyone to touch the stuff... If I am not allowed to modify the device that means I am renting the device and I should not be paying full price... this also means manufacturer should take the device back when I am not interested in using it... Looking at so many copyright/DMCA related issues I seriously thinking if the dark age is returning ? You pay full price for something but you dont own it... This is outright stupid... the matter of fact is innovation is dying from US and business are trying to hide behind stupid methods to keep themselves profitable. What is more shocking here is that lawmakers are helping these rich guys and blocking innovation. As if we did not have enough stupid patents to prevent development of lots of new technologies in US, we now have DMCA, RIAA, MPAA and what not. Is the era of freedom ending ? Are we moving from freedom to control ?
>but buying bongs or fashioning pipes out of weird shit is not illegal.
drug paraphernalia is illegal
maybe decriminalized in certain localities (california),
but by and large it is illegal
The Corporation by Joel Bakan. It goes into great depth about how the corporate system works, details all of the issues in this thread. I found it to be a real eye-opener, and will never trust the corporate model again.
"Everyone knows that vi vi vi is the number of the beast" -- Richard Stallman
Police cruiser strikes, kills 10-year-old
Now I remember riding my bicycle at night as a kid, but never in the middle of the road (40mph limit road), without lights, at night, at 10 years old.
Now, cop did what I would do (just run the kid down) as opposed to trying to swerve (and sacrifice his life for the kids).
The 1day suspension is about what you'd expect in America. If it was anyone else in the same situation, they'd get charged with murder, but its always a slap on the wrist for a cop. This wasn't some misidentified innocent unarmed man running away from police with his back turned, a drugged up rape victim holding a 2-inch penknife, or a tiny asian woman chopping vegetables in her own kitchen minding her own business.
Those bastards deserved to get shot to death, this was a 10 year old boy on a bicycle.
Fucked up situation, fucked up police, fucked up parents.
SUBLIME - APRIL 26th 1992
But isn't violating a "business model" a seriouser threat to our homeland security?
"Credit Fraud? My God, that's worse than murder!"
--A line from Max Headroom, a television series about an uploaded personality and his human counterpart that aired in the early 1980s.
What was once hilarious spoof is now reality. The show should be required viewing for anyone living in the developed world of the 21st century.
Other great lines include "I know, let's fire someone" and "Security Systems. In your home, in your place of work, wherever you go, there we are." I used to look forward to science fiction becoming reality--pity our culture seems to have only opted for the dystopian visions becoming reality.
I still don't have my flying car.
The Future of Human Evolution: Autonomy
defense is looking for new recruits but this guy gets 10 years in prison :p The american way ?
beware he who denies you access to information for in his mind, he already deems himself to be your master (SMAC-ish)
"Men, you are all marksmen - don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes." - Israel Putnam
you read 2850 fps as 2850 frames per second, then become confused about the text and skip the rest because of brain deadlock...
I know I'm in the minority here, but he should get jail time!
1. He KNEW modding the systems was illegal, yet he did it anyway.
As for the "what about the customers rights!" arguement.
1. The customer knew the systems had DRM hardware within it, yet the customer bought the system anyway!
2. If the customer was SMART he/she would purchase (or support) another system that had "free to use" standards.
3. Companies like Sony, Nintendo, Microsoft, etc all need to learn what the consumer wants! But that is never going to happen if everyone keeps on supporting the crap they bring out!
This is just like jail-breaking an iPhone - don't do it, instead support the mobile that is "free to use".
Poor bastard.
If he'd emmigrated to Australia FIRST, then he'd be right. It's specifically legal here - we have a supreme court decision on the matter of modding consoles.
If he survives the US crime system without being made into a career crook, he should just come over here and set up a shop doing modding. Reckon that'd get the news headlines back.
And what's with this "lost money and jobs" argument proponents of Intellectual Prisonship keep trotting out? Do they reckon we're all dumbasses or something? Obviously when something is copied by a computer, nothing's been lost in the world - only gained. That so-called "lost" money has already been spent elsewhere in the global economy. In reality it never existed. Sorta like a scammer being pissed someone wised up and he "missed out" on taking a packet of money from a mark.
We always have the option, it's just that the option is exercised long before election day. We can sometimes abandon our duty and miss an election cycle, but DMCA has been on the books for over a decade now. If we still don't have candidates to even run and lose, I can't blame Hollywood.
I don't take all the responsibility, just about a hundred millionth of it. So it's not like there's a lot of self-loathing here. But it's something. I hope everyone reading this, feels their share of the shame, too.
We know what will happen if we wait until November 2010 to act. We can choose that destiny, or try for something else. That's voting. Tonight I'll probably go home and drink beer: another vote to keep DMCA.
"Believe me!" -- Donald Trump
What are our other options? If you're into the "box" thing, we tried the soapbox but theirs was bigger. We tried the ballot box but they owned all the candidates. We tried the jury box but were excluded from the jury. There ain't any boxes left. And the EFF threw in the towel years ago, with 2600 v. MPAA.
I'm not going to have any self-loathing for losing to a juggernaut.
The 9th Appellate court recently ordered the State of California to come up with a plan to reduce their prison population by at least 27% over the next 2 to 3 years. http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/05/us/05calif.html?hp
The order recommends, among many things, a drastic reduction in sentencing non-violent criminals to prison terms. So far the CA AG has taken the position that he will force an appeal to the Supreme Court to fight this ruling. Most Republican/Law and Order mouth-pieces in the State are screaming about the Fed over-reaching it's authority and meddling in State's rights.
Let's see, State violates well established Federal prohibition on cruel and unusual treatment of prison inmates due to gross negligence, over crowding, and over-zealous enforcement/sentencing. Previous order in 2005 is upheld on appeal, but CA GA and Governator pretty much succeed in undermining attempts by court appointed stewards to reform the state prison system.
Now the State has been ordered again on the same cases that appeal failed to stop in 2005. CA GA and the Governator again refuses to cooperate.
The DMCA is pretty clear.... good law or bad law, it is the law.
This kid is probably going to get convicted, mostly for being a stoopid git. Hopefully the 9th Circuit order will lead to this kid getting no more than fines and home detention; a more reasonable sentence fitting of the 'crime.'
The Lesson here is not to be intelligent, learn, and share. Consoles are for being stupid. You are supposed to rot in front of your proprietary hardware. Never learn from it. Think of all the great things society could fail to accomplish by going to prison for 10 years instead of being innovative. What would be the alternative? We could all just wise up and stop buying proprietary hardware, start purchasing open source hardware and tinker with that. Then we could learn, share and sell ideas for things like the Arduino and Lemote Yeeloong laptop. Naaahhhh, give all his money to lawyers, and make him rot. After all, he did spend his money on a proprietary counsel, and no one should do that unless they are willing to waste money and time.
What quote? He must have changed it.
Don't you feel you are getting your moneys worth outta the law enforcement agencies? Gosh I am happy when I see that all the taxes from my hard work are applied so appropriately!
Don't you all just feel as safe and secure as I?