August 1, 2007 is a date that 32 American families are not likely to forget.
On that Wednesday, more than 100 federal agents from the U.S. Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) service, a division of the Department of Homeland Security, executed search warrants on 32 homes in 16 states. The ICE agents, who were seeking mod chips for console systems, were acting in concert with employees of the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), the trade association operated by US video game publishers.
Among the feds and the ESA, the raids were code-named "Operation Tangled Web." The mod chip investigation began in the ICE field office in Cleveland and the case continues to be coordinated by the U.S. Attorney's office there. The raids generated a fair amount of publicity as well as criticism from some quarters.
In the more than 11 months since Operation Tangled Web, GamePolitics has been attempting to find out what happened to the 32 mod chip suspects who were targeted in the raid. In that time the feds have made no announcements concerning arrests or indictments. Although we've been in contact with ICE several times we have received no information so far.
Our search of publicly-accessible federal court records has turned up only one of the 32 search warrants. That's an indication that the others are still sealed. And in the one we did manage to locate, the probable cause section is not available, so we don't know the basis for the investigation, what the agents uncovered, etc.
But an April 7th website post may yield some clues as to the investigation's status. The author reveals that he received a target letter from the Department of Justice in relation to the raid on his home. The DOJ letter, as described by the author, seems to encourage a quick guilty plea in lieu of a full-blown indictment and federal court trial :
A few days ago I received a letter from the Department of Justice. The letter stated that I was the target of an investigation by Homeland Security (Immigration and Customs Enforcement). In the letter, they inform me, that the potential violations are:
1. Title 17 US Code, Section 1201 (in connection with the sale and installation of modification chips)
2. Title 18 US Code, Section 545 (relating to the importation or smuggling of modification chips)
3. Title 18 US Code, Section 1956 (money laundering)
The letter goes on to say that if I want to resolve the matter before I am indicted, they suggest I obtain a defense counsel. It also states that defense counsel will be in a much better position to explain the advantages of a one count felony plea. The letter goes on to say that a plea would present significant sentencing concessions on the part of the government, over the sentence that I would get, should I let the indictment process (and subsequent multiple felony convictions) proceed.
GamePolitics has learned that at least one other individual has also received such a letter. It would seem likely that many, if not all, of the 32 suspected mod chippers will be offered quick plea bargains in this fashion. Perhaps ICE and the ESA are waiting for the upcoming anniversary to make an announcement.
On the fallsinc website, the author goes on to say:
I honestly do not believe that I have violated any law, and as such, I feel I should not be charged with any crime, nor should I have my property confiscated. The actions of big business lobbyists is very apparent in this action, and destroying the lives and livelihoods of 32 people just to satisfy “The Big Three” is not a move that I see in the best interests of the people.
At this point I need all the help I can get. If you are a video gaming or linux enthusiast, or just a user who enjoys the ability to get more out of legally purchased hardware, I need you at my side...
A copy of an Operation Tangled Web search warrant obtained by GamePolitics from publicly-accessible federal court records shows that 10 WiiKey modchips and one Xeno modchip were among items seized from an Ohio residence believed to be that of the author of the fallsinc website.
Mod chips are illegal in the United States under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). They are not illegal, however, in some other countries, including Australia and Canada. Last month, a court in the UK dismissed a case against a British mod chipper, ruling that mod chips do not violate copyright under English law.
ESA CEO Michael Gallagher is quoted on Operation Tangled Web in the organization's 2007 year-end piracy report:
As an industry, we protect our intellectual property, encourage our government to crack down on those who break the law, and urge other governments to take similar action against video game pirates. Yearly worldwide game piracy costs total over $3 billion and it impinges on businesses and employees who create, develop, and distribute innovative products.
The ESA will work with federal law enforcement to ensure that those engaged in the illegal trade of circumvention devices are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Comments
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
As an industry, we protect our intellectual property, encourage our government to crack down on those who break the law, and urge other governments to take similar action against video game pirates. Yearly worldwide game piracy costs total over $3 billion and it impinges on businesses and employees who create, develop, and distribute innovative products.
Wow, $3 billion. Where do they come up with this number? If they haven't confiscated every single pirated copy made then they can only project the amount lost. So where is the information these projections are based on? Anyone know how they come up with this number?
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
I personally think it's pulled out of their asses to be honest. They seem to be assuming that everyone who downloads illegal software would pay for it if they didn't, which is complete tripe.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
This IS what copy protection salesmen ACTUALLY TELL GAME DEV LEADS and Publishers. The numbers given are intentionally bolstered some, and then some more, and then way the hell out of there in order to sway the potential buyers.
There's no factual data behind those numbers, and they will twiddle their thumbs if you demand such. And of course no one but the top brass of a game company believes ever believes in them, but you already know who's in charge...
SecuROM, StarForce, I'm looking at YOU! Dishonest bastards all the way.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
What a load of garbage. I own a modded ps2 and ps1, and not a single pirated game. The only reason I modded them is for imports, because for some reason they have to put a stupid arbitrary region code so we can't play Japanese games for some reason. It's all a stupid pointless waste of time, hunting these people down was a huge ass waste of time and money, and regional codes are a retarded idea in the first place.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
hrmmm.... Well, looks like we just might have our reason why the ESA is being abandoned in droves. I'm guessing the PR (NOT Marketing) Departments of the major companies saw what was going on, realized that the ESA was making the SAME mistakes the RIAA made, and decided to push the Execs to get the hell out of dodge.
Does anyone know if the EFF or ACLU has filed suit to challenge the Constitutionality of the DMCA? Granted the current Supreme Court will be "industry" friendly, but with a little luck and a lot of hard work we will have President Obama in little more than 6 months from now, and we can start undoing the damage of the last 8 years.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
LMAO that is the most niave Idea I have seen in a long time. Maybe we can just throw the word "change" around, and people will belive that we will fix all their woes, while we actualy have no plan to do so.
I have not seen any of the canadites express their opinnions on this matter and honestly I dont expect them to as long as like all the polititions that seem to make it to the fedreal level, they think with their pocketbooks and not for the will of the people, the constitution or even logic.
As for the damage, it started 16 years ago when we showed the world we could be pushed around. And it has continued to go downhill since.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Don't turn this into Democrat vs Republican politics. And don't blame Bush for the DMCA, blame him for the multitude of faults that are actually his, and leave Clinton's for Clinton.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Unlikely, but it probably is a part of it.
More likely the various companies saw little being done about piracy except things that the RIAA and MPAA had already proven to be failures, and tossed it on their list of reasons why the ESA wasn't doing enough for them.
-Gray17
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Maybe this will be the case that goes to the Supreme Court to get the DMCA repealed.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Mod chipping your console is like modding your car. Ford, Chevy, Toyota etc have no say in what you do with your car after you sign the paperwork saying you own it. You can mod it so that it runs on natural gas, desiel grass clippings electricity etc, and they have no say in these matters. It is your right to use your property.
There are laws in place to block certain modifications for cars such as nitrous oxcide mods for turbo boosts of speed, but that still has nothing to do with the car companies.
The same goes for your game console. Once you hand cash over to the retailer for the console, it is your property. You should be free to do with it what you will. The Manufacturers of the console still treat your purchase as their property. Its not.
If they want to prosecute all the modders who actually use those mods to play pirated games, good for them. But when you prosecute the modders who use it to play legally purchased and home brew games, there is something wrong there.
Why should they care that people are developing games at home for their consoles? Why should they carethat people are importing games from other regions? Money. Every game that is made at home and distributed for free is money that is not going in their pocket. Every game that is imported cheats them of money they could have made from region pricing.
They don't like losing money and mod chips lose them money in more ways than piracy. So they hate it.
I really wish that the DMCA would be repealed. I have let my representatives know I hate it and hope that all of you will do the same.
E. Zachary Knight
www.editorialgames.com
Oklahoma City Chapter of the ECA
MySpace Page: http://www.myspace.com/okceca
Facebook Page: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1325674091
E. Zachary Knight
Divine Knight Gaming
OK Game Devs
Random Tower
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
However, the game companies dont "Sell" you games or a console. they only "Licence" it to you. Saying your allowed to use it under blah blah terms and blah blah agreements. This is the loop hole the industry uses to call anything they dont like illegal.
However you own your computer so your allowed to modify it as much as you want.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Actually the courts threw that arguement out when they ruled on the "First Sale Doctrine" earlier this year. Just because they says it's licensed, doesn't mean you don't have ownership of your copy/device.
-- If your wiimote goes snicker-snack, check your wrist-strap...
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
If that's the case, wouldn't that mean that unless there were actual pirated games found, the cases should be thrown out? When I bought my PS2 modchip a few years back, the stock BIOS on it didn't allow you to play pirated games and only worked to circumvent region coding. It required flashing a 3rd party BIOS onto the chip to play pirated games, and the manufacturer's website even said it. Unless that's changed since I bought mine, a modchip alone doesn't allow for playing pirated games, but the 3rd party BIOS does.
But I'm probably wrong because I pretty much suck when it comes to a lot of legal matters. That, and everything about the DMCA is retarded.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
That's why the UK conviction was quashed. The prosecution tried to argue that mere sale of modchips facilitated copyright infringements as it faciltated a unlawful trade in pirate software. The modchip was only unlawful as it was linked to a copyright infringement created through the chip. The Court did not accept that arguement as it was too remote a link between the chip and the infringement. They did, however, make it clear that if the prosecution had argued the the chip allowed an infringing copy to made in RAM when a pirate game was played they may have ruled differently; but the prosecution did not make that agruement at trial.
It therefore appears that in the UK modchips are stil likley to be unlawful, but only if you can show they have lead to pirate/unlicensed games being played as a result of the fitting of the chip.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Mod chipping your console is like modding your car. Ford, Chevy, Toyota etc have no say in what you do with your car after you sign the paperwork saying you own it. You can mod it so that it runs on natural gas, desiel grass clippings electricity etc, and they have no say in these matters. It is your right to use your property.
100% couldnt have said it better!! nice one.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Speaking as someone who works in the game industry and works for a company that both has serious piracy problems and is activly involved in tracking down pirates profitting off our work.... I have to say that the ESA does not speak for all of us.
Claiming that this is the only way to enforce their IP is just plain wrong. It's a good way to scare a bunch of customers into moving away from homebrew or imports (which makes marketing departments thrilled) but IP protection? Don't make me laugh. There are better ways to go about such things.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
I agree, threats, posturing and legal violence isn't going to solve piracy, look at the hole the RIAA dug themselves, and the ESA are far too willing to leap in after them.
There are methods that could effectively deal with Piracy, but they need to be dealing with people who ARE pirating, not people who might be. To take that course of action is, as you say, going to end up making enemies of consumers, and then they will start pirating as much out of spite as out of greed, after all, no-one obeys a tyrant when he isn't looking, and, alas, it's the gaming companies that will suffer in the short term for the ESA's actions.
Really, the only thing that can stop the ESA steamrollering the industry into a Stock, Aitken and Waterman type disgrace is the companies themselves.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Tis but a Witch hunt. Shake enough trees and something will fall to show that the tree shaking was justified. Bah. The letter Seems to follow an logic as well. ie
"Guilty before proven innocent".
"Admit your guilt and we will not punish you as much."
Why does this make me think yet again of George Orwell's 1984?
The ESA can pursue cases like this at cost to... wait, yep those that are claiming to protect in the form of higher dues and such.
Still curious why the Dept of Homeland Security (another parasitic existance) were involved with any of this. I mean where mod codes Terrorist Devices? Where the gamers in question plotting against the goverment or the safety of the country? I tend to agree though that there had to be far more then 32 warrants to find the 32 chips, but those extra warrants were likely swept under a convient rug. Cannot have the government and the ESA look foolish even (especially) if they are. Inmates running the asylum.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Actually sounds quite a bit like extortion to be honest, from reading that letter.
'Either own up, or we will make sure that we make your life as unpleasant as possible, regardless of whether you are a criminal or not'.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
As an industry, we protect our intellectual property, encourage our government to crack down on those who break the law, and urge other governments to take similar action against video game pirates. Yearly worldwide game piracy costs total over $3 billion and it impinges on businesses and employees who create, develop, and distribute innovative products.
right.. so what about the people who use mod chips/software hacks not to pirate in any way, but simply to play homebrew software, play legally purchased imported software not available on the native system, and allow access to previously incompatible software (e.g. hacking a psp to allow the playing of legally owned videos and music that are in a format not previously supported, or as my friend does, softare to enable output of his psp screen to a pc monitor)
Mod chips CAN be used completely legally and 100% morally without causing loss or damage to anyone.
If somebody PIRATES then fair enough they are comitting a criminal act. Installing/selling/owning a mod chip is NOT pirating. its COMPLETELY different.
Its like charging everyone in the country with murder because they OWN a knife in their kitchen drawer only used for meals. Yeah somebody out there my have murdered some1 with a kitchen knife, but you cant apply that to the millions of people who have used them completely responsibly.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
I wonder if he has contacted groups like the ElectronicFrontierFoundation?
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
The thing that really annoys me with the mod chip thing is that a lot of them ARE NOT used for pirating. Infact most cases I hear don't involve pirating. The modding tends to be done to let a system play games not from that country on the system without having to go through the hassle of buying a new system.
I can fully appreciate that because there's a slew of japanese only titles that, assuming I knew japanese, I'd love to try, but I'd need to go get a japanese ps2 to be able to play most of them.
I always thought the country seperations for games were kind of silly. I can understand not releasing a game on this side of the pacific due to copyright issues and such (damnit super robot wars.... ) but if I import a game and buy it from japan why shouldn't it run on my console at home? That always seemed really weird to me....
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
The idea of region locking a device is easiest to describe in terms of the movie industry.
By region locking a DVD player, they make it so you can't order a $2 LEGIT pressed DVD from China that is the same as the US release that they charge $20 for without special equipment.
You CAN get legit DVDs in China for $2 -- they dropped DVD prices over t here to try to slow the rampant piracy. So, region locking means 'sucker' countries like us pay 10 times what the poor countries pay for the same content.
Region locking also prevents someone in, say, England from importing a US DVD for about twice the cost of a movie ticket -- when the movie is just coming out over there.
In terms of Gaming, the reason Sony shut down Lik Sang (Sp?) is because they were selling PSPs from Japan in Europe for less than what the EU MSRP was going to be. I'm pretty sure the PSP isn't region locked, so importing the product from Japan and selling it for less than the 'rape EU in the butt' price hurt their bottom line. Lik sang wasn't doing anything illegal... but because of some shady legal manuvering on Sony's part (suing them consecutivly in every EU country), Lik sang couldn't afford to fight the bogus charges.
All in all, While I'm no pirate, I'm not a fan of region locking OR modern copyright, because its all a scheme to keep their prices artificially high.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Its the same stupid logic they use for DVDs. Perhaps a very popular game will come out in Japan (Say Final Fantasy XIII) and they dont want the USA Population to be soured by the game... or perhaps they have a marketing ploy for its release date or w/e....
Doesnt seem to make sence now that most games are released simultaneously in multiple locations.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
It's cause ALL corporations are runned by neurotic control freaks (Steve Jobs anyone?). They can't stand it when people do something with their product they didn't forsee/prescribe and can't make money off it. They NEED to control the distribution to make sure that they squeeze every single possible cent out of it -- and that no one else can make a dime off their product without them getting a cut.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
There's a series of games that I love to play that will *never* be released in the United States (the Super Robot Wars series), and while I did not use a mod chip to play them, I had another method of doing so. I would love to ask the politicians WHY it is illegal for me to play a game I legally bought on a system I legally own.
In my humble and lowly opinion, arresting everyone who owns a mod chip for piracy is like arresting every gun owner for murder. The vast majority should not be condemned on the actions of the few.
There I go with my logic. When will I learn that logic has nothing to do with the modern legal system?
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
From where I come from, piracy (and mods chips by association) is rampant due to our cost of living. a Typical worker here gets about 100 to 200 USD per month, and he'll have to worry about electricty, phone and food bills.
The legitimate shops sell original games for a slightly higher margin than their US retail price - that's about 40 bucks for a decent PS3 game, or about 1/5th of my monthly pay. What sucks even more is that even if we were to have our consoles un-modded, we don't recieve any of the free customer care the guys in US or Europe can get, simple because we're out of the company's jurisdiction. And the government asks us to buy original? Fuck them - even their offices are running on bootleg Windows copies, also due to lack of funds!
Piracy and modding are rampant exactly BECAUSE of the dumbass legal limitations being imposed by these distributors just so they can make a quick buck.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Before this turns into the inevitable complain about stupid laws fest is anyone here prepared to do anything about it other than complain about it in a forum none of our politicians read?
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
What do you suggest?
-- teh moominz --
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Being me, i'd suggest either an Insurgency or Terrorism. Problem is, that will acheive absolutely nothing.
~You Could Be Mine, But You're Way Out Of Line..~
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
*hearts* BlackIce
-- teh moominz --
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
:3 or This. is acceptable.
~You Could Be Mine, But You're Way Out Of Line..~
The bigger problem here is...
The DMCA. Congress has been bought out completely by the content industry. The same cannot be said for other countries, which is why the almighty dollar is more important than things like privacy and citizens rights.
With luck, the Canadian DMCA will be weakened before it is ratified as a law up there...
Re: The bigger problem here is...
Good god, I hope so. Fuckin' Harper pandering to fuckin' corporate shills. I hope he gets hit in the face with a garden hoe and dies.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
I still the the ESA is stupid. The gaming industry talks of the fact that people coming out of Uni aren't trained up for the commericial world of gaming (Hey, gaming industry, welcome to every other industry out there), and yet, every single one of the 'famous' coders (Wright, Braben, Codemasters etc) started off as home-grown coders working on things like Spectrums etc.
They want to know where home-grown talent is going? That's easy, the PC Market, if you don't encourage people to develop PS3 or XBox coding skills for the future, you are going to continue to get 'rubber stamp' coders and the industry will not grow, because no-one can learn coding until they are working for a company with the SDK. The prodiges of 15-16 years old, such as the Codemaster founders etc won't care for, or be able to afford to develop for consoles, and so they will stay out of the console market.
So it seems to me that, in the interests of fighting piracy, the ESA is putting the revolver to it's own head in the long term.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
I love it that the FBI bothers to waste time on this..
~You Could Be Mine, But You're Way Out Of Line..~
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
This is one of the biggest and most glaring flaws in the US justice system. Every man is due his day in court, but god help you if you choose to exercise that right and don't come out on top. It often seems these days that American citizens who are found guilty in a court of law are punished as much for daring to refuse to roll over for prosecutors as they are for the law they broke in the first place. Skyrocketing legal costs only exacerbate the situation.
When average citizens can't afford decent legal representation, and when they're threatened with punitive actions way out of proportion with their alleged crime unless they agree to a guity plea before an indictment is even filed, what's left is a fundamentally broken system that utterly fails the people it was created to serve. It's a tremendously worrying situation.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
They resort to plea bargining in many cases because the courts are backlogged as it is -- thus those up on minor charges are coerced into pleaing guilty for a 'lesser sentence'.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Total shit, I hope you don't actually believe that. They ask for bargains because they know they have no real legal foundation and want to force a win upon people who don't have enough moneyy to defend themselves. But yeah keep believeing they have good intentions to keep our courts free of pointless cases, even though thats exactly what this is.
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
If anything's going to encourage piracy, it's this.
-- teh moominz --
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial
Re: Feds Pursuing Guilty Pleas in Last Summer's Controversial