"College student is accused of modifying consoles for personal financial gain"

[GoCubsGo]

Gotta love the misleading title in a way ... "Cal State Student Arrested for Playing with Video Games" is hardly what happened. He was arrested for modifying console systems allegedly for financial gain. I mean, if you didn't gain from it financially then why bother? IMHO he should not go down alone if he goes down at all for this.

Cal State Student Arrested for Playing with Video Games
College student is accused of modifying consoles for personal financial gain

Playing with video games can lead to hard time, just ask Matthew Lloyd Crippen.
The Cal State Fullerton student was arrested Monday on federal charges that he illegally modified Xbox, Playstation, Wii and other video game consoles to enable the machines to play pirated video games.
Crippen, 27, of Anaheim, was taken into custody Monday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The arrest follows his indictment by a federal grand jury on two counts of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Specifically, the college student is accused of modifying for personal financial gain technology affecting control or access to a copyrighted work, according to an ICE statement.
Each criminal count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
The charges against Crippen stem from an ICE investigation initiated late last year after the agency received a tip from the Entertainment Software Association.
Last May, ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at Crippen's home, where they seized more than a dozen Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony video game consoles.
“Playing with games in this way is not a game -- it is criminal,” said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE investigations office in Los Angeles.
“Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers,” he said.
Counterfeiting and piracy have grown in recent years in both magnitude and complexity, according to ICE. Industry and trade associations estimate that counterfeiting and piracy now cost the U.S. economy as much as $250 billion a year and a total of 750,000 American jobs.
Some estimates indicate that 5 percent to 8 percent of all the goods and merchandise sold worldwide are counterfeit.
Crippen was expected to make his initial federal court appearance late Monday in Los Angeles.

Article Link

 

[Sdashiki]

Grand Juries = idiots who dont actually care

 

[velocityg4]

This is ridiculous. These mods do not just have a sole purpose of pirating content.

There are legitimate uses. Such as making backups of your games and only playing the backups so that you do not damage the $50 to $60 originals.

Even if they are only used for pirating content. One should still be allowed to make the modification, it is up to the owner of the console as to whether or not they break the law by actually pirating the material or use it to play back ups of purchased titles.

 

[GoCubsGo]

That is exactly my thought. I had a modded PS1 and frankly I know what I used it for. However, if I ever had gotten into the Japanese games (which my nephew did) then a modded console is key.

 

[stridemat]

pose significant health and safety risks to consumers

modding consoles hazardous to health - lol

 

[pelicanflip]

Absolute bs.

They're just trying to prosecute him as an example. What a joke. I've got a mod chip for my nintendos ds, and all's well.

 

[yg17]

What a crock. There were so many students at my college who would mod consoles for a few bucks or a case of beer.

 

[0098386]

There are legitimate uses. Such as making backups of your games and only playing the backups so that you do not damage the $50 to $60 originals.

No you can request replacement discs by sending the broke original for (here) £10. And besides what happened to taking care of things? If I drop my iPod and it breaks I don't expect to get another one free. You can easily keep games in wallets, the original cases, individual sleevs or spools. If your console scratches them complain to the manufacturer and you'll get a replacement.

But yea to the topic; rightly so too. People used to mod consoles to act as media centres - so all the manufacturers took steps to make their current systems as media centres/streaming devices too. There isn't much reason to mod a console now other than to play pirated software. Infact all systems (except the Wii) allow you to play imported games too.

How is it breaking OSX's EULA here gets you cast down into the darkest pits but if you want to break another EULA, such as Windows, the agreement you accept when running these consoles or the software on them is acceptable. Funny that.

 

[killerrobot]

Xbox Live Terms says you can´t modify the system. But you don´t have to have a live membership to play games on the Xbox.

So I´m not sure how they could charge him for modifying the consoles unless he was playing pirated games online to make sure his mod worked.

And if that´s the case, then he deserves to be busted.

 

[Rodimus Prime]

This is ridiculous. These mods do not just have a sole purpose of pirating content.

There are legitimate uses. Such as making backups of your games and only playing the backups so that you do not damage the $50 to $60 originals.

Even if they are only used for pirating content. One should still be allowed to make the modification, it is up to the owner of the console as to whether or not they break the law by actually pirating the material or use it to play back ups of purchased titles.

Problem here when you have dozen of those game counsel that he is moding for money it become clear is profiting off pirating.

Now if he was not making any money off doing it they would not have a case but here I think they have a case. Hard to buy that many people would truly mod a system to play backed up games. Even the "backup" argument is weak for people who mod their systems.

 

[Quartz Extreme]

Xbox Live Terms says you can´t modify the system. But you don´t have to have a live membership to play games on the Xbox.

So I´m not sure how they could charge him for modifying the consoles unless he was playing pirated games online to make sure his mod worked.

And if that´s the case, then he deserves to be busted.

Last time I checked: Xbox Live terms ≠ the Law

 

[tabasco70]

The Cal State Fullerton student was arrested Monday on federal charges that he illegally modified Xbox, Playstation, Wii and other video game consoles to enable the machines to play pirated video games.

Does this mean he simply modded the machines? Or are they prosecuting him because he was actually playing pirated video games?

I agree that they're doing this to one individual to create an example, in an attempt to prevent/scare others.

 

[LizKat]

He was apparently modding systems for profit. Ars Technica has an interesting piece about it

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/...inder-that-most-console-hacks-are-illegal.ars​

 

[NT1440]

No you can request replacement discs by sending the broke original for (here) £10. And besides what happened to taking care of things? If I drop my iPod and it breaks I don't expect to get another one free. You can easily keep games in wallets, the original cases, individual sleevs or spools. If your console scratches them complain to the manufacturer and you'll get a replacement.

LOL at the underlined. The 360 was notorious for scratching discs, I never managed to get any of mine replaced for a fee or otherwise.

 

[yg17]

No you can request replacement discs by sending the broke original for (here) £10. And besides what happened to taking care of things? If I drop my iPod and it breaks I don't expect to get another one free. You can easily keep games in wallets, the original cases, individual sleevs or spools. If your console scratches them complain to the manufacturer and you'll get a replacement.

Games can also be stolen. And, I don't believe you can get replacements in the US, you just have to buy a new copy.

And if there was a machine that could let me copy my iPod and have a backup iPod for free, you're damn right I'd copy it to have a backup.

 

[jav6454]

“Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers,” he said.

This bit had me literally rolling on the floor of laughter. If I want to make a mod, I'll make it to my property. If I want to help other modify their for a small fee I can also do that. What others do (piracy) is not my concern since I know I do not pirate games.

Is like pinning a murder on a gun seller because he sold the murder weapon to the murderer.

 

[killerrobot]

Last time I checked: Xbox Live terms ? the Law

Oh we don't live in the US of XBL?

Don't get me wrong - I'm definitely no fan of EULAs. But if you break the EULA, so far US courts have sided with the corps. that created the use terms, not the individual. So in a way, Xbox Live terms = the Law.

Games can also be stolen. And, I don't believe you can get replacements in the US, you just have to buy a new copy.

If it is a game produced by MS and damaged you can send in the damaged disk get a free replacement as long as the Xbox is sold in authorized retailers in your country.

http://support.xbox.com/support/en/...ames/discreplacement/DiscReplacementPlan.aspx

 

[0098386]

LOL at the underlined. The 360 was notorious for scratching discs, I never managed to get any of mine replaced for a fee or otherwise.

Our 360 scratched 3 games, complained to Microsoft who sent us 3 new games and a month of XBL. A friend had at least 2 games scratched but didn't want replacements and was sent a new Xbox controller and a month of XBL.
Many publishers and at least all the major ones, offer replacements here. But that said games do cost a lot more. £50-70 (for Modern Warfare 2) for a retail console game, I believe it's a lot cheaper in the US.

 

[yg17]

Oh we don't live in the US of XBL?

Don't get me wrong - I'm definitely no fan of EULAs. But if you break the EULA, so far US courts have sided with the corps. that created the use terms, not the individual. So in a way, Xbox Live terms = the Law.

Courts have sided with the corps when people broke clauses in the EULA that also broke law, such as piracy/copyright infringement. If the Xbox EULA says that you're not allowed to play on XBL unless you stand on your head while reciting the script of a laptop hunters commercial in Klingon backwards, and you don't do that, they can't take you to court (well, they could certainly try). MS could ban you from XBL and that would be well within their right, but you would not be breaking any law and wouldn't face any legal consequences.

So if you mod your 360, Microsoft can ban you from XBL. It's their service, and they have every right to do so. But until you use the mod chip to do something illegal, it should not be a legal issue.

 

[jzuena]

Oh we don't live in the US of XBL?

Don't get me wrong - I'm definitely no fan of EULAs. But if you break the EULA, so far US courts have sided with the corps. that created the use terms, not the individual. So in a way, Xbox Live terms = the Law.

US courts have sided with corporations seeking civil damages (money), not criminal sentences (jail time). The article specifically sites penalties of 5 years jail time for each infraction which would be criminal sentences, and only criminal sentences are given for violations of law.

edit: yeah, what yg17 said!

 

[killerrobot]

So if you mod your 360, Microsoft can ban you from XBL. It's their service, and they have every right to do so. But until you use the mod chip to do something illegal, it should not be a legal issue.

My first post...

Xbox Live Terms says you can´t modify the system. But you don´t have to have a live membership to play games on the Xbox.

So I´m not sure how they could charge him for modifying the consoles unless he was playing pirated games online to make sure his mod worked.

And if that´s the case, then he deserves to be busted.

It's also interesting that it was the ESA that tipped the authorities, not XBL (although I'm sure they passed info along), so it does seem that it has more to do with pirating games than modding the xbox.

 

[rhsgolfer33]

Oh we don't live in the US of XBL?

Don't get me wrong - I'm definitely no fan of EULAs. But if you break the EULA, so far US courts have sided with the corps. that created the use terms, not the individual. So in a way, Xbox Live terms = the Law.

Not really, its more like the Xbox Live terms are a contract that you agree to follow by using the game/console/service, if you breach that contract the non-breaching party is allowed to seek a remedy. In this case they just boot you from Xbox Live since it would be way too difficult, costly, and pointless to pursue legal action against everyone for breaching the contract.

That isn't the issue in this case. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) made it illegal to circumvent certain copyright protection systems.

Section 103 (17 U.S.C Sec. 1201(a)(1)) of the DMCA states:

No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

The Act defines what it means in Section 1201(a)(3):
(3) As used in this subsection—

(A) to “circumvent a technological measure” means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

(B) a technological measure “effectively controls access to a work” if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

Additionally, he likely violated the part of the code that prohibits distribution of tools that enable a user to circumvent access controls that protect a copyright holder:

17 U.S.C. Sec. 1201 (a)(2) provides:

(2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that—

(A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;

(B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or

(C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person’s knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

There are criminal and civil penalties for circumvention under the DMCA.