The DMCA strikes again

[fast]

Inazuma you outright pay your girlfriend to have sex with you? Not she pays part of the bills, you pay her specifically for the act?

But to get back on topic. I mostly agree with Mozgus. If he was making money on it, serves him right. Modding out of production consoles is one thing, modding current ones for profit is just not right.

[MrPopo]

Let's not hijack this thread with another "Inazuma explains how the world really works" discussion.

[The Apprentice]

If that guy sold one copy of any pirated contemporary software, he deserves every bit of punishment the law can throw at him. Pirating isn't the best of practices and is in the moral grey, but when you turn a profit on that stuff then things get fairly black and white.

[Inazuma]

If that guy sold one copy of any pirated contemporary software, he deserves every bit of punishment the law can throw at him. Pirating isn't the best of practices and is in the moral grey, but when you turn a profit on that stuff then things get fairly black and white.

It's not fair to punish someone way more than they deserve. The RIAA will gladly sue someone for millions of dollars if they download a small handful of songs. It would be more fair to sue them about $30.

This console modder guy is facing up to 10 years of jail time. While I agree his crime deserves some punishment since he was actually selling stuff, is 10 years of jail truly fair?

[Jrecee]

It's not fair to punish someone way more than they deserve. The RIAA will gladly sue someone for millions of dollars if they download a small handful of songs. It would be more fair to sue them about $30.

This console modder guy is facing up to 10 years of jail time. While I agree his crime deserves some punishment since he was actually selling stuff, is 10 years of jail truly fair?

I dunno. The jury will decide whether he's guilty or not and the judge will decide if 10 years if fair.

[MrPopo]

This console modder guy is facing up to 10 years of jail time. While I agree his crime deserves some punishment since he was actually selling stuff, is 10 years of jail truly fair?

Depends. We don't know how much money and how money consoles were involved. You'll agree that if I steal $5 from someone on the street I shouldn't be punished as much as if I steal $5000 from someone on the street (assuming everything else is equal), right?

[Inazuma]

This console modder guy is facing up to 10 years of jail time. While I agree his crime deserves some punishment since he was actually selling stuff, is 10 years of jail truly fair?

Depends. We don't know how much money and how money consoles were involved. You'll agree that if I steal $5 from someone on the street I shouldn't be punished as much as if I steal $5000 from someone on the street (assuming everything else is equal), right?

Yeah, I agree with you on that. I just hate to read articles about the RIAA fining someone 22 thousand dollars per song they illegally downloaded.

[jfrost]

I paid to have my consoles modded. I couldn't do it if I wanted it, and I don't. If my doing it with my property is not a crime, paying for someone else to do it shouldn't be either. If it is a crime, I should be arrested, not those who, by my request, did the work.

[Inazuma]

I paid to have my consoles modded. I couldn't do it if I wanted it, and I don't. If my doing it with my property is not a crime, paying for someone else to do it shouldn't be either. If it is a crime, I should be arrested, not those who, by my request, did the work.

Well, if it only becomes a crime when money is involved, you can just take money out of the equation. Find someone to agree to mod your console for free. And on a completely unrelated note, you can agree to buy a blank piece of paper from the modder for $40. No laws broken if it's done this way (^_^)

[Niode]

Regardless of whether money has changed hands he's still broken the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.

The DMCA governs the breaking of copy protection schemes (amongst other things). Therefore the act of modifying consoles to bypass copy protection is illegal. Just as copying a DVD to your computer is a violation of the DMCA (you're bypassing the encryption on the DVD to copy the data to your computer, you can claim fair use but it's still a bit of a grey area).

Inazuma, you need to learn about your rights and the laws of your country before throwing blanket statements like that around. Just because you don't think it's illegal doesn't make it true.