ISOnews owner jailed

[dabuddha]

dunno if this is a repost or not but saw this today
http://www.theregister.com/content/54/30165.html

that's really messed up

 

[nater]

well at least he was arrested for selling modchips and not for his site itself.

 

[FoBoT]

which part is messed up? he pleaded guilty, so he knew he was breaking the law?

pleaded guilty to breaching the DMCA by selling illegal copyright circumvention devices last December

if he/you/whoever doesn't like the law, get your congress people/senators to change it, knowingly breaking the law won't "fix" anything

 

[NFS4]

Umm, he broke the law and got busted. Nothing "messed up" about that.

 

[Juniper]

He pleaded guilty so that his charges are less heavy.

 

[dmcowen674]

Originally posted by: dabuddha
dunno if this is a repost or not but saw this today
http://www.theregister.com/content/54/30165.html

that's really messed up

The News of the sentencing is new, not the fact he was arrested and was to be put on trial but he admitted guilt. The main problem was that he was profiting from it. He probably made close to the $28,500 figure.

 

[Mallow]

Originally posted by: nater
well at least he was arrested for selling modchips and not for his site itself.

I was thinking the same thing. Initially I knew nothing about the modchip thing and thought his site was deemed illegal, which I thought was crazy.

 

[dabuddha]

It?s the penalty itself that im shocked about. Especially considering how lenient we are towards other types of criminals in our judicial system.

 

[MikeO]

His full sentence is five months in prison, five months of home detention, three years of probation and a $28,500 fine

Yep, completely fvcked up.

 

[zippy]

Why is his arrest acceptable but people that sell descramblers can't be touched?
Both are being used to circumvent copyrights/steal services but in both cases the actual product does not allow for that - only the person actually performing the act constitutes circumventing copyrights/stealing. I realize I'm being idealistic here, but isn't that the case with descramblers? Why doesn't it correlate to mod chips?

Anyway, my last console was dreamcast.

 

[dabuddha]

yeah and the dreamcast didn't even have to be modded

 

[RalphKramden]

The justice system is screwed up with violent crimes getting less time than this.
That's for another topic.

 

[deftron]

That's way too harsh..

Even Anandtech allows the sell of modchips in the For Sale/Trade forums..



By the way, funny quote from the article:

"and a $28,500 fine - that's £18,355 in real money."

LOL.. "real" money

 

[human2k]

I wonder what his wife is thinking, "my husband is going to prison for selling add-ons for a dumb nintendo":beer:.


btw he should thought about the consequences.

 

[GermyBoy]

No matter how many of you "law-abiding" citizens there are out there, the DMCA is wrong, and although is law, should be stopped. HOWEVER, writing to our local congressmen will not do anything when you have corporations like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo lining the pockets of politicians to pass more laws like this.

Modchips and the selling of those should be legal. It is the USING them that should be illegal, and only for illegal purposes.

Suppose I sell a gun to people, which is not illegal. USING them is not illegal if you shoot "game" or at a range. Shooting PEOPLE and "not game" animals is illegal, and can get you jail time.

Same goes with alcohol. I sell it to someone. They USE it. They run someone over with a car. Now my selling is illegal, and I can get sued, but not before. The law is such crap.

 

[OulOat]

Originally posted by: GermyBoy
No matter how many of you "law-abiding" citizens there are out there, the DMCA is wrong, and although is law, should be stopped. HOWEVER, writing to our local congressmen will not do anything when you have corporations like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo lining the pockets of politicians to pass more laws like this.

Modchips and the selling of those should be legal. It is the USING them that should be illegal, and only for illegal purposes.

Suppose I sell a gun to people, which is not illegal. USING them is not illegal if you shoot "game" or at a range. Shooting PEOPLE and "not game" animals is illegal, and can get you jail time.

Same goes with alcohol. I sell it to someone. They USE it. They run someone over with a car. Now my selling is illegal, and I can get sued, but not before. The law is such crap.

When would using mod chips be legal? Remember, you don't own the software, you just bought a license to use it accordingly.

 

[human2k]

Originally posted by: GermyBoy
No matter how many of you "law-abiding" citizens there are out there, the DMCA is wrong, and although is law, should be stopped. HOWEVER, writing to our local congressmen will not do anything when you have corporations like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo lining the pockets of politicians to pass more laws like this.

Modchips and the selling of those should be legal. It is the USING them that should be illegal, and only for illegal purposes.

Suppose I sell a gun to people, which is not illegal. USING them is not illegal if you shoot "game" or at a range. Shooting PEOPLE and "not game" animals is illegal, and can get you jail time.

Same goes with alcohol. I sell it to someone. They USE it. They run someone over with a car. Now my selling is illegal, and I can get sued, but not before. The law is such crap.

Agreed, big name corporations are the one's lobbying for new ways to keep the consumer in check so that they can enlarge there pocket books.

 

[GermyBoy]

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: GermyBoy No matter how many of you "law-abiding" citizens there are out there, the DMCA is wrong, and although is law, should be stopped. HOWEVER, writing to our local congressmen will not do anything when you have corporations like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo lining the pockets of politicians to pass more laws like this. Modchips and the selling of those should be legal. It is the USING them that should be illegal, and only for illegal purposes. Suppose I sell a gun to people, which is not illegal. USING them is not illegal if you shoot "game" or at a range. Shooting PEOPLE and "not game" animals is illegal, and can get you jail time. Same goes with alcohol. I sell it to someone. They USE it. They run someone over with a car. Now my selling is illegal, and I can get sued, but not before. The law is such crap.

When would using mod chips be legal? Remember, you don't own the software, you just bought a license to use it accordingly.

When you use Linux on an XBOX, or use it to play homebrew programs like XBOX Media Player. Get educated man.
On a PS2, modchips are used to play LEGAL copies of Imported games.

 

[dabuddha]

Originally posted by: OulOat

Originally posted by: GermyBoy
No matter how many of you "law-abiding" citizens there are out there, the DMCA is wrong, and although is law, should be stopped. HOWEVER, writing to our local congressmen will not do anything when you have corporations like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo lining the pockets of politicians to pass more laws like this.

Modchips and the selling of those should be legal. It is the USING them that should be illegal, and only for illegal purposes.

Suppose I sell a gun to people, which is not illegal. USING them is not illegal if you shoot "game" or at a range. Shooting PEOPLE and "not game" animals is illegal, and can get you jail time.

Same goes with alcohol. I sell it to someone. They USE it. They run someone over with a car. Now my selling is illegal, and I can get sued, but not before. The law is such crap.

When would using mod chips be legal? Remember, you don't own the software, you just bought a license to use it accordingly.

Modchips let you play import games as well.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: GermyBoy
No matter how many of you "law-abiding" citizens there are out there, the DMCA is wrong, and although is law, should be stopped. HOWEVER, writing to our local congressmen will not do anything when you have corporations like Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo lining the pockets of politicians to pass more laws like this.

Modchips and the selling of those should be legal. It is the USING them that should be illegal, and only for illegal purposes.

Suppose I sell a gun to people, which is not illegal. USING them is not illegal if you shoot "game" or at a range. Shooting PEOPLE and "not game" animals is illegal, and can get you jail time.

Same goes with alcohol. I sell it to someone. They USE it. They run someone over with a car. Now my selling is illegal, and I can get sued, but not before. The law is such crap.

The difference is that the chip is intended to be used illegally. There is no other use.

If someone came to you and said that they wanted a gun to kill someone and you sold them the gun they used then you would be as guilty as them.

In terms of the alcohol, if you sold someone alcohol who was already intoxicated and they indicated that were going to drive (or you suspected it) then you could also be found guilty.

 

[Mr.IncrediblyBored]

Originally posted by: GermyBoy
When you use Linux on an XBOX, or use it to play homebrew programs like XBOX Media Player. Get educated man.
On a PS2, modchips are used to play LEGAL copies of Imported games.

While I don't generally agree with game and DVD regional encoding, isn't playing imported games technically against copywrite laws, too?

 

[brxndxn]

The DMCA is legislation that goes directly against the established law of the United States. It is an example of a law being bought and paid for.

I am all for pirating everything. It is no longer being cheap; it is making a statement about an unjust law. Screw the law if it's going to be unjust. (Isn't that basically what MLK said?)

 

[MercenaryForHire]

Originally posted by: KnightBreed

Originally posted by: GermyBoy
When you use Linux on an XBOX, or use it to play homebrew programs like XBOX Media Player. Get educated man.
On a PS2, modchips are used to play LEGAL copies of Imported games.

While I don't generally agree with game and DVD regional encoding, isn't playing imported games technically against copywrite laws, too?

Yup. If you read the fine print, importing or playing out-of-region games is illegal. So I guess my arcade is breaking copyright laws by having Japanese games, right?

- M4H

 

[brxndxn]

Yup. If you read the fine print, importing or playing out-of-region games is illegal. So I guess my arcade is breaking copyright laws by having Japanese games, right?

- M4H

Since when does a media company decide what the laws are by writing them in fine print? It is NOT illegal to play anything out-of-region. The out-of-region protection is just there so they can charge more for the same thing in some countries and less in others. It deters the global market and maximizes their profits.

If you OWN an import game, it is most definitely not illegal to play it in the wrong country.

It's just like Microsoft's license agreements. They say you're not allowed to resell their software or move it to a different computer - but, you most certainly can. If you buy something from a company, they cannot say that you must throw it away and not sell it.

 

[gopunk]

he shouldn't have gotten jail time imo, that's screwed up.

from all accounts, our jail space is extremely limited... and then we decide to stick this guy in there? where the f*ck is the goddamn logic? i want to see murderers, rapists, drunk drivers, etc locked up in what little space we have, not some schmuck selling some video game chip! sure he's breaking the law, but lets get our priorities straight here people... when there is no violent crime, then go after the little things.