Men face criminal charge for Xbox tampering

[Kejoriv]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051220/tc_nm/media_xbox_dc

[Oobgarm]

If they were preloading games on the systems and advertising as such, they deserved to get busted.

Chipping systems isn't that big a deal, but when you start copying the games themselves and selling it as part of a deal, you're asking for trouble.

[Darth Sensei]

ACME Game Store co-owners Jason Jones, 34, and Jonathan Bryant, 44, as well as Pei "Patrick" Cai, 32

I don't think they'll have to worry about prison, as they'll just strap some rocket skates on and go over the wall.

[Kejoriv]

I don't think they'll have to worry about prison, as they'll just strap some rocket skates on and go over the wall.

For some reason that took me a few seconds to get

[Lothars]

I think he should be punished if anything for advertising

heck i have no problems with modding the xbox but when you start advertising it and selling, than you definitly deserve to be in trouble for it.

[esquire]

ACME Game Store co-owners Jason Jones, 34, and Jonathan Bryant, 44, as well as Pei "Patrick" Cai, 32

I don't think they'll have to worry about prison, as they'll just strap some rocket skates on and go over the wall.

Knowing their luck the rockets would shoot straight to the moon and explode in the upper atmosphere just like in hte cartoon.

Obviously these guys have the IQ of Wiley E. Coyote, Genius. Seriously, they might as well have placed a big sign in their window "Ongoing Criminal Activity - Inquire Within".

[Captain Wrong]

If they were preloading games on the systems and advertising as such, they deserved to get busted.

Chipping systems isn't that big a deal, but when you start copying the games themselves and selling it as part of a deal, you're asking for trouble.

According to the DMCA, tampering with a system to bypass copyprotection/terriotory lock outs is that big of a deal. That's one of the reasons customer rights advocates are so against it.

[kedawa]

I'm glad modchips are legal in Canada.
I know several people who earn a living modding PS2 and XBOX.

[Joker T]

In this case it isn't as much the of the actual mod chip but the fact that they were also pirating games on the hard drives. They do deserve jail time for that.

[roushimsx]

People that sell warez for $$ deserve to go to a pound-me-in-the-ass prison.

[kedawa]

For sure, if not for the crime, then for the sheer stupidity of doing the mods and the piracy out of the same place.

I just find disturbing that the media is playing up the mod aspect and treating the actual piracy as secondary.

[TurboGenesis]

Here is the big deal. They were profiting of of pirated games on the hard drive, plane and simple. How much does a stock xbox and a chip cost. The fact that they raised the price higher for more games on the hard drive is purely profiting on pirated software. Thats where the real damage is. These dudes are making money on copied games tapping into the kool-aid of the developers and publishers.