Console Modder facing up to 10 years in fed prison

Zorvan · August 2009

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/tech/Cal-State-Student-Faces-10-Year-Prison-Term-for-Playing-with-Video-Games-52386872.html

Playing with video games can lead to hard time, just ask Matthew Lloyd Crippen.

The Cal State Fullerton student was arrested Monday on federal charges that he illegally modified Xbox, Playstation, Wii and other video game consoles to enable the machines to play pirated video games. Crippen, 27, of Anaheim, was taken into custody Monday morning by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents. The arrest follows his indictment by a federal grand jury on two counts of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Specifically, the college student is accused of modifying for personal financial gain technology affecting control or access to a copyrighted work, according to an ICE statement.

Each criminal count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison.

The charges against Crippen stem from an ICE investigation initiated late last year after the agency received a tip from the Entertainment Software Association.

Last May, ICE agents executed a federal search warrant at Crippen's home, where they seized more than a dozen Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony video game consoles.

“Playing with games in this way is not a game -- it is criminal, said Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE investigations office in Los Angeles.

Crippen was expected to make his initial federal court appearance late Monday in Los Angeles.

For those who are not aware of what Section 1201 of US Code Title 17 says (the Anti-Circumvention section of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act), here are some clips from:

http://static.chillingeffects.org/1201.shtml

"No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title. "

# (2) No person shall manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in any technology, product, service, device, component, or part thereof, that -

* (A) is primarily designed or produced for the purpose of circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title;

* (B) has only limited commercially significant purpose or use other than to circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title; or

* (C) is marketed by that person or another acting in concert with that person with that person's knowledge for use in circumventing a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title.

# (3) As used in this subsection -

* (A) to ''circumvent a technological measure'' means to descramble a scrambled work, to decrypt an encrypted work, or otherwise to avoid, bypass, remove, deactivate, or impair a technological measure, without the authority of the copyright owner; and

* (B) a technological measure ''effectively controls access to a work'' if the measure, in the ordinary course of its operation, requires the application of information, or a process or a treatment, with the authority of the copyright owner, to gain access to the work.

http://arstechnica.com/gaming/news/2009/08/modder-arrest-a-reminder-that-most-console-hacks-are-illegal.ars

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

And the ESA's press release and interviews since the arrest make it clear that this is just the first of many prosecutions they seek to make. They have made a decision, as an organization, to get aggressive on this subject

JGMIII · August 2009

This is why I actually buy my god damn games.

They need to come down harder on these punk ass pirates.

Zorvan · August 2009

Originally posted by JGMIII

This is why I actually buy my god damn games.
They need to come down harder on these punk ass pirates.

How's it affecting pirates?

He wasn't selling bootleg copies of games, he was just modding the cosoles.

And if you look, when asked where he learned his "trade", his answer was simple: Google.

It's not stopping people from modding their own systems. It's not even stopping people from modding other people's consoles. If he hadn't been charging for it, they'd have had no case at all. And it's most definitely not stopping people from pirating.

And I can pretty much guarantee if I was in his position, I'd start modding every console in town for free just out of spite. Wouldn't be a damn thing they could do about it.

Unless the ESA plans to sue the whole fucking internet for showing how to mod consoles and make copies of games, this doesn't stop or solve anything.

I'm all for game companies making the money from their own games. But so far, they're "anti-piracy" rhetoric is just that: rhetoric.

DRM just provides a reason for potential paying customers to opt for "non-DRM" versions.

Charging $50-$60 for a 5 hour game just makes potential paying customers to opt for more "price proportional" versions.

Going after people like this guy just pisses the modders off and increases their activity.

Superthrust · August 2009

Originally posted by JGMIII

This is why I actually buy my god damn games.
They need to come down harder on these punk ass pirates.

Hey now...sometimes people enjoy making backups of their games in the case the game somehow becomes unplayable...and i know for a fact, that after owning an xbox for years, there were issues with the first couple batches that scratched your games to death...in which case, a backup would help.

But, in order to play the backups, modding must happen...Its a lopsided subject here..sure its bad, but there is SOMETIMES good in it also...not always, but sometimes.

JGMIII · August 2009

Originally posted by Superthrust

Originally posted by JGMIII

This is why I actually buy my god damn games.
They need to come down harder on these punk ass pirates.

Hey now...sometimes people enjoy making backups of their games in the case the game somehow becomes unplayable...and i know for a fact, that after owning an xbox for years, there were issues with the first couple batches that scratched your games to death...in which case, a backup would help.

But, in order to play the backups, modding must happen...Its a lopsided subject here..sure its bad, but there is SOMETIMES good in it also...not always, but sometimes.

Oh stop, people don't burn 360 games to make back ups.

They burn them and use a program to play any 360 game they want for free even through xbox live.

It's time for people to take game piracy seriously, people need to start doing real time for this stuff.

I know in reality its tough to stop completly but putting a few guys behind bars may stop a few.

Look at the effect piracy has on PC gaming, Studios like the one that made awesome games like World of goo have gone bankrupt due to 90% of the players enjoying thier game just stole it.

Companies like EA wont release games like Madden on PC because of theft.

I can go on and on, people that pay for their videogames suffer because pirate assholes can't afford games and just steal shit.

People bitch and moun that more companies go the Microsoft Games for windows route with anti-piracy software but what choice do those companies have?

These pieces of shit steal everything millions if not billions of games pirated yearly have gamers suffering through crappy anti-piracy software and people in the gaming industry lose thier jobs due to a increase of theft.

It's serious, one day I hope internet and video game piracy puts people away for life then maybe assholes will stop trying to ruin it for the rest of us that actually pay and support our favorit game development studios.

I'm suprised you guys approve of theft, it's pretty sick.

Zorvan · August 2009

Originally posted by JGMIII

Originally posted by Superthrust

Originally posted by JGMIII

This is why I actually buy my god damn games.
They need to come down harder on these punk ass pirates.