Student Faces Ten-Year Sentence for Modding Consoles

[Samurai Goomba]

many of the responses in this thread make me facepalm. Facepalm so hard I nearly knock my brain out the back of my head.


Congratulations, you have been sucked in by the sensationalist terminology of the media. Have a cookie.

as has been said before and been looked over numerous times by damn near everyone, the maximum sentence is 10 yrs. "maximum". It is damn near improbable if not entrirely impossible he would get that for this crime, let alone if this was a first offense.

Hows about we all just simmer down and turn off our "OMGWTFBBQDAMNTHEMANPIRATESYAY!!!!" alarms and wait to see what additional information is released and what actually happens to the poor lad.

The point isn't the amount of time he WILL serve, it's the amount of time the media will REPORT he might get at maximum. This is a warning shot. Anti-gaming pundits are letting us know that they're going to come after our industry big-time (and any small-timers breaking laws who they can use to make us look bad), since they know they can get away with it. And the everyday Joe on the street who isn't a gamer will read the headlines, think "Oh noes! Piracy is always 100% wrong no matter what!" and the negative image of gaming and the modding community will remain.

I almost have more of a problem with the media coverage of these game-related incidents than the actual arrests.

I'm not suggesting he should get off completely, but even 5 years as a maximum sentence would be way extreme. Unless he was running some sort of cocaine factory-esque piracy production line or something. And wearing white suits and smoking Cuban cigars. And owning a tiger.

 

[Danlian]

Ok, this is my first post on these forums because I just HAD to register so I could post on this particular topic.

I think cases like this are absolutely absurd. If I buy a piece of hardware then I own it. There should not be a single reason why I can't either myself, or by paying someone else, modify that hardware in whatever way I want. IF the modification allows me to do something that is illegal, but otherwise has a legitimate purpose, then I should only be punished if I choose to use the mod for something that isn't allowed by law. I should NOT be punished for the actual act of modifying it. If I chose to pay someone to make said modification then they should be free from punishment as well. Afterall, I paid them to modify MY property.

As an example here, it is perfectly legal to buy a car and make massive modifications to its frame, engine, transmission, etc. and as long as none of these changes violate safety standards I can still legally drive it on the highway. Even if they DO make the car no longer street legal, it still isn't illegal for me to MAKE, or have someone else make, the modifications to the vehicle. It is only illegal if I actually try to take the car out onto the highway. Why shouldn't electronic hardware/software follow the same basic guidelines?

I suppose the basic question here really is one of ownership. Who actually owns the products we, as consumers, purchase? Us, or the creators of the product?

 

[Captain Bobbossa]

Let him go!

 

[sallene]

Unless he was running some sort of cocaine factory-esque piracy production line or something. And wearing white suits and smoking Cuban cigars. And owning a tiger.

Wait, thats illegal?


Shit.... WTF am I going to do now with all this cocaine, cuban cigars and tigers....


Uhhh..


Anyone want to buy some cocaine, cuban cigars or a tiger?

Im keeping the white suits though... custom fitted and everything...



I get what you are saying but the reality is I dont think this is some kind of conspiracy between the media and some anti-piracy brigade from the goverment or the corporations, this is just media being media picking their words in such a way as to get the most bang for their buck(ie.. cause controversy) because they know people always latch onto the hot button topics and then proceed to beat them to death without actually finding out all the facts.

hell even the US politicians have been using this tactic for years.

Lets say this kid does jail time... You know how many lawyers or even media groups would jump on that steaming pile of story waiting to cut it up, edit it out and the feed it back to the public at large? Hell, given the right motivation(that being publicity and money) this guy could be the poster child for an overreacting government.

Fact is, media is just as big of a player in this swirling mass of shit as government and the corporations are, the difference is the media are the main pipeline for how people get their info.. so while the maximum sentence really did not need to be in the story they put it in there anyway. poeple(like those on this site) see this and pat their logic on the behind to go out and play and then latch onto said info like it was a rope keeping them from falling 10,000 feet to the ground.

the media gets the people whipped up, they get their readers/viewers and all the people who own said newscorp get big grins and chubbies watching the masses gnash their teeth and scream into the night.

 

[Samurai Goomba]

Unless he was running some sort of cocaine factory-esque piracy production line or something. And wearing white suits and smoking Cuban cigars. And owning a tiger.

Wait, thats illegal?


Shit.... WTF am I going to do now with all this cocaine, cuban cigars and tigers....


Uhhh..


Anyone want to buy some cocaine, cuban cigars or a tiger?

Im keeping the white suits though... custom fitted and everything...



I get what you are saying but the reality is I dont think this is some kind of conspiracy between the media and some anti-piracy brigade from the goverment or the corporations, this is just media being media picking their words in such a way as to get the most bang for their buck(ie.. cause controversy) because they know people always latch onto the hot button topics and then proceed to beat them to death without actually finding out all the facts.

hell even the US politicians have been using this tactic for years.

Lets say this kid does jail time... You know how many lawyers or even media groups would jump on that steaming pile of story waiting to cut it up, edit it out and the feed it back to the public at large? Hell, given the right motivation(that being publicity and money) this guy could be the poster child for an overreacting government.

Fact is, media is just as big of a player in this swirling mass of shit as government and the corporations are, the difference is the media are the main pipeline for how people get their info.. so while the maximum sentence really did not need to be in the story they put it in there anyway. poeple(like those on this site) see this and pat their logic on the behind to go out and play and then latch onto said info like it was a rope keeping them from falling 10,000 feet to the ground.

the media gets the people whipped up, they get their readers/viewers and all the people who own said newscorp get big grins and chubbies watching the masses gnash their teeth and scream into the night.

Oh, absolutely. The media eats this up because it's great news. Anti-piracy stories are stuff people today want to read about. But the government officials and prosecutors that push for such harsh penalties aren't exactly innocent either-they're enjoying the free press and the chance to act like a hero crushing a force of evil (rather than a jerk attacking a little guy in place of, I dunno, Thailand or Mexico or Hong Kong.) Then the average people who don't game enjoy their chance to feel good at our great justice system and how it punishes the evil people who make a living illegally modifying equipment that somebody paid for and wanted modified.

In my opinion, everyone's in the wrong. The guy shouldn't have been making a profit off of somebody else's games and systems without their permission. But he shouldn't have gotten such a harsh maximum punishment. And the media shouldn't have made such a big thing of what is a first-time offense of a fairly minor nature.

Oh, and I hear white caddies with leopard print seat covers are also illegal.

 

[sallene]

Oh, and I hear white caddies with leopard print seat covers are also illegal.

Well, damn, If a man cant sell cocaine while smoking a cuban cigar and taking his tiger for a ride in his gleaming white caddy with leapord print seats in his white suit then by god this country just isnt worth living in anymore.

Yeah, everyone in this whole mess are pretty much culpable for acting like their heads are up their asses, but its just another day I suppose.

 

[ProfessorLayton]

Wait... what did he do? I could understand if this were to get free games, but I don't seem to remember modding being illegal...

 

[Kriptonite]

Haha, Cobra Sky is pretty funny.

whoa. that's WAY cooler than my actual name! -.-

Opps, sorry. I just say ky and thought Sky.

 

[HentMas]

How about paying double for all the consoles again to their respective makers?

then he claims he is broke and is send to Jail for some time (considerably less)

but what i understand for this is that they want to make an example of the guy.

 

[Singularly Datarific]

10 years? Hell, to warrant that, he'd have to have been selling these:

Even then, I'd buy it.

Soooo, how did he mod the little buggers? Was he jailbreaking them in order to play foreign games?

 

[paragon1]

"can also pose significant health and safety risks." What, was he trying to create a program to make my Wii explode? This seems a tad extreme to me. People have gotten less time for manslaughter.

 

[Kriptonite]

How about paying double for all the consoles again to their respective makers?

then he claims he is broke and is send to Jail for some time (considerably less)

but what i understand for this is that they want to make an example of the guy.

Yea, that makes sense. I guess I should just crawl back under my rock.

 

[Nutcase]

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 when those illegal garages get busted, what's the charge? A hefty fine, and a few years in lockup, depending on how long they've been operating and how pricey the cars.

Sigh...

That was sarcasm. A garage can take in any cars they like and it's 100% legal business. All the manufacturer can do about you going to an unlicensed garage is that the warranty becomes void (assuming the car still has warranty left). Their rights in the car end at the point you buy it. Consoles being illegal to mod is a blatant double standard.

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.

Personal game on a small scale most won't mind, but he's acting as an independent retailer, without liscence, peddling some one else's ware. Think bootleg copies of your favorite movies being sold by that guy with the cart on the street, who will never be seen again after about a week, only to be replaced by another guy, without the shady mustace, two blocks down.

Consoles belong to the person they belong to. Modchips belong to the person they belong to. A modchip installation is not "peddling some one [sic] else's ware".

And yes, I do compare it to theft--for most people use mod chips to be able to access illegal copies of games. Quite like someone selling you a Slimjim, which is illegal in itself, which you then use to break into cars, a similarly illegal activity.

Slim jim sales being restricted is just as retarded as modchip sales being restricted. It's just a tool. Incidentally, slim jims, lockpicks and everything of the kind is legal to buy, sell and possess where I live.

 

[Magnatek]

I agree with the last statement, to be facing 10 years for modding a bloody console just seems completely ridiculous.

The police should really work on catching real criminals rather than chasing up cases like this, which is a best a stretch of the DMCA.

I mean if he were trying to sell tehm on at profit its one thing but Modding isn't a new fad.

Remember, he was hit with two charges of this. In other words, he was caught modding two consoles. *That's just unforgivable!*

[small]I don't know HTML that well. Until I do, asterisks around sentences=sarcasm.[/small]

 

[Zefar]

Hmm this is how think what happens on a Police station in USA.

Officer: Hey guys, what's the most safest criminal to hunt?
Cop1: Bank robbers?
Officer: Nah they usually got GUNS.
Cop2: How about thieves?
Officer: Nah, they might carry a pistol or a crowbar.
Cop1: Pickpocket people?
Officer: Those people fight back.
Cop2: Nerds who done some slight modding on a console that could give more years than murdering a kid?
Officer: That's GREAT, get the few people who do this and we'll stalk them for a year and don't need to do ANYTHING.
Cops: um Shouldn't we focus on like gangsters and drug dealers so that they don't sell crack to our kids?
Officer: Are you nuts? They are bloody triggerhappy with their guns and they can't aim.


But seriously, I want to know HOW it was harmful, WHAT gain he was getting from it and WHY he could get like 10 years for it.
Even people who steals like 10 million from a company or from old ladies get LESS punishment than this.

 

[not a zaar]

I have to say that this guy must've been very intelligent to be able to do this.

You can find kits with full instructions on how to do this on eBay, you don't need to be a genius. Just some basic soldering skills.

Some of you are not reading this article. He wasn't arrested for modding his console, he was arrested for being in possession of over a dozen modded consoles, presumably to sell them.

 

[Therumancer]

I wrote a huge rant about this but decided I was a bit too POed so decided to shorten it.

Simply put I think this is the stupidist thing I've read in a while, it sounds almost like something someone would have come up with as a satire on dark future facism back in the 1980s.

The sad thing is I figure most people will wind up rolling over to such things, rather than resisting censorship, which is becoming more and more extreme. I think this is a part of the overall kick we've been seeing over the last couple of years, modded consoles being one of the ways people manage to receive content that the goverment doesn't want them to have.

As far as it costing anyone money, that is a lie. Generally speaking if your using a modded console to play a game in the US, it means that there either was never a US version released, OR that the US version was censored (and your playing an uncensored version, which was not up for sale or else you probably would have bought it).

The stiff sentence is of course meant to make an example out of this guy in hopes of scaring other people away from modding consoles.

As far as the guy selling them *shrugs* there were half a dozen differant electronics guys who had the stuff and would professionally mod your console locally at one time, but it got too costly for a lot of them since people would come back REALLY upset and demand replacement systems if they messed up. This dude seems like he was just doing that kind of thing. Personally I never modded because most of the games I'd want to play aren't in english, and I personally can't get into a game I don't understand. Not to mention the risk to my system which costs me several hundred dollars.

Still, I'd like to think that people would cumulatively start to fight this kind of thing (and by this I do NOT mean an Internet petition). Every little thing like this gets the snowball rolling a little faster.

 

[Skratt]

If they are going to throw out numbers about how much money they are losing, they should at least attempt to get it right. Seems the US Government doesn't even buy the doom and gloom 250 billion and 750,000 jobs lost. Have a read:

http://gamepolitics.com/2010/04/14/study-us-piracy-and-counterfeiting-data-unsubstantiated