Mod-chippers busted
p2pnet news | games:- More than 30 businesses and homes in 16 states have been raided by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents looking for hardware that lets ‘pirated’ games run on modded consoles from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony.
Locations in California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin were targeted, “because federal agents believed they were associated with subjects who are allegedly involved in the direct importation, installation, sale, and distribution of the devices that are of foreign manufacture and smuggled into the United States,” says an eFluxMedia press release, going on:
The pieces of hardware that allows users to play counterfeited games replace the original chips in gaming consoles like PlayStation 2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. The so-called modded chips circumvent the copy-protection mechanisms included by default in the consoles, allowing for pirated materials to be played.
With firmware and hardware modifications, consoles can be ‘tricked’ to play all country region games or can be turned into multimedia machines capable of playing MP3 music, films on VCD, SVCD or Div-X format, multi-region DVD players.
The raids were conducted under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA).
The games industry is using a spin popularised by the RIAA and MPAA that piracy is incurring, “billions of dollars in losses worldwide due to sales lost” and is causing support workers to lose their jobs.
“Microsoft applauds ICE for its effort to reduce piracy and protect the intellectual property of Microsoft and its industry partners,” the company said in a statement, states the eFluxMedia release. “This is an important step in the continuing fight against piracy and the threat it presents to the global economy and consumers throughout the world.”
In May, Microsoft, “started culling modded Xbox 360 from Xbox Live, affected consoles bearing the following status codes: W: 0000-000B, X: 0000-F009, Y: 00A8-6820 and Z: 8015-190D,” adds the story.
Also See:
eFluxMedia – Feds Raid Console Modders` Camps, August 2, 2007
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August 2nd, 2007 at 7:54 am
This is absolutely ridiculous. Unless the modders were also engaged in the distribution of pirated games, there is absolutely no legal ground to prosecute them. Haven’t these people ever heard of the Betamax case?
August 2nd, 2007 at 5:09 pm
Let them sue me I guess, I have a SATA cable I flashed my 360 dvd drive firmware with. Its a circumvention tool!!!!! LOL
August 7th, 2007 at 9:32 am
What I wonder is how well this will hold up in court if there are no other violations. arresting someone for something is ONE thing….making it STICK in court is another….just ask OJ!