Men face criminal charge for Xbox tampering

[dquan97]

hope it's not a repost...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - U.S. prosecutors have charged three men with copyright infringement for selling modified Xbox consoles that enabled the original video game machine from Microsoft Corp. to play pirated games.

The criminal complaint filed in federal court in Los Angeles on Monday named ACME Game Store co-owners Jason Jones, 34, and Jonathan Bryant, 44, as well as Pei "Patrick" Cai, 32.

The complaint alleges that Jones and Bryant sold Xbox systems that Cai modified with chips and hard drives that allowed users to copy rented or borrowed games onto the console for future play.

All three men are charged with one felony count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement and to violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The charge of conspiracy carries a maximum possible penalty of five years in federal prison.

Lawyers for the men, who will be summoned to appear in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles in late January, could not be immediately reached for comment.

Jones and Bryant demonstrated the modified Xbox game consoles in their Melrose Avenue store. They charged from $225 to more than $500 for the modifications, depending on the extent of the modifications and the number of games preloaded onto the hard drive, according to a statement from prosecutors and the complaint affidavit obtained by Reuters.

During the investigation, undercover agents with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement paid $265 to have a modification chip, a hard drive and 77 pirated games installed on an Xbox, according to the criminal complaint.

Microsoft released the Xbox 360, the new version of its game console, on November 22 in North America. The premium version of the system sells for $400 and is sold-out at many retail outlets.

The original Xbox was released in late 2001 and now retails for around $150. Games for the system cost up to $50 each

 

[dug777]

it's mainly to do with them selling pirated games iirc, oh and R.

 

[purbeast0]

These guys are not being charged for modifying xboxes or selling modded xboxes, they are being charged because they sold modded xboxes with preloaded games on the hard drives, which clearly is illegal and these guys are fvcking idiots and deserve what they get.

i mean atleast don't be a fvcking idiot about it if you are going to sell modded systems ... use some common sense! not to mention, they ran a video game store where they clearly know the laws of copywright (or one would think so), so these guys are just morons.

something like this happened around here in college park, MD about a year ago at pandoras cube ... buncha idiots ran tha store too.

 

[StrangerGuy]

"77 pirated games installed on an Xbox"

That's a bit too much for comfort.

 

[AcidBath]

dumbass! They probably won't see prison time so they won't get raped in prison. But the legal system will be financially raping them for years to come!

 

[Kelemvor]

Definitely are dumb. All they had to do was let the people to rent thrie own games and pirate them and they would have been fine. Oh well.