A Southern California college student has been arrested for modifying and selling game consoles for the sole use of playing pirated games. The accused, 27-year-old Matthew Crippen will face up to 10 years in prison for violating the Digital Millenium Copyright Act.
No word on which consoles he was modifying specifically. It's also unclear the size of his modification operation. He posted bail Monday night and other media attempts to contact Matthew for commenting have been unsuccessful.
Regardless of the size of Mathews operation, I think this is pretty ridiculous. Just to put this in perspective, here are some other crimes that will land you 10 years in prison.
Crimes that will land you 10 years:
- Selling or Transporting Assault Weapons
- Manslaughter 2nd Degree With a Firearm
- Burglary 2nd Degree With a Firearm
- Possessing Child Pornography 2nd Degree
- Contaminating Public Water or Food for Terrorism
Does 10 years really sound fair for what this guy did? Leave comments below and discuss.
[VIA - Associated Press]
This does sounds like to much. Sure he should get punished, but 10 years in jail for that.....that just does not sound right.
He hasn't been sentenced 10 years, yet, right? Only facing for now, I think.
I live in Cali where bootleg games are too damn common. If he was selling then yeah, throw the book at him, however, he shouldn't face any prison time. Maybe a few months in county jail, but at the very least fine him 10x whatever he was selling it for - not make him do time in prison.
Now, if he modded the console just to play legit games from other regions, then I'd actually support him. Region locks are a burden to society!
Oh man,if this crap would be in Romania,70% of our population would be in jail(me too) because we can afford only pirated games =(
I also think 10 years is a bit too much but piracy is a crime that has been growing over the years and for government to be light on it is wrong. I remember that for the PS2 there was a copy for almost a single game here in Costa Rica, and they were not being sold by individuals, but actually from the stores that we had. Not all the stores, obviously, but some of them were doing that and it's dissapointing that the government was doing nothing.
I'm not a person that actually supports piracy but I download music from LimeWire, and if there would be any punishment in the future for this then it's time to start saving money to start buying from the MP3 store at Amazon.com. Actually, there's two Michael Jackson songs, Scream and Dangerous, that I've downloaded that have been recognized as corrupted by the PSP and PS3 so I'm about buy my first MP3s.
ridiculous most of the technology and internet laws are modified version of copyright laws from the 70's and early 90's when they had to come up with big scary laws to well... scare people.
I think actually using someone as an example like this case is a bit of a embarrassment for the state doing the sentencing. If he gets convicted not only would it be ridiculous but also show the states ignorance as to the tech crimes and they're actual affect on society. He didn't hack the stock market or even brake gaming copyright laws he just "modified" consoles.
You should be able to do whatever the hell you want to your console after you buy it. It voids the warranty and that's the risk you take. They shouldn't be able to touch him or anyone else who bought the mod. Go after the people who are actually selling and buying the pirated software, not the means in which to play them.
You should be able to do whatever the hell you want to your console after you buy it. It voids the warranty and that's the risk you take. They shouldn't be able to touch him or anyone else who bought the mod. Go after the people who are actually selling and buying the pirated software, not the means in which to play them.
I totally agree. I think they cant get to the people that sell the pirate CDs. But they go him, and they just want to scare everybody with this over the top punishment.
You should be able to do whatever the hell you want to your console after you buy it. It voids the warranty and that's the risk you take. They shouldn't be able to touch him or anyone else who bought the mod. Go after the people who are actually selling and buying the pirated software, not the means in which to play them.
That's really insane it's like the lady who was sued a few hundred thousand for mp3's he should motion for leave to file cross-complaint i think if you bought a game console you can do what you want to it modifying them would include painting and adding LED's to it so who cares if he messed around with the internals.
I got my BS in CJ. And they need to change a lot of laws in this country. You can sell a pound of mary jane and get 5 years in prison, but if you commit white collar crime, fuck thousands of people out of money you essencially get a slap on the wrist with a year or two at most. We have a MASSIVE overcrowding problem in our prisons. And putting people in jail for a long period of time for dumb shit like this is retarded. I remember learning on average it costs $44,000 to keep a regular inmate in prison per year and if they are on death row it goes up to about $70,000. Pissing away tax payer money left and right.......
I would say give this kid a year in prison, state or federal (federal if you wanna scare the shit outta him). But he really didn't harm anyone or scam a bunch of money from people, he just modded his console he probably bought. Or give him a hefty fine. 10 years is bull imo