Student faces three years in prison for modifying Xbox 360!

Student faces three years in prison for modifying Xbox 360!

www.rawstory.com

In the first case of its kind, a man from Southern California is set to go on trial Tuesday on criminal charges of circumventing digital rights management (DRM) by modifying Microsoft's Xbox 360 console.

Twenty-eight-year old Matthew Crippen faces two counts of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and could face a maximum of three years in prison if convicted.

(visit the link for the full news article)

And yet another "What the?" headline showing up in our bizzare news category...

Let's see, again, we have Wall street and bankster thugs robbing the populace tax-payer base and treasury of untold BILLIONS of dollars with the complicity of their puppets in the 2 party crime family in Washington without so much as a slap on the wrist, and some guy modifying a game console that he PAID for is facing years in prison!

More corporate world dominance nonsense being hurled at the 'little people'.

Unreal...

www.rawstory.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

Wow.

Just to add a kicker to this story it seems that the defendant was illegally filmed in his own home, the film edited the original "lost" and it hasn't been ruled as inadmissible

Other evidence, such as the admissibility of a covert video recording of Crippen allegedly performing the modification is yet to be ruled on. The defense claims that the two-minute video has been edited and was unlawfully produced in Crippen’s Anaheim house without his consent in violation of California privacy law.

I don't know what to say, truly unbelievable
link

reply to post by DimensionalDetective
It sounds like Microsoft may not really object but under the DMCA it's still apparently illegal and the greedy entertainment industry DOES object.

If he was only modifying only his own Xbox, I don't know if they would pursue him, but apparently he had a little business doing it for others' Xboxes also, so that's probably why they went after him.

I don't have high hopes for him winning this case, unfortunately.

reply to post by davespanners


The kinect didnt film him doing it did it?
2nd line

reply to post by ThePeopleParty


Yeah.
The XBox reported that it was hacked over it's Ethernet card, the Kinetic filmed him hacking a second one, then the Xbox put a huge circular scratch in all of his games disks as revenge and took away all of his xbox live points

I wonder how anyone DID actually film him in his home, the article is pretty vague on that point

If the evidence was collected illegally, then it all must be tossed out

fruit of the poisonous tree

This will do one thing for kinect, or however it's spelled......... TANK hardcore..... one would hope.

Im really interested in knowing more about the video...
If he was illegally filmed in his own home, is there a chance the case can get tossed out???

Click here for more information.

reply to post by WeBrooklyn


I think the most they could do is rule that particular bit of video as inadmissible.
The fact that it's an edited video should be enough for it to be inadmissible without any further consideration I would have thought

Meh, i have original XBOX console here, heavily modified with a 1.4Ghz CPU (original was 733Mhz, 720p HD material plays smoothly with the new CPU) 256MB RAM and a 500GB HDD, it is filled with emulators galore, Megadrive, SNES, Atari ST and Commodore Amiga, MAME and lots of arcade goodies, and thats just to name a few. I can stream BBC iPlayer and 4OD (as well as other catchup TV) and it runs linux :-p, it is the most versatile console ever created.......and I CANNOT STAND MICRO$OFT!

My original 360 was modded, but now its not, I do use live from time to time.

My point is, these are my consoles, I paid for them, I will mod them as I wish, running XBMC or Linux isn't illegal, granted thats where the legal side ends, but still..........

So the Xbox that I paid for with my money can't be altered?

What happens if I stick a hammer through it?

Will I get arrested for Criminal Damage?

WTF....!!!

Originally posted by hhcore
This will do one thing for kinect, or however it's spelled......... TANK hardcore..... one would hope.

I don't understand why this would have any effect on Kinect.

I don't think this new device is even involved in the case.

Some people are commenting about not being able to mod their own xbox...I don't think this is what the case is about at all.

This person made a business out of moding xbox's and was getting paid to do so. That is a lot different than just doing it for personal use.

I am asuming the police must of wanted this person badly and just did him for this.

I think people would be amazed how many are probably filmed at home.

reply to post by OutKast Searcher


I disagree, that is like you saying you bought a PC and if you brought it to me for a memory or graphics upgrade then I could be nicked and taken down, the modding it isn't illegal, in the 360's case its usually just flashing the firmware on the DVD drive, it's what the customer does with it after that that could be deemed illegal, ie running pirated software. Modding the firmware can be done to run Linux or homebrew software, and if thats deemed illegal then thats just wrong.

Crippen reportedly made a business out of modifying Xbox 360 consoles. Last year, he was indicted for circumventing "a technological measure that effectively controlled access to a copyrighted work" after modifying a console for an undercover security investigator and then an undercover federal agent.

What led them find him?

reply to post by WeBrooklyn


I wonder that too.

I also wonder what kind of FBI agent managed to blend in as a typical customer of an XBox modding business. Didn't it ring a few alarm bells that a middle aged man in a suit wanted an XBox modded?

He modified the X-box so that it could run PIRATED software and DVDs. That's why he's on trial. Plain and simple. It isn't the modifications to the X-box, it's what those modifications allow people to do.