On Monday federal agents arrested a Cal State student for modifying his Xbox. The student faces up to 10 years in prison on charges stemming from an investigation that cost taxpayers thousands and lasted a year. States federal ICE agent Robert Schoch, "Playing with games in this way is not a game -- it is criminal." (Source: Comedy Central)
"Playing with games in this way is not a game -- it is criminal" -- Robert Schoch, federal agent
Learning soldering, tweaking hardware, uploading new firmware -- these sound like the wholesome kind of extracurricular activities you might run across at an electronics club or robotics league. However, they landed one young college student on the wrong side of the law.
Like millions in the U.S. and abroad, Matthew Lloyd Crippen, a 27 year old resident of Anaheim and Cal State student, modified his video game console using widely available mod chips and bootleg firmware. Unlike many, though, Mr. Crippen was busted -- by federal agents, nonetheless.
A year long investigations ended Monday with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents taking Mr. Crippen into custody. The expensive investigation, which likely came at a cost of tens of thousands of taxpayer dollars began with a tip from the Entertainment Software Association, which likely caught caught wind of Mr. Crippen's hobbies via watching message boards, or perhaps by tracking mod chip shipments.
The investigation end with the arrest and Mr. Crippen being arraigned on two charges stemming from violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DCMA). He has been charged with two counts of modifying for personal financial gain technology affecting control or access to a copyrighted work, two charges that carry a potential prison time of 5 years a piece -- for a total of 10 years if he is convicted on all charges.
Robert Schoch, special agent in charge of the ICE investigations office in Los Angeles had little sympathy for the young lawbreaker, stating, "Playing with games in this way is not a game -- it is criminal. Piracy, counterfeiting and other intellectual property rights violations not only cost U.S. businesses jobs and billions of dollars a year in lost revenue, they can also pose significant health and safety risks to consumers."
According to Mr. Schoch 750,000 Americans lose their jobs a year due to piracy and $250B USD of the U.S. economy is lost. Mr. Crippen played a small part in that loss -- a raid of his apartment in May revealed 12 modified Xbox, Wii, and Playstation game consoles. It is believed that Mr. Crippen was selling the modded consoles for a small profit. That small part may earn him some big prison time and fines, though, and will likely end his dreams of getting his college degree.
While Mr. Crippen may have been aiding software piracy, the extreme penalties the charges carry and the fact that he is not being charged for pirating software, but rather for merely modifying hardware he legally purchased seems highly questionable.
One thing's for sure, though -- with Apple urging the U.S. government to outlaw iPhone unlocking as a potential terrorist act, with the RIAA scoring a jury verdict of $1.92M USD in damages against a filesharer, and with the EFF and ACLU unsuccessful thus far in halting such actions, it appears that the U.S. government and industry officials are more ready than ever to resort to extreme punishments to curb tech crime. And the irony is that across the nation piracy is soaring to new all time highs.
"Nowadays, security guys break the Mac every single day. Every single day, they come out with a total exploit, your machine can be taken over totally. I dare anybody to do that once a month on the Windows machine." -- Bill Gates
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