Student Arrested for Modifying Consoles

[scook9]

This is like saying if I sell guns (presumably legally) I can be arrested for facilitating POSSIBLE murders

After all, guns enable people to murder....

The only legal way to go after pirates, is to go after them, not the people that make it possible, because until something is pirated, it ISN'T pirated damit!

 

[david__t]

A lot of people are missing the point about ownership - just because you have bought something, it doesn't mean that you can do what you like with it - for example the EULA for MacOS states that you cannot install it on a non-Apple product. Also, as a previous poster stated, it is the bios that has been cracked which is illegal whomever owns the machine. People who watch The Wire will know that lots of little prosecutions are good for the crime statistics rather than burning loads of time on the bigger crimes that might not get solved - so it is not really suprising that small time people like this are being clamped down on. On top of that, with such widespread media coverage, they are trying to deter other people from doing the same thing which is why illegal MP3 file sharing comes in to the news every now and then - pure intimidation - the Music industry never expects to get back what they spend on the lawyers for presecuting these cases.

 

[bunz_of_steel]

Ok what he was doing is wrong.... I mean illegal hee hee. But ARRESTING him instead of pursuing it in civil court? C'mon government doing private sector work? You know government getting to involved in private sectors with our corporations is bad mojo. I ripped a tag off a mattress I bought so like is Hump my land security going to come get me? lol ... it's stained hee heee.

 

[bilco]

There is no legitimate use for piracy modification. Just as there is no legitimacy in modifying my Pontiac with scythed wheels before driving through a busy shopping centre, "It's my car I can modify it anyway I damn well please". Well, err, actually no you can't.

Actually there very much is - Homebrew apps. Usually just a blanket reason most mods and pirates use though.

 

[Guest]

10 years for modifying computers which people who bought them agree on;
3 years for illegal drug traffic...

And what, 15 years for murder? Where are we going to?

If Nintendo and whatsoever had made those consoles better in the first place, they didn't need no modding!

 

[neiroatopelcc]

Didn't know it was illigal to modifiy a purchased product!
I soldered a custom usb plug into my car radio the other day, can I be jailed for that as well?

 

[Sicundercover]

What I find discerning is, why is Homeland security involved? This is far beyond their original charter. Were they not created to protect us from "Terrorists"? So why are they now arresting people for modding XBOXs.

Does modding = Terrorism?

 

[igot1forya]

So your saying modifying your console to "play" pirated games is illegal? What about modifying your car to exceed the safe speeds? Having a jail broke phone wont land you in prison will it? Dear lord, someone has to stop this crap! Hey, guess what? I overclock sometimes too!

 

[eyemaster]

This makes no sense at all. You're allowed to modify what ever you want that you own or what someone brings to you to do. If you run a business out of it, you have to pay taxes, so that's pretty much all I see "Illegal" here.

We buy cars that are built to exceed the speed limit, I don't see the car manufactures being hit legally like this.

Why did this kid go to jail???????

 

[lamorpa]

[citation][nom]omnimodis78[/nom]All these corporations have been ripping us off for a long, long time - and a guy goes and runs a business where he uses his skills and talent to earn some cash and lo and behold he is shoulder deep in shit now! Go figure... We will never, ever win against these greedy bastards because they write their own laws to screw us over day in and day out![/citation]
It would be difficult to describe to you your level of parannoia and stupidity, with your obvious lack of understanding of any social, economic, or political issues. It seems as though you believe there is a set/class of people (who you are not a part of) who exist for the purpose of ripping you off, and therefore deserve to be punished (ripped off). Your double standard aside, you should seek professional counseling.

 

[AndrewMD]

Uh, if you all read the article, you will see that he is being charged for modiifying consoles, not just his own, but other people's console and charging a fee to do this. Yes, this action is illegal, there is no need to modify your console unless you want to partake in the use of illegally obtained games.

 

[freak77power]

Truth is they could care less about changing console but it is actually money Student was making doing so. See, deal is that you can't make any money for Banksters not to know about otherwise you're sent to jail.

 

[FlayerSlayer]

[citation][nom]ethaniel[/nom]The problem is, he was doing it for profit. You can do your own modifications to your own console, but if you start to "offer your services", that's a different story. The "Keep a low profile" is a must.[/citation]Wait, but what if I charged money to REPAIR people's systems, say I started a Red Ring of Death repair company out of my home. Would that be illegal? Would it be any different than PC repair / modification?

 

[foxyg]

So homeland security is catching console modifier rather than terrorist now.

 

[Kaiser_25]

Be careful gentlemen do not mod anything, next time you think of modding your 'house' by adding a new shower head...ATF is going to bust down your door shoot your dog, and rape your wife...or something like that..

 

[sunflier]

So, if someone pays me to "office space" their console is that illegal? I mean in some ways I modified it.

 

[Guest]

Who would have thought that stealing is illegal?

 

[Guest]

It's time to leave this f'ed up country. How hard is it to live in Antarctica?

 

[AdamB5000]

Homeland Security? You've got to be kidding. What a waste of money that department is. What happened to the police force?

Dumb.

 

[Kill@dor]

He might as well take the money and run...LOL