RSSThree LA Men Busted for Xbox Mods
By Ed Oswald | Published December 20, 2005, 12:25 PM
Three Los Angeles area men have been charged with copyright infringement after authorities discovered one was modifying original Xbox consoles to allow pirated games to run on them, then turning them around to be sold at the video game store of the other two.
A complaint was filed against the men in federal court charging the three with conspiracy. The U.S. attorney's office says the three were attempting to conspire to break the copyright protection of the console, and then profit from that action.
If convicted, the maximum sentence is up to five years in federal prison, according to U.S. law.
Jason Jones, 34, and Jonathan Bryant, 44, own the ACME Game Store in Los Angeles. Pei "Patrick" Cai, 32, would pick up the non-modified systems, make the necessary changes such as installing a special chip and larger hard drive, then return them to the store so that Jones and Bryant could sell the consoles, the complaint reads.
These modifications would allow users to copy games onto the hard drive for future playback.
The changes would cost the customer $225 to $500 depending on what modifications were made, the extent of those changes, and what games were loaded onto the system, says the complaint.
In the bust, an undercover agent paid $265 to have the mod chip, hard drive and 77 games installed on the system.
Even with the charges against them, Jones and Bryant say they will keep running ACME, a small store just outside of the West Hollywood section of Los Angeles. A hearing on the matter will occur in late January.
This reminds me of the CB radio craze of the 70's A new generation of synthesized models, were easily modified, for use on more than the legal 40 channels.
Some of this work was quite easy, often involving a jumper wire on a switch. Millions of people did this over the years. Again, it was the underground retail shops, who did it for money, that were targeted by federal agents.
Modifying the X Box and letting everybody know it is sheer stupidity. Pirated video games are illegal, even before loading them on a customer's new tinker toy. This gang in LA wasn't too bright...
Score: 0
|I know some places that will modify a car to allow it to go faster. You can break the speed limit that way.
Including the games should be the only thing that they are penalized for...
It is excusable as you can use your XBox as a Media Center with XBMC and the larger hard drive is a nice addition. Modding the XBox also allows XBox Linux among other things for hobbiests.
Score: 0
|Hmmm...apparently BN was wrong--they have corrected the article to reflect that it was indeed the original Xbox consoles that were modded, not the 360's.
Score: 0
|They deserved it!
Score: 0
|yea thats his own stupid fault to sell it.
Score: 0
|Wow. The guy is smart enough to mod these things but stupid enought to go and sell them modded?
I bet they advertised it too.
"GET YOUR MODDED XBOX 360S HERE!!!"
Throw 'em in prison. Keep 'em there. We do *not* want these guys in our species gene-pool.
Score: 0
|Of course its the Xbox not the Xbox360
there are no mods for the 360...
not ever 77 games... HA!
Score: 0
|I tihnk the biggest mistake here was them actually loading games into the system. Would actually putting a mod chip in be copyright infringement? It probably is but putting games on it and selling it defintiely was.
Score: 0
|selling the modded consoles @ their store.... what intelligence. If yer gonna sell something like that, i needs to be word of mouth, and mainly to friends, not yer average customer off the street -aka undercover shopper.
Score: 0
|Pretty impressive since there is no mod chip for the x360, or even a way to add a bigger hard drive to this system yet. In addition the games are now media locked, so you can't run a game from a HDD without decrypting and reencryptying it with a change to the media flag.
Score: 0
|They were selling modified original Xboxes, not the Xbox 360.
Score: 0
|"Three Los Angeles area men have been charged with copyright infringement after authorities discovered one was modifying Xbox 360 consoles to allow pirated games to run on them"
Did you even read the article???
Score: 0
|umm...not according to this story. Re-read the first line:
"Three Los Angeles area men have been charged with copyright infringement after authorities discovered one was modifying ***Xbox 360*** consoles to allow pirated games to run on them, then turning them around to be sold at the video game store of the other two."
Score: 0
|lol...we both...yeah...u know :-)
Score: 0
|A different source that didn't make a typo:
http://www.redherring.com/article.aspx?a=14939
Score: 0
|lol
Score: 0
|Well...Whos is right and who is wrong? lol Someone screwed up
Score: 0
|Now...I want them to ask themselves this one question...
Was the extra couple hundred bucks really worth 5 years in prison?
Score: 0
|Do they allow xboxes in prison?
Score: 0
|my old freind had a ps2
Score: 0
|