Print

[The Zep Man]

Most guns are used to hurt or kill people, yet they are legal in some of the states of a certain big ass country with a warlord spreading fear against terrorists, nipples and reverse-engineering.

[njptrading]

QUOTE(Awes0me Dude @ Dec 9 2006, 05:24 AM)

I agree, I would be hard pressed not to believe the vast majority of modders here don't pirate games.

And Dirvance, I disagree, I completely see developers and manufacturers not wanting you to mod their systems...they lose profit, plain and simple.  People will pirate games, which equals lost revenue.  Why wouldnt they want restricitons if you manufacture something for the sole purpose of making profit off of software, that some people may get for free?  It's common sense.

Absolutely true - no two ways about it. They HAVE to prevent this sort of stuff. Its ashame for the non pirates and for XBMC lovers though but i guess these people just have to get it done on the sly. I for one am not a pirate because every game stored on my 200gb drive i have as an original. Is it pirate to hunt down these games on ebay for a few quid each? nope hope not. If pirates are fed up of game costs why dont they try and scat a bargain on ebay? (not for new recent games but for everything else).

Back to the modchipping, yea ashame about that guy. my mate lives down there (i'm more up north) and that's his local computer fair, he always sees that guy there. and he also sees customers buying up ps2's - why else would you mod a ps2 unless its for piracy.

[DeMoN_DARREN]

If you fit mod chips for a commercial gain or do it on a large basis, i believe its wrong.  A mate doing it for you is fine, but large scale isn't good

BUT JAIL TIME!?!??  Thats mad

[n1kon]

I personaly think they used him to make people aware that wont be light on this issue, its an eye opener with a message to be learned. DONT DO IT IN PUBLIC.

[HamSandwhich]

Hmm there has to be more to it than what's been said, like putting some games on the HD or something. There is an actual shop (not a stall) here in Leeds with massive signs in the window saying prices of chipped and to chip Xbox's/PS2's etc.

[Dano2k0]

This is bloody stupid, this kind of stuff really makes me mad!

The police need to go out and catch some real criminals, its like how they love to pull us over here in the UK and call you a boy racer and slag you off and all this crap, they just like to get the easier targets because their end of year report for busting so many 'criminals' looks really good.

At the end of the day, there are people out there who are commiting major crimers, doing gun murders, killing others, people that go out and rape women, these are the real criminals, so why don't they spend more time protecting the public against these people?

If you ask me it makes me bloody mad, they just like to make examples out of people and boost their scores on their little game, see how can capture as many criminals as possible when they have been chipping a console or done a little wheel spin in the car or something, idiots!!

Anyway with that done, i'm sure there are many who will agree with me, and probably some wont for whatever gay reason

[northernmonkey]

Do you think this is playstation related, i mean if he only did xbox1, xbox360 console would he have still been prosecuted? As far as a I know PS2 modchips are illegal in the UK but xbox are ok right?

[pigman006]

i agree with dano2k0 the police should be catching real criminals.
i dont have a single pirated or backed up game and never have, i use my box purely for xbmc, however most people who want an xbox chipped dont realy care about stuff like that or even know it exists, they just want to play illegal backups

[understood]

"
however most people who want an xbox chipped dont realy care about stuff like that or even know it exists
"
But how can someone say either/or with certainty?  

For myself (again) I just happened to read on Wikipedia's "xbox" entry, the modding your xbox section.  And it had a link to XBMC.

Sure the backup games thing is some part of it for some people (it may or may not be), but xbmc fit my needs exactly.  For others it may be Linux.  But installing a mod chip, if this story tells us everything, doesn't specifically lead to pirating. Wouldn't that be a similar argument to "VCRs are a pirate's best friend"?

[Gman22]

QUOTE(blakholephysics @ Dec 8 2006, 08:00 PM)

As much as I disagree with the law, I do think that modding consoles is a major concern for developers.  Lost profit from pirates is a big problem.  I wholeheartedly believe that it should be legal though.

Good luck to him.

As someone mentioned already, not all modders are pirates.  Also, people who pirate games, do you really think they would buy the game instead?  Think about it, if they pirate the games, they are more likely to see how good the games is, and _might_ be convinced to buy the game.

Gman22

[Mad-Man-666]

man that dude was an idiot.


1 modding systems at a trade show

2 THE BIG ONE selling pre-modded systems at a trade show. <-- thats what got him more then anything. everytime anyone gets busted for modding they are usually either selling pre-modded systems or loading games on the system as well



EDITED: here in the states every trade show ive been to ive always seen customs people walking around since a lot of the venders can be from out of the country and they are the perfect place to get ride of hot goods.

if you are just modding the system and not selling pre-modded and not putting games on the system usually you have to really pissed people off to get busted since under the law i dont think modding in its self is illegal. but if your selling pre-modded systems and putting games on the system that is braking about 3 laws right off the bat so your just asking to be picked up.

plus if you notice that was in 2004 M$ was big on trying to crack down on guys selling pre-mods back then

[sabbath_dude]

I'd have to agree with Gman22 on that. The people who pirate probably weren't ever going to spend the money on buying the game in the first place so no actual loss to the developer. If anything they're more likely to end up buying a subcription to Live and purchasing the real disc so they can play online!.
 
I've modded plenty of xbox's for friends and family and the main thing they all use them for is xbmc and live!. Because of my "illegal" modding M$ now has 3 new Live subcriptions and at least 5 more people with xbox consoles they wouldn't have bought if it weren't for me. Add on the number of original games all these people have bought and it seems M$ could do with sending me some commision for all my hard work   .
Not to mention that but 2 of the people I introduced to the xbox have now upgraded to a 360!.

I own 5 xbox consoles myself all of which are modded and I have a massive stack of original games. The only reason I bought an Xbox in the first place was because it could be chipped to allow the use of homebrew like xbmc. I think its upto me what I do with items of hardware I bought and own and it has nothing to do with anyone else!. To threaten or put someone in jail for modding a console is just retarded. Police time seriously wasted when they could be catching real criminals.

[skEwb]

pay to play

[Mr inocent]

As I'm not on probation I guess there is little to loose here.

So many comments & many respected. Considering i'm not on probation, I think (or believe) I can say want i want about this particular case. If no one objects i will post details tomorrow of this case. The craziest thing here was I was shafted by European legislation even though several European countries had thrown it out! It's all about "interpratation of law" Oh, how we've heard that before in the UK! Sorry can't stay any longer need my beauty sleep for CS tomorrow.........only 109 hours left to do!
Steve Fitzgerald
MODS-AND-SODS.CO.UK

[Cyberdude93]

QUOTE(northernmonkey @ Dec 9 2006, 01:24 PM)

Do you think this is playstation related, i mean if he only did xbox1, xbox360 console would he have still been prosecuted? As far as a I know PS2 modchips are illegal in the UK but xbox are ok right?

That's a good point.  For the Xbox, and presumably the PS2, the modchips have to have a hacked BIOS in to let you play pirate/backup games.  As Xbox-Scene has made clear for years, that's illegal under the DMCA.

Until we see someone getting convicted for selling Xboxs with FlashBIOS chips, I think either it's legal, or it's just like ripping CDs in the UK - "It's illegal, but we're not going to pursue anyone."