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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."
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.
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.
Funnily enough 750,000 seems to be the go-to figure for jobs, either created or lost. I read "Risk" by Martin Gardener recently and I've found it's great for noticing when people use their memory of other numbers to cue-up made-up stats like these. (That will also take you to some debunkings of those numbers.)
No kidding!!! What do you say at this point?
The fact that guns are used to kill stuff IS the deterrent. Talk about a failure of an analogy.
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 "Socialism 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.
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.
If you haven't realized it already the Legal system is functioning the way it is intended.
Plato states quite clearly that there is no true justice, but the appearance of it is what matters in society. The lower classes of society must believe there is justice else the upper classes may lose their power.
Don't worry however, the DHS has plenty of training manuals stating that people who question the government are possible domestic extremists. There will be a few agents on their way to send you to a re-education camp.
If you have something that you dont want anyone to know, maybe you shouldnt be doing it in the first place -Eric Schmidt
The quote usually given is 'Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the merger of state and corporate power,' not socialism. However as you point out, there is no evidence that he ever made that statement. However, is we presume he did, the important thing to remember is that Mussolini understood what corporatism meant. It does not mean rule by large corporations, in the modern western sense. The 'corporations' referenced by corporatism does include business groups, but also includes trade unions and guilds, military organizations, religious groups, farming lobbies, etc... The idea being that strong government power would be delegated to these groups within their own perspective field of interest, and government itself would be responsible for keeping them from each others' throats, like a pack of rabid dogs.
Good thing you made that correction...socialism is the exact opposite of corporatism. Fascism, at least the way it was implemented by Mussolini and Hitler, was very much corporatist, though. It's really kind of funny how much people scream "socialism" these days when we're so much closer to corporatism than we are to socialism. In socialism, the government controls the industry. In corporatism, the industry (the corporations) control the government. We are much closer to the latter.
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.
Why is this a job of Immigration and Customs enforcement?
In many states in the US, that's not too far from the truth:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Food_libel_laws
Note: if you wear kevlar, a 10gauge to your chest will put you on the ground for at least 30 minutes, thugs with shotguns scare the shit out of cops because their armor does nothing to stop kenetic energy from knocking them over and making it hard to breathe.
Very true, but the perp can just as easily and more effectively use most any rifle. Body armor generally stops slow moving and lighter projectiles - namely most handgun rounds and shotgun loads. Almost all high power rifles (even grandpa's 100 year old .30-06 deer hunting rifle) will punch right through body armor without flinching. You still see "armor piercing" rounds listed for those and people tend to think of those as "cop killer" rounds, but what they don't realize is that "armor piercing" rounds for most rifles are referring to vehicle armor, not personal. Against personal armor it's all armor piercing.
"People who think they know everything are very annoying to those of us who do."-Mark Twain
yeah, that would be criminal too. This is the current state of affairs in your country. Time to wake up!
Votator.com implements a fair voting scheme (free
"Playing pirated games on any device is and should be illegal. Modifying the device in a way that makes it possible to play pirated games should NOT be illegal."
And therein lies the rub. From TFA:
"The Cal State Fullerton student was arrested Monday on federal charges that he illegally modified Xbox, Playstation, Wii and other video game consoles to enable the machines to play pirated video games."
"Specifically, the college student is accused of modifying for personal financial gain technology affecting control or access to a copyrighted work"
'They' aren't trampling your rights to mod the hardware you own. They're trampling this guys (non-existent) right to mod consoles for profit. This isn't some basement hacker getting his door kicked in by the jack booted thugs. He's no different (legally anyway) from guys selling pirated movies.
There are some people that if they don't know, you can't tell 'em.
Watch the video in the story. He was doing 72 in a 40, and department policy forbids him doing that. At least they are "considering" filing additional charges perhaps even criminal. The officer should be thrown in jail for his careless misconduct.
It's a difference of degree, not one of substance. Arresting people for exercising their rights to their property is not as unjust as killing people for their race, but it's still unjust. Perpetrators of unjust acts should not be exempt from the consequences, whether they are paid to do it or not.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I think the actions of building an atomic bomb or a biological weapon should be illegal for the public good. It's too late to prosecute someone for "blowing something up" with a highly-destructive device. As for possessing explosive material - what about ammonium nitrate? It's a high explosive with legitimate uses as a fertilizer. The "act of fiddling" with it is what makes it dangerous, not the inherently useful materials to begin with.
I understand your argument and where you're trying to go with it, but there are many shades of grey here that aren't handled. I'd tend to argue that the cops may be doing something correct by arresting someone who is modding consoles solely for the purpose of copyright violation (which I'd be shocked if he wasn't), but I'd say the main error here is that the potential penalty is too draconian. Furthermore, if they apply DMCA to more legitimate practices, such as modifying the PS3 to run home-made programs that you couldn't otherwise run, the cops should take it on the nose. I haven't heard of that happening; although as crappy as the DMCA is, I won't be surprised to hear it.
the kid's parents for letting him out at night on a bike, without proper safety instruction.
Studies have shown that crossing a street from a sidewalk on a bike can be MORE dangerous than riding in a lane on the street, because drivers are less likely to see you. On "busy streets" in my town, the cops will give cyclists a ticket for riding on the sidewalk.
And regardless, the cop was doing nearly double the speed limit WITHOUT having his lights or siren on.
As with all the EULAs that we so love to hate, no signature is required for it to be actionable. If you see the EULA which states "if you disagree, you must return the product," and then you keep the product (Xbox, CD album, DVD movie, video game, etc.), it is assumed that you agree to the EULA. Yes, I think this is BS just as much as you do. But what should we do with our frustration? I think it boils down to three options:
Except it hasn't been OUR government since WW2. Which is why the Soviets have been gone for a couple of decades now and we are still cranking out super weapons like we are getting ready for WW3. This is why voting is now a pointless exercise, because all it takes is five minutes with a lobbyist and a pen to make your vote meaningless. When bribery is legal and corporations have more protections than people do it is time to just admit the system has failed folks.
Hell Obama did a full 180 and could run against his 2008 self and not have anything in common! That is the power of money. We might as well change the national anthem to "mighty mighty dollar bill" and be done with it. Even my 92 year old grandma who voted every election from 1942 onwards refuses to vote anymore because she thinks it is pointless. It really doesn't matter what we think or believe anymore, you can't compete with big fat checks. Sad but true.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Player HATER.... doh!
Previously: "Linux... Toward the Sunrise..." Now: "Linux... Toward the-- No, now, part of Every Sunrise"
The real question is - should we expect law enforcement officers to be the interpreters of "moral right" and not enforce the law when they take issue with it?
Yes. No person should ever do something they believe is wrong. Henry David Thoreau addressed this issue better than I can:
As for the ignorance issue, you have a responsibility to ensure that your actions are moral. Ignorance of the legal status of your actions will not get you off the hook in court. Ignorance of the moral ramifications of your actions will get you no sympathy from me.
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
No, he's being put away because he profitted helping people play pirated games.
No, he's being put away because he profitted helping people play BACKUP games (and pirated games as a side effect). Do you see how the DMCA is evil, now?
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
@MindKata: "For example, if I buy a console, and then write a manual about how to modify that console, then legally that is wrong."
Is it? I believe I have seen plenty of books on the shelves at B&N that purport teaching you to do something that if you actually carried out the activity described you could be arrested. So I think you're wrong on that score. Did you mean to say "Morally wrong?" cause I'll buy that.
Even so, I think its ridiculous to sentence this guy to term that is equal to the minimum sentence for manslaughter if he is convicted. Someone is out of control, and its not this guy.
Python: 'And then suddenly you have a language which says "we're all stuck with whatever the whiniest coder wants".'
Modifying consoles does not circumvent copyright; claiming that the copyright is connected with a device instead of software or media is both insane and non-productive. Even in the case of original xbox consoles where modifications allowed for games to be stored on the hard drive instead of played from a disc: while it could be argued that the xbox then became a tool toward piracy (people would get the modification and then "rent" games only to rip them to the hd) the hard drive storage was still protected by fair use. Modern console hacks involve the ability to play non-original media, without ever storing the game on the system. While this form of modification is again protected by fair use, the game system cannot be considered to circumvent copyright either.
Console modification can be considered similar to a region free dvd player. You can buy new dvd players at retail which are region free, it's not even the slightest bit illegal - again because the device is not capable of copyright circumvention.
So, what's the difference between me modding my own hardware and then saying "well, done with that fun hack... I'm putting this on eBay so I can get my next toy to see if I can hack it" and this guy hacking the hardware and then selling it? Really, what, specifically is different? Intent?
Good luck making intent illegal without trampling all over everyone's rights.
Before commenting on the Bible, please read it first
Uhhhh....who said ANYTHING about nukes? Nukes were a last resort "got you last" kind of deal and weren't big profit makers anyway. for examples look how much effort it took to finally kill that POS F-22. Why? Big fat checks baby! And I can promise you there are literally hundreds of "bridges to nowhere" lining every defense and civilian budget. Why? Because bribery....errr I mean large PACs and campaign contributions are legal.
Politics shouldn't be a career, it should be like jury duty. We take a pool of our best and our brightest and we 'draft" them for four years. Once drafted they are paid the same salary as they were at their previous job, and the company they worked for has to give them their job back when their "duty" is over. One term, no exceptions. As it is the revolving door between the private sector and "public service" pretty much guarantees that corruption will be rampant. After all, you want that cushy job after your political career is over, don't you?
Without a fundamental reworking of the system like I just described voting is simply a pointless exercise. Does anyone think that McCain would have been ANY different? Nope, he just would have kissed the defense dept booty instead of the ACORN booty. Both of them would be puckering up and lining up to kiss the corporate ass. Just another case of SSDD. Sad, but true.
ACs don't waste your time replying, your posts are never seen by me.
Plato states quite clearly that there is no true justice, but the appearance of it is what matters in society. The lower classes of society must believe there is justice else the upper classes may lose their power.
Bzzt.
Plato states quite clearly that he considers justice to be *the harmonious functioning of all parts in order to accomplish its telos*. So there is justice inside of a dog when all of the parts are working together to help the dog track some prey, for example. Justice in society is when all components of society are working together harmoniously as well.
It's an odd concept, and rather different from what we consider justice today. I think you just picked up on Glaucon's argument, or one of the other alternative views Plato writes about in the Republic.