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."

Comments

Re:I wonder where these numbers came from?

[Sockatume]

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.)

Re:US of A

[TechForensics]

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.

Re:Justice

[megamerican]

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.

Re:US of A

[jpmorgan]

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.

Re:correcting an error in my post - apologies

[eln]

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.

The American Federal System

[westlake]

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.
 

Re:Scary

[Darth_brooks]

"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.

Re:The cops that arrested him must be proud

[Hatta]

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.

Re:The cops that arrested him must be proud

[hairyfeet]

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.

Re:The cops that arrested him must be proud

[Hatta]

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:

Must the citizen ever for a moment, or in the least degree, resign his conscience to the legislator? Why has every man a conscience, then? I think that we should be men first, and subjects afterward. It is not desirable to cultivate a respect for the law, so much as for the right. The only obligation which I have a right to assume is to do at any time what I think right. It is truly enough said that a corporation has no conscience; but a corporation of conscientious men is a corporation with a conscience. Law never made men a whit more just; and, by means of their respect for it, even the well-disposed are daily made the agents of injustice. A common and natural result of an undue respect for law is, that you may see a file of soldiers, colonel, captain, corporal, privates, powder-monkeys,(5) and all, marching in admirable order over hill and dale to the wars, against their wills, ay, against their common sense and consciences, which makes it very steep marching indeed, and produces a palpitation of the heart. They have no doubt that it is a damnable business in which they are concerned; they are all peaceably inclined. Now, what are they? Men at all? or small movable forts and magazines, at the service of some unscrupulous man in power? Visit the Navy Yard, and behold a marine, such a man as an American government can make, or such as it can make a man with its black arts -- a mere shadow and reminiscence of humanity, a man laid out alive and standing, and already, as one may say, buried under arms with funeral accompaniments
-snip-
The mass of men serve the state thus, not as men mainly, but as machines, with their bodies. They are the standing army, and the militia, jailers, constables, posse comitatus,(7) etc. In most cases there is no free exercise whatever of the judgment or of the moral sense; but they put themselves on a level with wood and earth and stones; and wooden men can perhaps be manufactured that will serve the purpose as well. Such command no more respect than men of straw or a lump of dirt.

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.

Re:Scary

[I'm not really here]

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.