Tuesday, August 4, 2009

OC man charged with modifying video game consoles


LOS ANGELES -

A Southern California college student has been arrested on federal charges that he illegally modified video game consoles to enable the machines to play pirated video games.

The U.S. Attorney's Office says 27-year-old Matthew Crippen was released Monday night after posting $5,000 bond.

The California State University, Fullerton student who lives in Anaheim is accused of modifying Xbox, PlayStation and Wii consoles in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents got a tip from the Entertainment Software Association and searched Crippen's home in May.

He was indicted on two counts by a federal grand jury. Crippen faces 10 years in prison if convicted and is scheduled for arraignment on Aug. 10.

Attempts to reach Crippen for comment were unsuccessful.



Well, if you can't stop people from selling mod chips and putting jailbreaking/modiying instructions online, maybe just to deter that one or two extra people from commiting such crimes that hurt profits and mega corporations, the law need to set an example out of this kid.

Otherwise God help us, we have gamer pirates running amuck amongst us.

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