04-09-2003, 11:41 PM
|
#1 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 4th circle: Avarice & Prodigality
Join Date: Jan 2002
Location: Belgium
Posts: 854
Hellbux: 34,371
|
Part two of our isonews story...the sentence
USA: Jail sentence and fine for mod chip retailer
The long arm of the law has a heavy hand on the end of it for console hackers
A man found guilty of selling mod chips on his website in breach of the draconian Digital Millenium Copyright Act has been sentenced to five months imprisonment and a $28,500 fine.
David Rocci, who sold the Enigmah mod chips for the Xbox from his site, Isonews.com (we reported on the site being seized by the US Department of Justice last month), pleaded guilty to breaching the DMCA by selling illegal copyright circumvention devices last December.
His full sentence is five months in prison, five months of home detention, three years of probation and a $28,500 fine - that's £18,355 in real money. While we certainly don't approve of helping people to pirate software, it's hard not to see this as a massively harsh and disproportionate punishment for a man whose crime is selling devices that allow people to modify their own equipment - we wonder what his sentencing would have been had he assaulted someone in the street instead?
However, one thing is certain; the sentence will send an extremely powerful message to anyone else involved in the production or sale of Xbox mod chips in the USA (so far, the attempts of the US Department of Justice to extend the reach of the DMCA beyond its borders have - thankfully - been a failure). Expect a lot of mod chip projects and websites to quietly disappear in the next few days.
|
|
|
|
04-10-2003, 12:18 AM
|
#2 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 2nd circle: Lust
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 85
Hellbux: 2,935
|
| Quote (John D. @ April 09 2003,19:41) | Part two of our isonews story...the sentence
USA: Jail sentence and fine for mod chip retailer
The long arm of the law has a heavy hand on the end of it for console hackers
A man found guilty of selling mod chips on his website in breach of the draconian Digital Millenium Copyright Act has been sentenced to five months imprisonment and a $28,500 fine.
David Rocci, who sold the Enigmah mod chips for the Xbox from his site, Isonews.com (we reported on the site being seized by the US Department of Justice last month), pleaded guilty to breaching the DMCA by selling illegal copyright circumvention devices last December.
His full sentence is five months in prison, five months of home detention, three years of probation and a $28,500 fine - that's £18,355 in real money. While we certainly don't approve of helping people to pirate software, it's hard not to see this as a massively harsh and disproportionate punishment for a man whose crime is selling devices that allow people to modify their own equipment - we wonder what his sentencing would have been had he assaulted someone in the street instead?
However, one thing is certain; the sentence will send an extremely powerful message to anyone else involved in the production or sale of Xbox mod chips in the USA (so far, the attempts of the US Department of Justice to extend the reach of the DMCA beyond its borders have - thankfully - been a failure). Expect a lot of mod chip projects and websites to quietly disappear in the next few days.[/b][/quote]
| Quote | draconian Digital Millenium Copyright Act [/b][/quote]
lol. that's kind of extreme, as I don't think there are any copyright laws that bad as of yet, and what he was doing was bluntly illegal.
copying games and selling them or selling modchips that people will use only to do pirate games and play them for free is illegal and in my eyes wrong as well. most of you don't have the slightest idea of how hard it is to work as a game developer. most of you just download your game at 100K/sec and give no thought whatsoever to the person who developed the game and spent his sweat and blood in it.
I understand though many of you do buy the games, and keep doing it, it's the only thing that will keep them coming.
Don't get me wrong, while I agree that laws where privacy is involved (for example, your ISP's obligation to forfeit your private info in the case of abuse) and can be compromised it is not a good thing. One thing I'm keeping my I on is the next Office and Windows, which Microsoft is trying to gain support for adding their dreaded Nazi standards where they can virtually control your computer and shut it down if you use pirated software. That's out of line, but nailing someone for making money off of other people's work is ridiculous.
__________________
|GHELL|Olympus
|
|
|
|
|
04-10-2003, 12:44 AM
|
#3 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 1st circle: Limbo
Join Date: Jun 2007
Posts: 0
Hellbux: 10
|
I think the punishment is too harsh. A mod chip may allow you to play import games that you have purchased or to use a backup of a game you legally own. I know that many people do steal the games but some people don't. I backup my audio cds as well. I just don't them to get ruined when they are flying around inside my car. Shouldn't the stiff punishments be reserved for people that actually USE the chips to play pirated games ? or for the idiots on the web selling pirated games ?
Atom
|
|
|
|
|
04-10-2003, 12:59 AM
|
#4 (permalink)
|
|
Administrator
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 8,515
Hellbux: 175,039
|
Sheesh get 3 duis and its bad, posses drugs and you get less of a sentence than if you screw with M$! Die M$ die! 
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
04-10-2003, 01:09 AM
|
#5 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 3rd circle: Gluttony
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 416
Hellbux: 8,354
|
|
04-10-2003, 01:56 AM
|
#6 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 3rd circle: Gluttony
Join Date: Mar 2003
Posts: 307
Hellbux: 5,461
|
Yup...Good ol' isonews is gone forever...=/ ...Which is why I had to make this site and nf...nothing my new home...:P
__________________
Specs: ASUS A7S333 mother board, AMD AthlonXP 2400+, 512MB PC2100 RAM, ATI Radeon 9800 Pro (128MB), Soundblaster Live! Value, 160GB Maxtor hdd
|
|
|
|
|
04-10-2003, 03:03 AM
|
#7 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 2nd circle: Lust
Join Date: Oct 2002
Posts: 118
Hellbux: 2,944
|
he he he...isonews is there ...you just have to look a little more  |
|
|
|
|
04-10-2003, 03:53 AM
|
#8 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 6th circle: Heresy
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,689
Hellbux: 65,629
|
All I can say is "finally"... Isonews, an ILLEGAL site has been making money for too long. It's a story that I won't really go into, but the truth is that Isonews was basically making money off both:
A) Developers and publishers.
B) Release groups.
Just like developers and publishers don't make money off pirated games, the release groups don't make money off releasing the cracked copies. In the meantime Isonews has decided to be the "smart guy" and attract public to their site by posting NFOs (aka using the FREE work of both of the above parties) - while at the same time making money off banners and sales of chipmods, which went directly into their pocket. I say 'directly into their pocket' because I know the exact amount of hits and traffic that Gamer's Hell generates, as well as the hosting fees that are paid for that, and the amount of money Isonews claimed to be paying for its own hosting. In comparison to the traffic GH makes daily, Isonews' traffic is nothing, and yet they still claimed to be (over)paying 3-4 times more than we pay here a month. Which brings me to the logical conclusion that this money actually did land in krazy8 and co's pockets.
Cheers to US DOJ - they've finally went after someone who's been profiteering on warez instead of going after the common pirate that does what he does as a hobby.
__________________
|
|
|
|
|
04-10-2003, 03:55 AM
|
#9 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 6th circle: Heresy
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Canada
Posts: 3,689
Hellbux: 65,629
|
|
04-10-2003, 11:50 AM
|
#10 (permalink)
|
|
is on the 3rd circle: Gluttony
Join Date: Jan 2003
Posts: 416
Hellbux: 8,354
|
hehehe you tell e'm Dennis 
__________________
BOW TO MY WRATH..... WHY ARE YOU NOT BOWING!?
|
|
|
|
| Thread Tools |
|
|
| Display Modes |
 Linear Mode
|
Posting Rules
|
You may not post new threads
You may not post replies
You may not post attachments
You may not edit your posts
HTML code is On
|
|
|
Powered by vBulletin Copyright 2000 - 2008, Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd
Template-Modifikationen durch TMS
|
Search Engine Optimization by vBSEO 3.1.0 | |
| |
