Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

[Kire]

I dunno, I'm against piracy but this just doesn't seem right.

http://www.nbcdfw.com/news/tech/Cal-...-52386872.html

[American Hero]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

Our tax dollars at work.

[John Mora]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

He should be getting 20!

[Kefka Jr.]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

What the hell is with this cutesy undertone, it's like this is the first time they've ever written a story like this

PLAYING AROUND WITH VIDEO GAMES IS NOT A GAME

Come on, guys.

[DK]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

As someone who had to work three jobs at a time during school before getting this engineering job to pay for everything I don't really have any sympathy for people who get busted for making money doing illegal things, sorry!

[Kire]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

Michael Vick got 2 years.

[Tintenfisch]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

It's your own fault for getting caught.

[The_Real_Crunk]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

10 years is ridiculous. You can friggin' shoot people and get less time.

[DK]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

Michael Vick got 2 years.

Michael Vick could afford the best lawyers in America.

[Toaster]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

What the hell is with this cutesy undertone, it's like this is the first time they've ever written a story like this

PLAYING AROUND WITH VIDEO GAMES IS NOT A GAME

Come on, guys.

I had hoped that you were joking about that.

Then I read the article.

[marcus]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

The kid had a racket selling illegal goods. Modifying a console is one thing, giving it to your friends is another, but making revenue off it puts it at a federal government level. He likely made enough money on it to be taxable and didn't mention the earnings. Tax evasion is worse than this digital distribution act thing.

Counterfeiting and piracy have grown in recent years in both magnitude and complexity, according to ICE. Industry and trade associations estimate that counterfeiting and piracy now cost the U.S. economy as much as $250 billion a year and a total of 750,000 American jobs.

Some estimates indicate that 5 percent to 8 percent of all the goods and merchandise sold worldwide are counterfeit.

Ugh, I hate gross estimations like this. 750k jobs? Whatever. 7 of that 8% is likely China with the final 1% being the world as a whole.

[Valkysas]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

I dunno, I'm against piracy but this just doesn't seem right.

Check torrent tracker numbers for The Conduit. the piratebay alone has 10 different torrents up, with one having around 630 leechers right now. I'd hate to see what the numbers were at the time of release.

[highwind]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

i was hoping it was an actual kid.

27 is a pretty old kid!

[orius]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

He's modding consoles to play pirated games and then he's selling them. And he had about a dozen console just sitting around, so he's probably doing a lot of them.

Doesn't really bother me. At least they're cracking down on someone who's enabling pirating rather than adding stuff like copyright protection or crappy DRM schemes that screw the rest of us. Pirating is the reason we have to put up with a lot of that crap in the first place.

Well that and corporate greed, but pirating won't help do anything useful to stop that.

[marcus]

Re: Kid looking at 10 years for modifying game systems

I was reading a magazine from '94 where a guy in Paris met with a pirating group trying to crack Dungeon Master (a PC game which had pretty advanced code at the time). It took two months to crack and the editor is describing how these guys took pride in cracking the game. The pirate spent something like 8 hours a day to try and rewrite the code.

A handful of games have been successful in eluding pirates for weeks at a time. Considering analysts say more than 50% of the units are sold in the first month, a week's worth of bought time is some mighty good profits you otherwise would have lost.

edit: the magazine editor then went on to explain why pirating was killing PC games and how developers moved to consoles.

15 years and nothing has changed except pirating is even easier with torrents.