ICE pirate raid

[mamedude99]

Pretty interesting, ever wonder if they track whos buying em and tracking them to?










Source

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/20074468/

WASHINGTON - Federal customs agents Wednesday raided more than 30 businesses and homes, looking for devices that let pirated video games play on Sony's PlayStation 2, Microsoft's Xbox and Xbox 360, and Nintendo's Wii.

The alleged sale and distribution of illegal modification chips and copyright circumvention devices for the popular consoles and others included 32 search warrants in 16 states, said the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

(MSNBC.com is a joint venture of Microsoft and NBC Universal News.)

ICE declined to release the names of those targeted or any other details.

The illegal chips and other devices used on gaming consoles violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998. Sales of counterfeit or illegally obtained games costs the industry about $3 billion a year globally, not including Internet piracy, estimates the Entertainment Software Association trade group.

"Illicit devices like the ones targeted today are created with one purpose in mind, subverting copyright protections," Julie L. Myers, assistant secretary of Homeland Security for ICE, said in a release. "These crimes cost legitimate businesses billions of dollars annually and facilitate multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering."

The federal raids came after a yearlong investigation conducted by ICE's Office of the Assistant Special Agent in Charge in Cleveland, which coordinated with the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Northern District of Ohio and the Department of Justice's Computer Crimes and Intellectual Property Section.

ICE said it also received technical assistance from the software association and other industry members.

Redmond, Wash.-based Microsoft Corp. issued a statement applauding ICE's efforts to reduce piracy and protect the gaming industry's intellectual property. A company spokeswoman would not divulge Microsoft's individual piracy losses.

Shares of Microsoft added 15 cents to $29.14 in afternoon trading, while Sony Corp. dipped 44 cents to $52.30.

[J]

The land of the free indeed.

What's next... are they going to check who installed internet and what did they download to see if it was illegal or asking ISP's to provide information on IP's which link to illegal content sites.

And don't even begin to say that they cannot do that... they have been doing "deep packet searches" for a while ago..

[Elmdor Rizer]

Hm, cool.

I didn't even know there was such a thing as an "illegal chip".

[Panda Man]

I doubt they'll be able to convict him of anything though. I'm hoping someone stands up for this bullshit like people did against the RIAA.

[mamedude99]

I didnt even know the chips were illegal, is that why when you buy something like that it usually comes from a china website like lik sang?

[Mistral]

That's why there was the huge fuss over the DMCA in the emulation community in the first place. Under DMCA Title 1, Section 103, it is illegal to "circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work" or "manufacture, import, offer to the public, provide, or otherwise traffic in" a device, service or component which is primarily intended to circumvent "a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work", and which either has limited commercially significant other uses or is marketed for the anti-circumvention purpose. Those lovely chips match perfectly to the above (part one for use, part two for sale), and do not fall under any of the exceptions. But seriously, is it really that surprising? I mean, piracy is illegal, and aiding and abetting is just as bad. It's an implicit fact of law, and if it bothered any of us, we'd not come here at all.

The DMCA is a nasty piece of work in the eyes of pirates. It's a nasty piece of work in the eyes of many others, but for different reasons.

[Borman]

The chips dont do anything on their own though, so it all depends on the interpretation of the DMCA, among other chief laws. Its the illegal bios and code that normally cause the issues, as a stock xbox chip with the Linux bios isnt illegal. But then again, Wii chips are mostly illegal

[b1gwi11]

i thought the chips had other uses, such as allowing homebrew apps, and games to run??

or is that illegal too?

[mamedude99]

Well if their illegal, shouldnt the ones manufacturing these things get in trouble to? Do a few people like 5 or so go buy alotta blank chips and program something onto them all day for the thousands that get sold? Or does a professional company go and make these or what?

[Evans]

I'm really miffed by this whole "buy a console, don't do what you want with it" idea.

[Anonymous]

I'm really miffed by this whole "buy a console, don't do what you want with it" idea.

It's not too far from a EULA on software, really.