Student Faces Ten-Year Sentence for Modding Consoles

[esperandote]

did they prove that he was aware that the people that he modded the consoles for had their consoles modded with the pourpose of playing pirate games? of course he guess it or even knew by word, but if he didn't confess he knew then they shouldn't have sentenced him, unless they caught him dispensing the pirate copies himself.

whether or not they are right, better catch the real criminals than some student that probably wanted some money to buy some other console, games, beer or wathever.

 

[General Ken8]

I see why they would get all mad like that, with copyright and all, but i put up with modders EVERY DAY.
He would have to do something pretty awful to get a ten year sentence

 

[thebobmaster_v1legacy]

I'm rather depressed that 90% of the posters have missed the part where it says that each crime carries "a maximum" of 5 years. He isn't guaranteed to get 10 years total. Not to mention that the comparison to the murder charges is taking the worst case scenario for this crime, and the best case scenario for a murder charge.

 

[RavingPenguin]

The mods to consoles I know of are things like lining your 360 with LEDs, which I would hardly term illegal. If he were re-working the code in the things, well, yeah, maybe that is illegal. 10 years in prison seems a little much for being a computer nerd though.

 

[The_root_of_all_evil]

I.C.E. claims that counterfeiting and piracy cost the U.S. economy up to $250 billion each year and 750,000 American jobs, and according to an NBC Dallas-Forth Worth [http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/tech/Cal-State-Student-Faces-10-Year-Prison-Term-for-Playing-with-Video-Games-52386872.html] report, some estimates say that five to eight percent of all goods sold worldwide are counterfeit.

This is why I hate the anti-pirating brigade. The law's already on their side and they make such vast overblown claims.
If you cancelled piracy now, most pirates would just go without rather than buy, so you've not lost much money - it's just the pirates have achieved your product by cloning it.

Job losses as well. Bulldrek.

And 5-8%? Nah, that's going to be a LOT higher.

Pull those figures in the right direction and maybe we'll start believing you but when you give 10 years for modding a console, then you're just throwing numbers around you don't even believe in.

 

[cobra_ky]

Since when the hell do murderers get less than ten years in jail? Ever? Please, someone, go find me one case. Maybe a guy who like... accidentally dropped something from a tall building, causing it to land on and kill a 115 year old man, who had no friends or family.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/browns/2009-06-15-stallworth-dui-case_N.htm

DUI manslaughter does not equal murder.

Though, yes, that was an insanely lenient sentence.

Next?

accidentally dropping something of a building is manslaughter too. forgive the confusion.

 

[Nutcase]

Good. I'm sick of modders and hackers.

Those that think the time is overkill, I agree, but this is obviously meant to send a message.

My question is: Why are they going after a student instead of all the business on the web that sell mod chips and do installs (mods)?

Oh yeah. I mean how dare I modify my own property to allow me to play foreign games my own county is never getting.

Yeah... that's why you're modding it, like anyone believes that.

If you really wanted to play foreign games, you'd buy a foreign console to do so. Stallion83, the world 360 gamerscore leader, has a console from each region for this purpose.

There is no mod that just unlocks the region. All that unlock the region also allow you to play burned games. You find/come up with a mod that does NOTHING EXCEPT unlock the region and I'll fully support that mod.

You'd be hard pressed to find an object or a piece of software which cannot be used to commit a crime somehow. A console mod which lets you run pirated software is no more immoral than a steak knife which lets you stab people.

I think this region lock stuff is ridiculous, but it's pretty obvious that's not why you're modding, since you could by an Arcade from that region for slightly more money and no voided warranty or chance of being banned from whatever online service you're using.

I've got a modded PS2. Had it for ~7 years or so. The company that installed the mod did so for profit, and there's nothing wrong about that either. Thanks to Sony treating the PAL region like shit, over half of my games are from other regions. My newest game [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_jaMYDvac0] just arrived in international mail yesterday. It's way better to have just one box taking up limited space and AV connections (I own neither a TV nor an AV receiver, and the console is on my computer desk), and mods typically cost a whole lot less than an entire console.

More non-pirate reasons for modding include using a console as a media center, running emulators on it, running a backup of your legit game, running normally disc-based games from a hard drive so you never have to dig out the disc again, etc. I don't personally do any of these things, but they certainly make sense for some.

Dunno how modding situation is for the new consoles. I'm sad that they still have the region crap.

 

[asinann]

What be this prison tomfoolery? Robbing people of their freedom... Bah! Before you know it; they'll be taking away our lives as well. Crazy, crazy kids...

--Xvito, keeping it excellent.

You won't let signatures die will you...?

Anyway, this is very retarded. If he was selling them ok, but if it was for him and he wasn't stealing=retarded. People can rape and/or kill someone and not face anything like this. 10 YEARS IN JAIL?? How dumb can you get. It's all over GAME consoles. NOTHING IMPORTANT!! AT ALL! *continues going on but is too profane for this site*

Read the charge, "modding for profit."
That means he was either doing it for other people and getting paid to do it, or was doing it then selling the modded consoles. And since they spent over a year investigating before arresting the kid, I'm guessing that he made a bit of money at it.
10 years is a bit much depending on how many of them he modded, if he modded 6 or 7 consoles too much. If on the other hand he modded 100 consoles during that time, 10 years seems about right.

How is it that the DS Pirate Guy got a 2-and-a-half year sentence for pirating DS games, but this guy gets a 10 year sentence for modding consoles? I'd always thought the two offenses were pretty much equal on the proverbial Crime Scale.

Because the DS pirate was in Japan, this kid is in the US.

Since when the hell do murderers get less than ten years in jail? Ever? Please, someone, go find me one case. Maybe a guy who like... accidentally dropped something from a tall building, causing it to land on and kill a 115 year old man, who had no friends or family.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/browns/2009-06-15-stallworth-dui-case_N.htm

Now find someone that isn't famous and/or a mutli-millionaire.

 

[shaboinkin]

"So what are you in here for?"

"I killed a family of 4 and dragged them out in the woods and tried to bury them...you?"

"I modified some consoles..."

"OH SNAP!! YOU BAD MAN!! REALLY BAD!! I'm not gonna screw with you in the showers..."

 

[raxer92]

HI new here and i'd like to add a little something from the time i've been in mexico,

1: It's all over the place in mexico, and if its in mexico then that means its probably somewhere else as well.
2: what im talking about is a special chip system created by companies who really try to keep quiet about it here in the us that allows people to play pirated discs on consoles
3: The chip in some cases kills the console

Edward

 

[Merteg]

Why didn't they just fine him and give him community service?

Ten years is way too extreme for this case.

 

[tenlong]

I don't mind modding or piracy if it is not for profit. If You make money off it then it is wrong.

 

[Nutcase]

So, he modded them, then sold them? If numerous consoles were found with hardware modifications, then I'd say that yes, for violation of those specific terms in the DCMA to such a degree for personal gain is defenitely worth prison time. Intellectual copyright infringement

Even the copyright-abusers don't use a term like that.

is one of the largest crimes today.

Yeah, genocide, rape and defraud away as long as you don't infringe on copyright or (horrors) modify electronic equipment you own. Priorities FTW.

He went in for a bit of personal gain,

As if there's anything wrong with that.

and got busted for it. It's not entrepreneurship if its someone else's product,

Are you aware of the numerous pirate garages which change tires, oil and even engine parts (!) without explicit permission from the car manufacturer in question? Those are some hardened criminal non-entrepreneur bastards, let me tell you. They must have zillions of police in their pocket since I've never heard of any one of them getting busted.

and in that, he's no better than the guys selling stuff off the back of the truck--it's not like we complain when they get busted.

You are comparing an electronics installation - with zero direct financial loss to anyone - to a theft.
In the case of my PS2, the modchip has benefited retailers, Sony and their 3rd party developers about $250 in game and peripheral purchases I wouldn't have made without getting rid of the region lock.

 

[Canadamus Prime]

10 YEARS? For modding consoles? Whoa that's more then a little harsh. And how do they figure that they lose revenue? You can't lose what you never had. Most of the people who play pirated games can't afford to buy them legitimately anyway, so really these businesses are not losing anything.

 

[data_not_found]

$250 BILLION each year. Think about that. Just for a moment. Do you really think that number is accurate? Maintaining Iraq was estimated to cost about 3 billion a week, or 156 billion a year. Do they mean to tell me that there is more money to be made in video games than in a full scale war? Yeah I'm calling bullshit.

Numbers from: http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Price_of_Iraq_war_now_outpaces_0318.html

 

[Hanzo Hattori]

modded XBOX360:

http://regmedia.co.uk/2008/06/05/maars_with_grenades.jpg

 

[Pendragon9]

Unless he was stealing and-or selling something using those consoles, he shouldn't receive ANY sentence.

What happened to the police catching ACTUAL CRIMINALS?!

 

[Kriptonite]

What be this prison tomfoolery? Robbing people of their freedom... Bah! Before you know it; they'll be taking away our lives as well. Crazy, crazy kids...

--Xvito, keeping it excellent.

You won't let signatures die will you...?

Anyway, this is very retarded. If he was selling them ok, but if it was for him and he wasn't stealing=retarded. People can rape and/or kill someone and not face anything like this. 10 YEARS IN JAIL?? How dumb can you get. It's all over GAME consoles. NOTHING IMPORTANT!! AT ALL! *continues going on but is too profane for this site*

Read the charge, "modding for profit."
That means he was either doing it for other people and getting paid to do it, or was doing it then selling the modded consoles. And since they spent over a year investigating before arresting the kid, I'm guessing that he made a bit of money at it.
10 years is a bit much depending on how many of them he modded, if he modded 6 or 7 consoles too much. If on the other hand he modded 100 consoles during that time, 10 years seems about right.

How is it that the DS Pirate Guy got a 2-and-a-half year sentence for pirating DS games, but this guy gets a 10 year sentence for modding consoles? I'd always thought the two offenses were pretty much equal on the proverbial Crime Scale.

Because the DS pirate was in Japan, this kid is in the US.

Since when the hell do murderers get less than ten years in jail? Ever? Please, someone, go find me one case. Maybe a guy who like... accidentally dropped something from a tall building, causing it to land on and kill a 115 year old man, who had no friends or family.

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/football/nfl/browns/2009-06-15-stallworth-dui-case_N.htm

Now find someone that isn't famous and/or a multi-millionaire.

Haha, Cobra Sky is pretty funny. Anyway, it said dozen, I think. But 100 consoles deserves more than just 10 years. Like 10 years and a fine and community service. Maybe they should put him to work at Microsoft. Make a bit of legitimate money.