Alleged games console modder faces DMCA charges

Student? He's 27!

When I begin my life of crime I'm going to carry a cane and wear a sweater so all the news outlets can refer to it in stories. I'll garner all sorts of sympathy from folks not paying attention. "Elderly, benign cripple arrested" they'll say, and juries will swoon.

How sad is it

That 10 years passed, and this is the first case of someone actually being charged under the intended use of the law?

All laws are abused and used outside their original purpose eventually, but this stupid law has *only* been used outside its purpose. Can we just rule the blinkard thing as unconstitutional already?

USA gone mad

They might as well just hand law enforcement and legislation over to the media companies.

The USA is not as police state, it's worse than that, it's a corporate state.

"Elderly, benign cripple arrested"?

Weak. I would go down as "Mad Scientist, did horrible experiments on captured politicians, irresponsible civil servants and crooked lawyers in his underground lab."

anydvd?

So according to the DMCA, software such as slysoft anydvd is breaking the law... then how come it's still being openly sold to the general public?

I'm not against this type of software.. in fact I'd like to see a "fair use" policy that lets people that have legitimately purchased movies/games protect their investment by being allowed to make a copy so the original doesn't get broken/scratched and then have to pay more money for it.

Software/film/music companies should invest the money in making better protection for their property if they don't want people to copy it really.

Stupid

So he's not pirating games, but modifying legally-purchased consoles. Seems like he is only guilty of voiding the warranty. Wouldn't fair use state that this allows console users to back up their media and play the backed up copies?

So by this standard, if I in any way facilitate someone else's possible criminal activity---if I sell a DVD duplicator or install software on someone's computer that can be used to dupe DVDs, or something as innocuous as owning an AV company and installing DVRs for people---anything that can be used to circumvent a copyright, I'm liable for prosecution? It seems to me that it's legal to create, sell, and buy cable boxes that have descramblers, just not use them legally---how does this differ?

@ Student? He's 27!

Nothing wrong with being a student at 27, 47, or even 77. Many people change careers over their lifetime and need or want proper training. The designation of student is merely one of either one's aspirations or how they spend the majority of their time.

Would it be better if everyone just thought to themselves that they are only "allowed" formal courses of study till 22 yo? Most 22 year olds are hardly finished learning, at that point they are merely better educated but not properly job trained at a uni vs a technical school.

ICE?!

How did they get the case?

Haven't they got anything better to do, like jumping through the windows of illegal immigrants houses or busting cocaine smugglers or something?

Simple defense

Assuming they didn't find any pirated games, then he could claim he was modifying them to allow the playing of backup copies for when the original disks got scratched beyond repair.

Laws like this should not exist.

per title

@Anonymous Coward RE: AnyDVD

The reason why AnyDVD is openly sold on the public market is because its maker Slysoft is based in Antigua, which is legally allowed to disregard all US copyrights trademarks and other forms of intellectual property thanks to a ruling by the WTO. The US abused its power in trying to criminalize online gambling and Antigua took them to arbitration at the WTO and won.

see:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2007/12/21/antigua_us/

Mod Squad

I see no reason why you can't buy a machine and then modify it to better suit your purposes.

I can buy a car, change the engine, get it inspected and then go on my merry way.

I can legally modify my lawnmower, fridge, dishwasher, bicycle.....so what's so special about a computer?

Oh, it's all about $$$$ and powerful political lobbying...

Caution: May Contain Nuts

Anyone else wonder if we could sue DVD suppliers for stealing our time by making us watch the "Piracy is Theft" crap at the start of every legitimate copy of a DVD? We can choose to watch their film, but get their "pay us or else" shoved down our throats every time we put a non-"stolen" disk in. Funnily enough, I've seen a few ripped DVDs and none of them still had the "PiT" advertorial on, which means the only peole who have to watch it are the people buying real copies - until they get so pi55ed-off that Sunday lunch is over before they even get to the film itself, and ask their mate down the pub if she can still get them knock-off copies...

And is it just me, or does that nice little montage of zooming and flashing images and awful "music" seem to be getting longer? (Hey, mebbe we should get a few people with photo-sensitive epilepsy to watch it over and over again? I don't remember seeing any warnings about not watching, and I thought that was supposed to be required by law whenever flashing images were present?)

Too many DVDs and not enogh excercise makes you a pirate - it gives you A Vast Behind!

@AC 21:21 GMT

Nice attempt at trolling dude, but it doesn't quite cut the mustard. Keep on trying tho, perhaps if you were to drop the AC veil you might have better results?

NOT illegal in the UK !

The yanks have laws against REVERSE ENGINEERING which means that when you buy the stuff you become bound not to 'reverse engineer' it. I suppose it was to stop competitors from copying products, but it hit home hard in the software markets. You cannot alter purchased software in the US of A.

Here in the UK, we DO NOT have reverse engineering laws, so such provisos printed on such crap as Microsoft Windows, just doesn't apply here. You CAN'T copy it and distribute it, but you CAN modify it!

So mod the consoles ? Of course you can ! Simple electronics and we do it as a hobby (or a business). I could set up a service fitting modifications to games consoles and no one can do anything about it. Hey, its the same as saying, 'I love my new car, but I had the tyres changed for Pirellis' Here, once you bought it, it is yours, not 'theirs'. Of course, you can screw the warranty ! This is very different from anything pirated !

thoughtcrime

Well, if this occurred in a regime which constitutionally respects freedom of expression, the only other thing he did apart from the expression of the engineering modification was the thinking behind the modification. And if the expression couldn't have been a crime due to the first ammendment, then the crime must have been the thought behind the expression.

Clearly "intellectual property" for those who claim ownership of it isn't enough to satisfy them. They want to own and control the space inside your head in order to protect their claimed IP.

what a crock of ****

The American government has it’s head so far of tech firms backside they can no longer seem to understand how ridicules they appear. If you transpose the same scenario to say cars, the law would be that you can’t modify your car to run faster or use different fuels, which is insane. If I buy an xbox or ps3 it is mine, I own it, if I want to mod it then it is my choice it would also be my choice if I want to back up a game and play it on different consoles, now what rhymes with consoles ar…

@Mectron

There's a Troll icon for you now.

<----

Also, that particular load of bollocks has become rather tired by repetition over time. Can you come up with something new please?

@MarkOne

sorry but you are what they call wrong google ps3 mod chip

@Jon 52

Jon, I suspect that it would affect phone unlocking. However, since the phone companies make you pay for the phone (in one way or another), they have more than a damned cheek making sure that they hold a MONOPOLY (illegal in he UK) on where it can be used. If it was of their own manufacture, then they could reasonably say that you can't use it on any other network. Provided they told you before you bought it. But, the phones are NOT manufactured by the phone companies and they don't make sure that you understand that it can only work on their network BEFORE you commit to it. Therefore, I see no reason why you (or anyone else) can't modify it (return it to the specification as stated by the original manufacturer). It became YOURS not theirs, so if you want to make it swim underwater in your bath, you are free to do so.

The main point here is that REVERSE ENGINEERING is NOT ILLEGAL in the UK.

Crippen was innocent!

Does this mean this guy will only be exonnerated 100 years latel?

@ Robert E A Harvey

You might want to read this....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-488626/Was-Dr-Crippen-REALLY-innocent-We-exam-startling-new-evidence.html

Enjoy :D