Government Tries to Block Expert Testimony in Mod Chip Case

[luckycharms8282]

"It's serious business"

That is srz bsnss >:-l Sucks that the government would stick their neck out for a big company like microsoft but not for a man trying to make a living (thats serious bidnsth)

 

[sosolidshoe]

I'm actually quite surprised to see an Escapist writer being sympathetic to this case. Personally, I agree it's bullshit, the act of placing a mod chip in a console should never have been made illegal; if I bought it, it's my damn property, and I get to do what I want with it. But the general trend on the Escapist seems to be "RAWR PIAWTES BAD, DIE DIE", so to see you coming down on the side of Fair Use for a change is refreshing.

 

[SomeBoredGuy]

Let me get this straight. The person who is being charged has brought in a man to testify who might help explain why he should not be convicted and the prosecution immediately tries (and, might I add, is allowed to try) to prevent him to testify for no better reason than because they say so?

This is why all legal systems should work exactly like an Ace Attorney game. This'd never happen if Phoenix was his attorney. Hell, the prosecution wouldn't even find the time to say this in between applying bucketloads of hair gel. Even if they did find the time, their voices would be gone from endless shoutings of "OBJECTION!"

 

[Andronicus]

Let me get this straight. The person who is being charged has brought in a man to testify who might help explain why he should not be convicted and the prosecution immediately tries (and, might I add, is allowed to try) to prevent him to testify for no better reason than because they say so?

This is why all legal systems should work exactly like an Ace Attorney game. This'd never happen if Phoenix was his attorney. Hell, the prosecution wouldn't even find the time to say this in between applying bucketloads of hair gel. Even if they did find the time, their voices would be gone from endless shoutings of "OBJECTION!"

Crap, if they did that and put that shit on TV, nobody would need to change the channel ever again.

"I move to dismiss all testimonial evidence given by the witness on the grounds of..."
"OBJECTION!"
"OBJECTION YOUR HONOUR!!"
"I OBJECT TO HIS OBJECTION OF MY ORIGINAL OBJECTION YOUR HONOUR!!"
"I OBJECT ON THE GROUNDS OF GENERAL OBJECTION-NESS!!"

 

[Antari]

Its entirely because they want to make an "example" out of him ... it has nothing to do with law, or morals, or whats right and wrong ... They have a big stick and they are going to use it on anyone and anything they can.

 

[llafnwod]

He seems to have broken the law.

I hope the accused -- if guilty -- is punished as such.

"As such"? I believe the objection is more to the severity of his punishment with regards to the crime.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

He seems to have broken the law.

I hope the accused -- if guilty -- is punished as such.

There is just one little problem here...

I do believe there exist mod chips that are only designed to circumvent the region lockout of a console. Nothing piracy related can be done with such a mod chip, it's essentially the hardware form of a Freeloader disk (which, for some batshit reason, companies seem to be blocking). Regardless of if this man is using a mod chip that allows the use of pirated games, or one of these region free mod chips, if he's found guilty, it effectively stops a simple method of importing video games.

I believe this is wrong. Just as we are free to import films and music, we should be free to use any legal method in order to play imported games. Not all of us have the space, or the income, to buy multiple copies of the same hardware, just because there's a slight change in the region encoding that says "THOU SHALT ONLY PLAY PAL GAMES!" This is why I like the PS3, as Sony has said "Fuck that" and made the PS3 region free for all PS3 games. It's why I dislike Nintendo's decision to place region encoding on the DSi, and would rather buy a regular DS over it.

Yes, allowing the use of mod chips makes it easier for pirates. But in no way should it be outlawed just because a bunch of twats decide to take advantage of it.

 

[llafnwod]

He seems to have broken the law.

I hope the accused -- if guilty -- is punished as such.

"As such"? I believe the objection is more to the severity of his punishment with regards to the crime.

Is a simple solution: don't break the law.

Wow. Yes, that certainly is a very simple solution. The philosophy it's based on also has some very simple corollaries, like it never being right to break any law and any punishment being acceptable for any crime.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

He seems to have broken the law.

I hope the accused -- if guilty -- is punished as such.

There is just one little problem here...

I do believe there exist mod chips that are only designed to circumvent the region lockout of a console. Nothing piracy related can be done with such a mod chip, it's essentially the hardware form of a Freeloader disk (which, for some batshit reason, companies seem to be blocking). Regardless of if this man is using a mod chip that allows the use of pirated games, or one of these region free mod chips, if he's found guilty, it effectively stops a simple method of importing video games.

I believe this is wrong. Just as we are free to import films and music, we should be free to use any legal method in order to play imported games. Not all of us have the space, or the income, to buy multiple copies of the same hardware, just because there's a slight change in the region encoding that says "THOU SHALT ONLY PLAY PAL GAMES!" This is why I like the PS3, as Sony has said "Fuck that" and made the PS3 region free for all PS3 games. It's why I dislike Nintendo's decision to place region encoding on the DSi, and would rather buy a regular DS over it.

Yes, allowing the use of mod chips makes it easier for pirates. But in no way should it be outlawed just because a bunch of twats decide to take advantage of it.

Region code exists for a reason.

Don't like it? Tough.

It's the companies right.

And we have the right to ignore that code. If we didn't, there wouldn't be the hundreds of thousands of region free DVD players in existence.

 

[llafnwod]

He seems to have broken the law.

I hope the accused -- if guilty -- is punished as such.

"As such"? I believe the objection is more to the severity of his punishment with regards to the crime.

Is a simple solution: don't break the law.

Wow. Yes, that certainly is a very simple solution. The philosophy it's based on also has some very simple corollaries, like it never being right to break any law and any punishment being acceptable for any crime.

The man is accused of intentionally going out of his way to illegally modify a device in order to perform future illegal acts.

/shrug

Sucked in.

Eh. You mean suck it up? It's hard to tell what your argument is here. From what you've said, it seems to be that any punishment is acceptable and permissable if the receiving party has done anything wrong, but there are all sorts of ad absurdum arguments I could make against this if I weren't already pretty convinced that you don't actually care and are just making yourself out to be a jaded badass, so I guess I'll stop now.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

He seems to have broken the law.

I hope the accused -- if guilty -- is punished as such.

There is just one little problem here...

I do believe there exist mod chips that are only designed to circumvent the region lockout of a console. Nothing piracy related can be done with such a mod chip, it's essentially the hardware form of a Freeloader disk (which, for some batshit reason, companies seem to be blocking). Regardless of if this man is using a mod chip that allows the use of pirated games, or one of these region free mod chips, if he's found guilty, it effectively stops a simple method of importing video games.

I believe this is wrong. Just as we are free to import films and music, we should be free to use any legal method in order to play imported games. Not all of us have the space, or the income, to buy multiple copies of the same hardware, just because there's a slight change in the region encoding that says "THOU SHALT ONLY PLAY PAL GAMES!" This is why I like the PS3, as Sony has said "Fuck that" and made the PS3 region free for all PS3 games. It's why I dislike Nintendo's decision to place region encoding on the DSi, and would rather buy a regular DS over it.

Yes, allowing the use of mod chips makes it easier for pirates. But in no way should it be outlawed just because a bunch of twats decide to take advantage of it.

Region code exists for a reason.

Don't like it? Tough.

It's the companies right.

And we have the right to ignore that code. If we didn't, there wouldn't be the hundreds of thousands of region free DVD players in existence.

The device he modified was not region free.

It's very simple, sweetie.

Technically, every single Freeloader disk that exists circumvents region lockouts on non-region free devices through a form of software modification. Please explain why these are not banned.

Further, there is a case of if his act is allowed under Fair Use laws. Last I checked, Fair Use laws take precedence.

 

[manaman]

3 years for installing a chip in a console? What? How is that even relatable to other crimes that put you in prison?

Ridiculous. Did he sell them and make profit? Probably not, so this is simply a waste of everyone's time.

It's doubtful he wasn't making a profit. He was apparently importing and selling the chips and then charging to install them, otherwise he wouldn't have been installing them on consoles owned by people he didn't know.

land of the free...

It doesn't mean the US is an anarchy, without the protections of law it's doubtful anyone could even truly claim as much freedom as they do have in western societies. As bad as some corporations act they still need the same protections of law. To abuse those protections in this way is absurd, and something that needs to be ironed out in court.

 

[Nevyrmoore]

He seems to have broken the law.

I hope the accused -- if guilty -- is punished as such.

There is just one little problem here...

I do believe there exist mod chips that are only designed to circumvent the region lockout of a console. Nothing piracy related can be done with such a mod chip, it's essentially the hardware form of a Freeloader disk (which, for some batshit reason, companies seem to be blocking). Regardless of if this man is using a mod chip that allows the use of pirated games, or one of these region free mod chips, if he's found guilty, it effectively stops a simple method of importing video games.

I believe this is wrong. Just as we are free to import films and music, we should be free to use any legal method in order to play imported games. Not all of us have the space, or the income, to buy multiple copies of the same hardware, just because there's a slight change in the region encoding that says "THOU SHALT ONLY PLAY PAL GAMES!" This is why I like the PS3, as Sony has said "Fuck that" and made the PS3 region free for all PS3 games. It's why I dislike Nintendo's decision to place region encoding on the DSi, and would rather buy a regular DS over it.

Yes, allowing the use of mod chips makes it easier for pirates. But in no way should it be outlawed just because a bunch of twats decide to take advantage of it.

Region code exists for a reason.

Don't like it? Tough.

It's the companies right.

And we have the right to ignore that code. If we didn't, there wouldn't be the hundreds of thousands of region free DVD players in existence.

The device he modified was not region free.

It's very simple, sweetie.

Technically, every single Freeloader disk that exists circumvents region lockouts on non-region free devices through a form of software modification. Please explain why these are not banned.

Further, there is a case of if his act is allowed under Fair Use laws. Last I checked, Fair Use laws take precedence.

Fair use laws are for education and criticism.

Please don't quote me if you don't understand what it is you are arguing.

And my point about the Freeloader disks? Because, that is the main point of my argument.