Man May Face 10 Years in Prison for Modding an Xbox
- Thread starter Scott Bullock
- Start date
They've fucked up really, really badly. Having the presiding judge reverse their own decision(s) on what grounds they'll allow the defence to base their case on is the judicial equivalent of being cockslapped. In public. With a whale's cock.JDKJ said:
The worst part for the prosecution -- and certainly the part I find most amusing -- may be that the Judge looks prepared to allow the defense to go to town on the fact that the prosecution's illegal console-modding expert is in fact an illegal console-modder himself. Witnesses in a criminal prosecution that have a criminal history of their own usually don't make good witnesses.RhombusHatesYou said:
I'd imagine that after this public whale cock-slapping, the prosecution's not particularly keen on proceeding with their case. I smell a dismissal in the air.
The only problem I see with this whole thing is the undercover FBI agent devoted to the cracking of this case.
If he modded many, many 360s, like the article implies, than the sentence for modding 1 360 would be increased to suit the crime (to a point). 10 years may seem like a long time, but if he modded thousands of the things I gotta say he kinda deserves it.
And there's no way he has a case in the "I didn't know they were gonna pirate games with it" department. Clearly some of them were, and unless he has a written agreement with each customer with their signature saying they won't use it for illegal purposes at all, he's got nothing to stand on. Ignorance does not an innocent man make.
But to dedicate an actual FBI agent to the case is ridiculous. There are so many better uses for our federal level policemen, none of which include going undercover to expose xbox 360 modding rings.
If he modded many, many 360s, like the article implies, than the sentence for modding 1 360 would be increased to suit the crime (to a point). 10 years may seem like a long time, but if he modded thousands of the things I gotta say he kinda deserves it.
And there's no way he has a case in the "I didn't know they were gonna pirate games with it" department. Clearly some of them were, and unless he has a written agreement with each customer with their signature saying they won't use it for illegal purposes at all, he's got nothing to stand on. Ignorance does not an innocent man make.
But to dedicate an actual FBI agent to the case is ridiculous. There are so many better uses for our federal level policemen, none of which include going undercover to expose xbox 360 modding rings.
There was a case exactly like this for the Nintendo years back. If any of you have those black Nintendo cartridges that look cooler and slightly more badass than the regular ones, those were the result of homebrew and jailbreaking.
Personally I can't see that ten years is really a fair stretch of time for fucking with an xbox, no matter what you're doing. There's a leap in logic from hardware modding to jail time. Tally up the amount of damages he did in terms of stolen games and, hell, triple it. But ten years in prison? Alongside people who have committed A&B, rape, and murder? Maybe I'm just special, but somehow that fails to connect. Maybe it's the element of invisibility, and/or the fact that this was essentially a victimless crime, save for the monetary damages.
I guess you would have to look at cases involving DVD and VHS bootlegging to get an idea of proper sentencing, but that's more googling than I'm interested in doing for an escapist forum post
That all said, I guarantee you he won't be sentenced the full 10--or if he does, he won't serve it.
(Maybe it'll go all Shawshank and he'll help the warden pirate Microsoft Office programs :O)
Personally I can't see that ten years is really a fair stretch of time for fucking with an xbox, no matter what you're doing. There's a leap in logic from hardware modding to jail time. Tally up the amount of damages he did in terms of stolen games and, hell, triple it. But ten years in prison? Alongside people who have committed A&B, rape, and murder? Maybe I'm just special, but somehow that fails to connect. Maybe it's the element of invisibility, and/or the fact that this was essentially a victimless crime, save for the monetary damages.
I guess you would have to look at cases involving DVD and VHS bootlegging to get an idea of proper sentencing, but that's more googling than I'm interested in doing for an escapist forum post
That all said, I guarantee you he won't be sentenced the full 10--or if he does, he won't serve it.
(Maybe it'll go all Shawshank and he'll help the warden pirate Microsoft Office programs :O)
"The funny thing is...on the outside, I was a total n00b. I had to go to jail to become l33t h4XX0rz."RhombusHatesYou said:The Warden ends up running a console modding service.teknoarcanist said:
Are you both aware that there's little to no possibility that this first-time offender will actually spend a day in a federal prison? Ten years is the maximum custodial sentence allowed by law. This kid's not gonna get a ten-year sentence if convicted on all charges. More like a year or two of probation. He's a young, middle-class, white kid caught modding consoles. Not a young, lower-class, black kid caught selling crack.stinkychops said:He didn't steal anything. He allowed people to gain the ability to run software from other 'production teams' who stole from Microsoft. There are legitimate applications of modding. What do you think should be the arbitrary sentencing of a murderer?bahumat42 said:i jay walk all the time we don't get arrested for that herestinkychops said:
but yes its totally fine to prosecute him for being a thieving bastard. He is allowing people to bypass the purchase of videogames losing money for the production teams. And getting paid for it. Let him rot i say.
That's because the system is designed to protect the rich and powerful individuals and corporations. It's all about them.Arkhangelsk said:
You didn't miss much in the OP. Doesn't really give much details. Which is another thing, not much is revealed about this case. He could have encouraged pirating, or he might not have. We just don't know. There's probably details we don't know about.Kurokami said:
I have a feeling that the folks down at the car park where this kid's employed won't care too much if he picks up a stretch on probation.stinkychops said:A two year probation would be fairer, but the fact that this could probably stop him being gainfully empolyed sickens me.JDKJ said:Are you both aware that there's little to no possibility that this first-time offender will actually spend a day in a federal prison? Ten years is the maximum custodial sentence allowed by law. This kid's not gonna get a ten-year sentence if convicted on all charges. More like a year or two of probation. He's a young, middle-class, white kid caught modding consoles. Not a young, lower-class, black kid caught selling crack.stinkychops said:He didn't steal anything. He allowed people to gain the ability to run software from other 'production teams' who stole from Microsoft. There are legitimate applications of modding. What do you think should be the arbitrary sentencing of a murderer?bahumat42 said:i jay walk all the time we don't get arrested for that herestinkychops said:
but yes its totally fine to prosecute him for being a thieving bastard. He is allowing people to bypass the purchase of videogames losing money for the production teams. And getting paid for it. Let him rot i say.
I don't agree with what he did but 10 years is not proportional to the crime at all. In the UK the sentences for manslaughter range from around 7-10 years although they can go up to 15 but rarly do. Add in probation and early release and good behavior and it ranges from around 4-7 years and possibly less. I doubt he will be sentenced to 10 years but the fact that he potentially could is shocking.
10 years is super harsh...but people, it's not 10 years for modding AN x-box, as the completely sensationalist news title would have one believe. It's 10 years for running an illegal business based on theft and piracy (yeah yeah, you can use it for homebrew games and legal stuff...but bullshit...show me one person who has a modded x-box who doesn't pirate games).
Still, that being said, 10 years is a really long time, and to have that taken away from you because of something that really doesn't hurt anybody (most people who pirate games probably wouldn't have bought them in the first place) is pretty ridiculous.
Still, that being said, 10 years is a really long time, and to have that taken away from you because of something that really doesn't hurt anybody (most people who pirate games probably wouldn't have bought them in the first place) is pretty ridiculous.