UK: Mr. Modchips Gets Convicted Options

[jeff10]

Walmart sold me my modchip, and it was manufactured by ST in Singapore.
It did not come with any illegal code on it, but then I flashed it with an x2 bios.

Should we hold Walmart responsible for selling a device with a chip that can be flashed to allow a game system to play pirated games?
What about all of the other retailers selling these products? Gamestop, Target, Best Buy, etc. have all sold these devices for the better part of the last decade.

Strange I've never seen modchips at walmart, gamestop target,

[Bubbalynch]

Walmart sold me my modchip, and it was manufactured by ST in Singapore.
It did not come with any illegal code on it, but then I flashed it with an x2 bios.

Should we hold Walmart responsible for selling a device with a chip that can be flashed to allow a game system to play pirated games?
What about all of the other retailers selling these products? Gamestop, Target, Best Buy, etc. have all sold these devices for the better part of the last decade.

Exactly when did Walmart, GameStop, Target and BestBuy start selling modchips?

I call BS on that comment.

[GeToChKn]

Walmart sold me my modchip, and it was manufactured by ST in Singapore.
It did not come with any illegal code on it, but then I flashed it with an x2 bios.

Should we hold Walmart responsible for selling a device with a chip that can be flashed to allow a game system to play pirated games?
What about all of the other retailers selling these products? Gamestop, Target, Best Buy, etc. have all sold these devices for the better part of the last decade.

What are you talking about? What Walmart sold you a modchip???? What mod devices do those other companies sell other than action replay crap??

[fierygt]

the jury consists of a bunch of pricks. who would vote against this?

Maybe the jury was full of people who tried to buy parts or services from him? I am in full agreement with others, that if anyone deserved to go down, it was this guy. His attitude was incredibly bad, and if you check resellerratings, he even tried to threaten them! He would take people's money, and if the item bought was bad, and need to be warranted from him, I believe 9 times out of 10, he would just send some arrogant comment to the buyer, and ban them from placing any further trouble tickets, or even accessing his website. Just the sheer number of complaints here, in such a short time HAS to tell you something about this person. I don't think any thread similar to this has started out with so many people commenting on how they were treated by the "company", opposed to why the person/company went down.

[Andronicus]

Don't know what the rules are over in the UK. It must suck to not even be able to possess a chip that could be flashed with code that would enable piracy. Where do they draw the line? Any computer can be used for piracy with no difficult firmware flashing. What about blank DVDs that the games could be burnt onto? I think the UK needs to put some serious thought into this before they start making all technology illegal.

Exactly when did Walmart, GameStop, Target and BestBuy start selling modchips?

I call BS on that comment.

Walmart sold Xboxs. Turns out, the TSOP chip in there can be used to pirate games. Realy no different than an modchip with cromwell.

[digital71]

Guys, I gotta say that I completely agree with this decision. I think that the next step is to ban the internet. Do any of you know how many games have been pirated over the internet? Too many, so down with the internet. And while we're at it, we should ban CD/DVD burner drives too, because those have a lot of potential for piracy. But we can't just stop there (with being so close to victory against piracy), we need to also ban HDD drives because even if CD/DVD burners are banned and the readers exist, people can rip the images to their HDDs. And then the ultimate hit against piracy would be to outlaw executable files... because everyone knows that a no-cd fixed exe is an executable file, so ban that and you have 100% victory against piracy .

[mp5user]

Better Business Bureau, are you fucking kidding. The Better Business Bureau isn't a goverment org. Members pay to display that they are part of the BBB. Only members of the BBB can really be effectected by a complaint to the BBB. It's effectively a union of business, most of the members are no better than a non-BBB member. Have you ever looked at a complaint filed with the BBB, pretty useless. Most BBB compaines are contractors anyway, not retailers. The BBB has almost 0 clout with non-BBB businesses.

[DMAddict]

I just hope this leads to more software mods. FTW!

[throwingks]

Exactly when did Walmart, GameStop, Target and BestBuy start selling modchips?

I call BS on that comment.

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5716126
Here is a modchip, right here. I am pretty sure you can buy it at every store you named. It is compatible with homebrew that emulates NES, SNES, etc,. As well as allows you to play illegally obtained movies and music.

Is that a concrete enough example for you?

Read Walmart's review of this one:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5775067

You can use it to launch home brew games written for the DS and readily available on the internet, listen to your happening sounds with the device's integrated MP3 player or even watch videos.

This post has been edited by throwingks: Oct 25 2007, 09:48 PM

[xmugen360]

I think that the owner of a machine should be allowed to "modify" it in any way he or she sees fit. I believe that this thinking should then extend itself to the potential industry around supplying people with modchips. Similar to car mods. Except when you put a modchip in an XBOX you can't outrun the police. Although you can have a whole lot of fun with homebrew applications: XMugen, CPX3, XBOX Media Center etc. Homebrew that I love and has provided much happiness to I and my friends. Of course you can also help to destroy great video game studios (Psychonauts anyone?) by downloading ugh cough "backups". But I don't think in either case anyone is put at risk. It is ultimately the end user or owner's decision what to do with these abilities.

The copyright laws are well known but modchip does not equal copyright infringement. Just ability to. It's like arresting people with drug paraphernalia. They have the needed tools. But not the deadly substance. I think this is an important legal distinction. Yes people do get arrested for drug paraphernalia but I don't think the jail/fines should be anywhere near as bad if one is caught with volumes of pirated games.

I feel bad for this fellow overall. Doesn't the prosecutor have anyone better to go after?

Bottom line I think we all need to stick together. We must not allow modchips to be lopped in with pirated games just defacto. We need to educate the people who are going after modchipp orgs that for example a modified xbox can be used for many legal and practical purposes. I have seen some used as cluster servers at universities. I have seen it professionals use them as a cheap alternative to an external hardrive.

I read on another thread somewhere that we live in the last days of the Golden Age of the internet. The more people get attacked for such enterprises I have to agree. It's really a shame. With all the drugs, killings, and war that run rampant in the world. I guess get your war on all you want. Just don't you dare mod your wii...

[Bubbalynch]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5716126
Here is a modchip, right here. I am pretty sure you can buy it at every store you named. It is compatible with homebrew that emulates NES, SNES, etc,. As well as allows you to play illegally obtained movies and music.

Is that a concrete enough example for you?

Read Walmart's review of this one:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5775067

Interesting, I had no clue that these were sold. Mind if i take my shoe off first before I insert my foot in my mouth?

Even the review for that device sounds like it came straight from a modchip service, lol.

Piracy at Walmart, what a funny thought.

This post has been edited by Bubbalynch: Oct 25 2007, 10:00 PM

[Zanzang]

Walmart sold Xboxs. Turns out, the TSOP chip in there can be used to pirate games. Realy no different than an modchip with cromwell.

Exactly.

[HSDEMONZ]

"...possessing Executor modchips for Microsoft consoles"

Jebus.. bad enough that things are getting tighter in the UK.. but now they misspell the name/brand of the leading chip maker?

Looks like the site is still up and running and still listing modchips.

Count me as one who had been burned buying from him. Once upon a time in a scene far far away a certain blue bastard was looking for some chips and the only guy to have any on that particular eve was.. Mr Modchips. Long story short I got the runaround. I eventually did get the product, but only after weeks of threatening him.

People should not have to deal with shops with such shotty service. He won't be missed.

Hopefully.. this will do one of two things.. open a hole in the UK for a more honest seller to rise up and service the UK community.. or at least on less bad egg will be around forcing UK buyers to look elsewhere, and likely outside the country for the services they need.

He's not cooked yet though folks. If he's well armed legal wise.. they can play out the appeals process for a long time.

[notcrack]

i couldn't really give a shit about this guy. he's a scumbag to say that the items he had in his possession were
his friends and family's but there you go

And over there, you're guilty until proven innocent, and his defense was horrible.

but i just had to reply to this comment. English law forms at least the basis of legal system of every country in the commonwealth including america, so i have no idea on what you base this belief on. In every country in the EU you are innocent till proven guilty only a handful of backwards countries have a vice versa

[RoboChicken]

http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5716126
Here is a modchip, right here. I am pretty sure you can buy it at every store you named. It is compatible with homebrew that emulates NES, SNES, etc,. As well as allows you to play illegally obtained movies and music.

Is that a concrete enough example for you?

Read Walmart's review of this one:
http://www.walmart.com/catalog/product.do?product_id=5775067

That's not a modchip, it's a DS flashcart. They were selling that in a Walmart in southern Cali. I bought one and it's total CRAP. It doesn't play DS games at ALL. Wasted $30 on it. It comes with some cheapo disc with shitty homebrew games and a media converter.

In regards to Mr. Modchips, I never ordered from the guy but from the sounds of it, he had it coming. You can't piss off your customers. All it takes is one really pissed off guy to report you to ELSPA (lie if he feels like it) and bam your done for. Also, it sounds like he sold pre-mods which I feel is a huge no-no. These days the only thing you can do is lay solder. No stocking chips, no pre-mods, no 'backup' services, no 'backup' devices. Majority of ownership and action from start to finish has to be solely on the customer. Unfortunately, this window is getting smaller and smaller and hopefully we never see the day that a modder gets busted for owning 1 iron. Homebrew and repair alone are legitimate reasons to continue to mod and the moment these are outlawed too, it will be a dark day and the end of the scene as we know it.

This post has been edited by RoboChicken: Oct 25 2007, 11:31 PM