U.S. Officials Raid Stores, Arrest 2 In Xbox Modding Ring

KingFishKingFish
edited December 2004 in Science & Tech
Federal authorities raided three Washington, D.C.-area video game stores and arrested two people for modifying video game consoles to play pirated video games, a video game industry group said on Wednesday.
The Entertainment Software Association said the Dec. 1 raids at three Pandora's Cube stores in Maryland and Virginia were a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Justice's computer crimes unit, the U.S. Attorney's Office for Maryland and the Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Authorities arrested two store employees on charges of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and conspiracy to traffic in a device that circumvents technological protection measures, the ESA said.

"One of them is someone who has a more substantial role with the company," said Chunnie Wright, anti-piracy counsel to the ESA. She could not provide more details due to the ongoing nature of the criminal case.

Like other entertainment industries, the video game business has aggressively pursued the pirates that it says account for billions of dollars in lost revenue annually.
Source: Reuters

Comments

  • SputnikSputnik Worcester, MA
    edited December 2004
    conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and conspiracy to traffic in a device that circumvents technological protection measures

    the DMCA hard at work.

    One thing i have issues with is that they may have just been modding the XBoxes for, say, XBMC or linux. Yes, piracy is bad, blah blah blah, but that's not the only reason why one would mod an Xbox.
  • CammanCamman NEW! England Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    good thing our tax money is being spent on this.

    Although I know most "backup" solutions are BS, I can honestly say; I buy a CD, rip it to my hard drive, and made a copy to use in the car. The real CD becomes the "master copy" so to say. I dont want my $15 CD sitting in my car in case it gets scratched or messed up or something so I legitmately make copies for backups, what if you wanted to do this for your Xbox games? Obviously there is an overwhelming using that is not legitimate, but it sucks for those of us who need/want the abilility.
  • KingFishKingFish
    edited December 2004
    I don't think they are going to go after the home Xbox modders. These people were selling the modded boxes on ebay. They may as well have shot a flare gun into the sky and said, "come and get me FBI".
  • pseudonympseudonym Michigan Icrontian
    edited December 2004
    I'll have to look it up, but I read these guys were also loading the boxes with emulators and other such things big companies don't like.
  • danball1976danball1976 Wichita Falls, TX
    edited December 2004
    Pandora's Cube was involved in selling bootlegs of anime as well, and doing it in public places such as the mall.

    http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/article.php?discuss=5837

    Essentially, most of their business was in selling illegal items.
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