US mod chip retailer jailed and fined

[eghamninja]

A US man found guilty of selling mod chips on his website in breach of the Digital Millenium Copyright Act has been sentenced to five months imprisonment and a $28,500 fine.

David Rocci, who sold the Enigmah mod chips for the Xbox from the site, Isonews.com (the domain was seized by the US Department of Justice last month, but the site is still operating here), pleaded guilty to breaching the DMCA by selling illegal copyright circumvention devices last December.

His full sentence is five months in prison, five months of home detention, three years of probation and a $28,500 fine - that's ?18,355 in real money. While we certainly don't approve of helping people to pirate software, we see this as a massively harsh and disproportionate punishment for a man whose crime is selling devices that allow people to modify their own equipment.

However, one thing is certain; the sentence will send an extremely powerful message to anyone else involved in the production or sale of Xbox mod chips in the USA (so far, the attempts of the US Department of Justice to extend the reach of the DMCA beyond its borders have - thankfully - been a failure). Expect a lot of mod chip projects and websites to quietly disappear in the next few days.

? gamesindustry.biz

All I can say is thank goodness we are not part of the 'Land of the free' quite yet.

[Leynos]

There's something that's been bugging me for a while. Were the Enigmah people lying when they said that the BIOS on their chips was 100% re-engineered code, and contained no code from the Microsoft BIOS? Everyone seems to be saying, in defense of these people being prosecuted, that the chips contained pirated code. And I'm wondering if there is any proof of this, or if it is just rumour and hear say.

I know that this isn't the issue, and that the people in question have been charged with distributing circumvention devices and not with piracy, but I think it would be good for the argument if this matter was put to rest once and for all.

Later.

[srgbilco]

His full sentence is five months in prison, five months of home detention, three years of probation and a $28,500 fine - that's ?18,355 in real money.

I remeber hearing about isonews being seized on the Edge forums. Everyone there presumed that he would just get a fine. This is just way OTT. ft:

This is definitley going to descend into an anti-American flame war, and with good reason. This is just typical corporate favouring, with no thought of the legal uses the chip may have, like imports or running Linux. I'm more worried about the upcoming EU legislation about mod chips though.

[Papercut]

Prison!? Thats so screwed up.

I could perhaps understand to a degree if he was involved in developing the Enigmah, but just reselling mod chips... thats incredibly wrong.