Modder faces jail time for selling counterfeit games

[7th lutz]

http://www.joystiq.com/2007/06/26/modder-faces-jail-time-for-selling-counterfeit-games/

Ars Technica's Eric Bangeman reports that one Frederick Brown has been arrested for installing mod chips and selling pirated games in the San Diego, California area. After being charged with 10 felonies, Brown was freed after posting a $100,000 bail. The arrest came after he was caught by, uh, CATCH -- the San Diego Computer and Technology Crime High-Tech Response Unit raided his house earlier and discovered over a thousand copies of counterfeit games and numerous mod chips. The unit, in cooperation with the Entertainment Software Association, had followed the trail to the man's home from advertisement posts on Craigslist and other websites.

Though it is unfortunate that the "modder" label is appended to the likes of an accused counterfeiter, modding consoles to run pirated games was very much a part of Brown's reportedly thriving and highly illegal business. The power of mod can be used for less insidious purposes such as homebrew, but its close relationship to piracy will always net it a bad reputation amongst publishers and manufacturers.

[smork]

I thought mod chips weren't specifically illegal in the US like they are in the UK?

God knows there's enough places to get 'em, even some brick and mortars....

[ProgrammingAce]

The chip itself is legal (sorta, the DMCA is sketchy), the hacked bios that runs on the chip is illegal.

Hardware == good
The software that runs it == bad.

That being said, this guy is far from being some kid in his mom's basement who modded his console to steal Halo 2. It sounds like he had more pirated games in his house then most people here will ever legitimately own.

[Promophile]

good riddance. For every legit modder, there are 10 that only mod to play pirated games.

[smork]

good riddance. For every legit modder, there are 10 that only mod to play pirated games.

Totally agree. Pirates are bad, but pirates who try to make a living selling warez are evil.

I think the manufacturers could knock the legs out of any moral defense of console mods by making every system region free. Then, there's no legit reason to mod! At least they're starting to see the light on this in the current gen.

[jajaja]

If you sell warez you deserve to be caught. I guess this is the biggest issue why he was caught, not mostly because of the modchips.

[bazariah]

Totally agree. Pirates are bad, but pirates who try to make a living selling warez are evil.

I think the manufacturers could knock the legs out of any moral defense of console mods by making every system region free. Then, there's no legit reason to mod! At least they're starting to see the light on this in the current gen.


they should make all consoles region free...

but there would still be people who dont want to buy full priced real games and would turn to cheap knock-offs

when i had my playstation and saturn systems modded i had them done with the intent on being able to import games unavailable in the uk... my friend all had theirs done with the intent on being able to play cheap pirate games.. my friend even had the choice between a real game priced at £5.99 or a copy for £5 and he actually chose the copy so he could save the 99 pence

[Flack]

good riddance. For every legit modder, there are 10 that only mod to play pirated games.

And by 10, I think you mean 1,000.

[Flack]

I think the manufacturers could knock the legs out of any moral defense of console mods by making every system region free. Then, there's no legit reason to mod! At least they're starting to see the light on this in the current gen.

Then everyone would begin using the homebrew angle. If modders really wanted to prove their validity, they would make a mod chip that would allow for homebrew and region free gaming but not allow for copies. That would be really easy to do and yet no one's done it because there's no real market for it.

[Damaniel]

Then everyone would begin using the homebrew angle. If modders really wanted to prove their validity, they would make a mod chip that would allow for homebrew and region free gaming but not allow for copies. That would be really easy to do and yet no one's done it because there's no real market for it.

Exactly. If somebody made a modchip that only enabled homebrew but didn't allow piracy, it just wouldn't sell to most people.

A couple of my systems (PS2, PSP) are modded. The PS2 is modded to run my small collection of imports, but in the case of the PSP, I do run ISO images of games from the memory stick, but only for games I actually own (yes, really! :)) I do this because the load times and noise from the PSP's UMD drive are nearly unbearable, and running from the memory stick makes the experience much more enjoyable. I would have given up on Dungeon Siege after 10 minutes if I had to run it from the UMD!

Long ago I used to be into downloading warez, but those days are long gone. I can understand the desire to get something for nothing, but I also understand the need to actually get paid for the work you do (especially since I work in software development). I don't feel any sympathy for this guy whatsoever.