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Matthew Crippen, a 28 year old Xbox modder from California has luckily escaped prison time after being arrested by Homeland Security.
Mr Crippen was running a business from home, modifying Xbox 360 game consoles to play pirated games and other content. He was charging $60 to $80 for his work and ended up charged himself – two felcony counts for violating the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. This basically is a prevention system in place to stop the alteration of hardware to commit acts of crime, in this case circumventing copyright protection.
Crippen's case was the first of its kind to ever reach a trial, when a full jury was selected and opening arguments unfolded.
Unfortunately, for the prosecution, Judge Gutierrez raised some concerns about two prosecution witnesses Tony Rosario and Microsoft Security employee Ken McGrail. Rosario secretly recorded Crippen performing the Xbox modification and McGrail admitted he had modded Xboxes himself in college. Not an ideal pair of witnesses in regards to ethics concerns.
The judge didn't go easy on the witnesses and the prosecution team called for a recess to consider their options.
Wired reporter David Kravets was in the courtroom and he reported that the judge ordered that prosecutors had to prove that Crippen actually knew that he was breaking the law.
When Rosario was called to the stand he said that he had secretly video taped Crippen in his own home as he modified an Xbox in full view of the camera. Rosario also said that he had used a pirated game to test the modification actually worked.
Rosario's earlier reports however didn't detail that he had put a pirated game into the Xbox:
…on cross examination, Rosario conceded he did not write that fact on any of his notes or reports. Nor did it appear on a secret video he took of the encounter. (Only two minutes of an edited video of the transaction was played to jurors, as Rosario said his computer ate the full version.)…
Before the jury, [defense attorney Callie] Steele grilled Rosario on the piracy angle.
“That is something you just happened not to capture on your videotape?” Steele asked.
“It was just not part of the element of the crime,” Rosario replied.
Defense attorney Callie Steele objected to the new testimony and even though 150 pirated games were taken from Crippen's home they suddenly dropped all charges against the defendant. Prosecutor Allen Chiu said that he never forwarded this information to the defense team and should have.
Kitguru says: All in all, a lot of mistakes were made, which we are sure Crippen is thankful for. Do you play Xbox games on a modified console? We would love to hear.
I had a right chuckle with this when i read the whole thing. cant believe he got out of it, but there are so many rules when prosecuting. if its not airtight, you can walk. and he did ! There are so many moer important things going on now, like murderers, rapists etc. spend more time on these sickos rather than some bloke who is making a small buck helping people get cheaper games for their kids. games are much too expensive, thats why this happens.
Am I the only person who thinks that there is a great game to be had here?
You play the part of an illegal modder who not only has to crack DRM puzzles and remaster games in the DVD replication plant, but create modded boxes to play the content – while all the time espacing the clutches of the software writers, governments and thought police.
Wanna bet that the industry (who is happy to see cars run over prams and blow up buildings full of fathers and mothers) would balk at a cool game that focused on the seedy world of game piracy because it was too close to the bone?
Where’s the Rockstar of the new millennia – unafraid of controversy?
It’s nice to know my hard earned tax dollars is paying for bullshit like this… instead of putting REAL criminals behind bars. If we had any say in how our tax dollars are spent in the criminal justice system, I would prefer more focus on rapists, drug dealers, and murders….. I could care less about some guy modifying an Xbox for $60.
Games alone are ridiculous in price, You want to charge $60 for a game, when half of them aren’t even GOOD enough to have replay value? Why isn’t it against the law for Gamestop and such to take your game you “trade-in” for $20-$30 and then turn around and sell it for $55 “used” when a new one is only $5 more?
How about Microsoft increasing the XBL sign up fee? I remember when I would only pay $40 off my credit card, then it became $50 a year…. now it’s been bumped up to $60 a year just to play XBL, it’s enough to make one switch to PS3 which has FREE network, and still gets the same patches per game as the xbox does.