Xbox Modding Trial Dismissed 179
It seems the harsh words from District Court Judge Philip Gutierrez on Wednesday had their intended effect; prosecutors in Matthew Crippen's Xbox modding case have now dismissed the indictment. Quoting Wired:
"Witness No. 1, Tony Rosario, was an undercover agent with the Entertainment Software Association. He told jurors Wednesday that he paid Crippen $60 in 2008 to modify an Xbox, and secretly videotaped the operation. Rosario had responded to Crippen’s advertisement on the internet and met Crippen at his Anaheim house. All of that had been laid out in pretrial motions. But during his testimony, Rosario also said Crippen inserted a pirated video game into the console to verify that the hack worked. That was a new detail that helped the government meet an obligation imposed by the judge that very morning, when Gutierrez ruled that the government had to prove Crippen knew he was breaking the law by modding Xboxes. But nowhere in Rosario’s reports or sworn declarations was it mentioned that Crippen put a pirated game into the console. ... [Prosecutor Allen Chiu] conceded he never forwarded that information to the defense."
Re:'Never forwarded that information' (Score:2, Funny)
A backup, and subsequent copy to the other device's RAM when it's inserted, is against U.S. law. Don't tell me you think that downloading owned games "because I already purchased it" is legal too? It isn't.
Not like it matters anyway unless the copyright holder presses charges. This Rosario guy can't do anything about that. So who cares.
Re:'Never forwarded that information' (Score:5, Funny)
Re:'Never forwarded that information' (Score:4, Funny)
Re:'Never forwarded that information' (Score:5, Funny)
Perhaps, but I believe a few fishermen were actually helping to give out the free food.
"This sucks. Why are we handing out fish copies for free, again?"
"I'm telling you, Isaac, it's great advertising! We hand out the fish, everyone loves them, and tomorrow once this Jesus guy is gone they'll want more. And they'll come to us!"
"But we could be selling these fish, Jeremiah! Look at all the money we're losing."
"We're not losing anything. We didn't have to catch these fish, and the whole point is these people were too poor to buy their own food anyway."
"Oh, okay, so let me see if I have this straight: Today, they're too poor to buy fish, but tomorrow, they're magically going to have the money to pay for our fish? Is Jesus handing out coins too?"
"..."