XBox modders charged
p2p news / p2pnet: Jason Jones and Jonathan Bryant, owners of the ACME Game Store in Los Angeles, are said to have sold old Xboxes modified by Pei Cai, of Pico Rivera, California, to allow the consoles to play “pirated” video games
“Cai allegedly equipped the Xbox consoles with modification chips and large hard drives to allow the user to copy rented or borrowed games onto the device for future playback,” says CNET News. “Buyers would pay from $225 to more than $500 for the changes.”
The three men are now accused of “conspiring to traffic in a technology used to circumvent a copyright protection system and conspiring to commit criminal copyright infringement,” in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, says the US attorney’s office for the Central District of California.
“The consoles involved in this case were of the first-generation Xbox, not the recently launched Xbox 360,” CNET has a “representative for the prosecution” saying.
All three men how face up to five years in jail if they’re found guilty.
Also See:
CNET News – Xbox modders charged with copyright crime, December 19, 2005
December 20th, 2005 at 6:18 pm
Sell modified xboxs for inports and backups – maybe illegal.
Sell modified xboxs out of a retail store with advertising – maybe illegal, probally stupid.
Sell modified xboxes out of a retail store and included 77 ‘free’ games – both illegal and stupid.
This is the sort of thing that makes people think that mod chips themselves are always illegal. They did not get charged just because they sold modifed xboxs, they were charged because they aslo included 77 games with the xbox. Unless they aslo included 77 retail discs with the xbox that is a clear and shut case and they deserve what they get.
December 20th, 2005 at 10:51 pm
“All three men how face up to five years in jail”
Yes they fucked up, but this is a case where fines and a lot of community service would be a more fitting punishment. Jails in the U.S. are overcrowded, so the question is who are you going to let out to put these guys in? We already had this problem in the U.S. during the “war on drugs”, where violent offenders were being released in order to let more drug offenders in. Of course in Amerikaka stealing from the cartels is a much greater offense than hurting or killing some average Joe.
December 21st, 2005 at 8:49 pm
I say “Free the XBOX Three” !!!!!!!!!!!!
December 22nd, 2005 at 5:11 am
I’m glad these digital terrorists were caught.
I can sleep safely now! Thank goodness the War On Terror is working. Go Department Of Homeland Security!