Xbox 360 Modder Arrested, Charged Under DMCA

[admin]

A student who had a home business of modding Xbox 360's so they can play home brew and backup games has been arrested and could face up to 10 years in prison.

Matthew Crippen, 27, charged customers $30 to modify the Xbox 360 so that it can play games off backup discs, bypassing the Xbox 360's built-in security measures.

He was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement department after a tip off by the Entertainment Software Association.

More:

http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/08/game-console-jailbreaking-arrest/

[Budreaux]

Only need a semi-decent lawyer to get this thrown out.
It won't stick, not unless he was selling copies of games to play as well.
I've been doing it for years, I even have business cards made out and the local BlockBusters hand them out to their customers.

[doctorhardware]

Don't bet on that, it seams that they are on a roll in getting decisions in their favor. The tide is turning and not in a good way.

[admin]

As I understand it, modding is legal in Australia if it is to circumvent region control, such as modifying DVD players to be region-free. I think it would still be illegal to modify anything to defeat copy protection.

[atifsh]

i see it this way... i know they dont...

i bought xbox 360 its my money its my hardware now. now i break it i burn it i do what ever i want to no one should ask me. its privacy.

now think like this, everyone who paid that dude for moding also paid device for and they can do what ever they want.

think mechanics getting busted / sued cause they modified honda civic or they sued cause they modified it to run faster with NOS... hmm

[admin]

I think copyright control has meant an erosion of property owning rights. The DMCA is so anti property, it basically makes ownership of digital content (and the devices that play the digital content) obsolete - it's all up to the "kindness" of content owners as to what you can and cannot do with your legally purchased items.

Think of it another way - if I got my Xbox 360 modded and I never use the modification to play pirated games, then what harm am I doing to anyone (other than to myself for possibly voiding my warranty). Under the DMCA, the content owners don't even have to proof that you did anything to harm them to have you arrested, simply because it *might* have led to you using pirated content (and even if you do use pirated content, that's still no proof that money would have been lost if you had never intended to purchase the content in the first place). It's just like in the movie Minority Report, and the MPAA, RIAA, ESA are running their own precrime units.

The DMCA is one of the worst piece of legislation ever, devised without any consideration to consumer rights. And it was only introduced because of the mass panic earlier in the millennium when the content owners didn't know what to do with digital content and the fear they were felling about changes to their traditional business models (and refusing to embrace the new).

[Budreaux]

Mod chips are perfectly legal in the US.
I've installed too many of them and I know for a fact.
I advertised in the local paper.
I had business cards for the service made up and stationed at 3 different game rental stores and most of my business came from there. The stores even stated that noone in the area did repair work and sent me lots of busniness.
The chips are legal, but selling game copies is the illegal part.
The reason they are legal is because they are advertised as a way to play imported games.
These chips are a sort of firmware rewrite, in essence, but there is added code.
PS2 games have the system boot sequence written at the hub of the disk. DVD burners/Readers do not read/burn that far into the disk. So, the mod chip has all the boot up instructions written to it's chip. That's what allows copied games to be played.

This guy had to be doing something other than just simple mod chip installs, or else he'll walk w/o a doubt.

I've done work for police officers as well. The chips are legal. What you do with it at that point is the grey area of the law.

[richardroel]

crazy laws

I wonder, can i be arrested, i underlined many things in some of the books that i have.

And ehhh, if i drive to fast, i would engage in illegal action, can the police remove my steering wheel????

Is there any ruling about disabeling the HardDrive of the newer xboxes after connecting to xbox live with a modified machine???

[ichandu]

How it will happen?
This is not conformed any chance.