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[Xbox-Scene]

Xbox Modder Gets Home Detention Posted by XanTium | August 8 15:51 EST

From gamespot.com: Late last year, three men who worked at the ACME Game Store on Melrose Boulevard in Los Angeles were charged with copyright infringement for selling illegally modded Xboxes. The consoles were outfitted with special chips and larger hard drives which allowed them to play and rip illegal copies of games. Jason Jones, the owner of the store, has been sentenced to six months of home detention, reports KCAL 9 News. On top of the six months of home detention, which includes wearing an electronic ankle bracelet to track his location, Jones will serve three years of probation. A second man, Jonathon Bryant, will serve only the three years probation after Jones admitted he was the sole owner of the store. A third man, Pei Cai, remains at large and is considered a fugitive. Jones and Bryant were also ordered to pay more than $2,600 to the Entertainment Software Association (ESA). Read More: gamespot.com and cbs2.com

[Textbook]

QUOTE

The two men admitted installing more than 50 pirated games on each machine. Customers would pay $225 to $500 for the modifications and the pre-loading of pirated games

That's where they went wrong.  Modding an Xbox is still ehh... borderline.   But the piracy is obviously illegal.  If all they were doing was installing chips/flashing TSOPs/softmods, and some homebrew software, I'd feel bad for them.  But they were stupid enough to take it a step further.

[CattyKid]

QUOTE(Textbook @ Aug 8 2006, 05:12 PM)

That's where they went wrong.  Modding an Xbox is still ehh... borderline.   But the piracy is obviously illegal.  If all they were doing was installing chips/flashing TSOPs/softmods, and some homebrew software, I'd feel bad for them.  But they were stupid enough to take it a step further.

And they should have been punished more than they were.

[R-Dawggy Dawg]

this is why you dont take customers you dont know personally. Friggin Idiots.
i think charging them upwards of 500$ is what made people nark. AHAHAHHAAHAH

[The Zep Man]

QUOTE

A third man, Pei Cai, remains at large and is considered a fugitive.

CODE

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      ICARUS HAS FOUND YOU!
      RUN WHILE YOU CAN!
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It's just plain stupid to sell pirated games because anyone who does simply will get caught. I never heard of anyone getting arrested because he/she modded an Xbox and charged money for the job.

This post has been edited by The Zep Man: Aug 8 2006, 08:14 PM

[krims0n]

Loading a HDD with games for anything but a friend is stupid. None the less I'm glad these guys aren't doing jail time or anything. They were stupid but don't necessarily deserve a daily ass kicking.

[twistedsymphony]

it's interesting how they pretty much got off with a fine of $2600 (interesting number eh?) I think I've spent more then that on 360 equipment and games so far  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)

Compare that to what the RIAA sues people for in the tens of thousands of dollars range... and those are the downloaders.

When I was in college one of the students had developed a search engine that would allow students to search all of the network shares for files. OBVIOUSLY it was heavily abused for finding music and warez but it also had benefits because the school offered fully licensed software to anyone who wanted it and it helped with searching that as well various other legitimate resources.

The RIAA went after the guy saying he needed to add filters to his search engine OF THE SCHOOL'S PRIVATE NETWORK to prevent people from searching for music that they might not own. Basically the guy told them to screw off... so the RIAA went to the school and tried to get the school to shut him down... the school told them to screw off and they tried to sue him for $10 million in "damages"  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/dry.gif)  he STILL told them to screw off  (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif)   Basically the guy had nothing (typical poor college student) no car, no money in the bank, just a school issued computer and some student loans. He went to court without even a lawyer figuring he had nothing to loose (literally) and it ended up getting throw out for being so ridiculous. AFAIK the search engine still stands to this day.

It's just interesting to see the difference between the music industry and the game industry in terms of how they go after people.

[Killa420]

Thats all they got was probation for 3 years? How much money they probally made? Im sure they made enough and dont really care about a 3 year probation

[Fluxburn64]

It isn't court probation though, it is formal probation. If they do anything else it can really be a screwball for them during those 3 years.

[Math1]

Kind of sad that all they got was a slap on the wrist. I would have thrown their butts in jail.

[darth_jarret]

I heard an ad on the radio about software piracy in corporations and apparently the company could get fined like 500,000 dollars per license infringement, which is rediculous. They should "fine" the company/indiviudual the cost of each copied program. Its just a way to get rich without doing anything. Oh well, at least these guys didnt get fined an obsene amount of money...

[luther349]

i rember this story lol. they where retards anyways but at least there judge didnt treat copyright infrengment like they killed someone. as for the fine matter someone metioned the riaa. the riaa can sue for as mutch as they like they can sue you for a million dollers hell i can. but what they acully get in court is a diffrent matter the fine is almost always reduced to a resanble amount even if the riaa by some twist of fate won a suit they would never get the full amount. no juge would allow a fine that he knoes is unjust.

if i rember the story they where in fact suied for a amount simler to the riaa tatics.

to be honest the riaa cant sue 1 persion for millions its a scare tatic the most you probly would pay in court is what you acully stole so songs = 99cents and you have 100 your fine would be like 100$. in face there amount = out to the amount of games they had loaded in or close to it.

its like i shoplift 1 cd from a stor and they try sueing me for every cd on the rack it just whont hold up in real life. havent you notced anyone that stands up to them the suits all of a suddion get droped or thrown out.

This post has been edited by luther349: Aug 9 2006, 06:43 AM

[chipD]

QUOTE

A third man, Pei Cai, remains at large and is considered a fugitive.

Id like to know what kinda charge this guys facing.

He probably would have got a lesser charge then the second guy, but now he probably gonna get jail time when they catch him.

[dmitri]

While I'm sure everyone would love a world without crime, it's coming no time soon.

I'm glad that the punishment is finally fitting the crime!  For too long anything computer related was treated as if you were a mass murderer, which judges dolling out years in federal prison.

For those of you who think 6 months of detention is a cake walk, you'd never want the same fate wished upon you.  This will definately have a permanent, educational effect on his life.

-dp