Xbox Pirate Gets Jail Sentence

[Grumpy Old Fart]

From TeamXbox...

The U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland has sentenced Hitesh Patel, an employee of Pandora's Cube, a major retailer of pirated game software and modified game consoles in the Washington, DC area to serve eight months for his crime, four months in jail and four months of home detention, in addition to 2 years of supervised release.

Patel, 31, of College Park, Maryland, pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement and to violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Patel managed one of the Pandora's Cube locations and served as technician for all three stores. He assembled and modified Microsoft Xbox video game consoles, turning them into what Pandora's Cube called "Super Xboxes." These "Super Xboxes" defeated the Xbox's copyright protection system and permitted the user to avoid purchasing and paying for legitimate video games.

Three other Pandora's Cube employees are expected to be sentenced by Judge Messitte next month: the owner of Pandora's Cube, Biren Amin, of Laurel, MD; and two managers of Pandora's Cube stores, Mrugesh Amin of Laurel, MD, and Herbie Walker of Hyattsville, MD. The cases against Pandora's Cube employees were the result of a joint effort of the United States Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section ("CCIPS"), the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, and the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE").

[Real Maximo]

yay down you go you software thief.

just hope the 360 can stops piracey .

[darkshadow]

damn that sucks for that guy, if you mod you have to keep it lope and not sell anything.

[Real Maximo]

Thier is no need to mod as it is ilegal in the UK not sure about USA.
Modding is only for one thing. Use cheap knock off games and that needs to be stammped out.

I am against piracey 100% their is no excuse.

Nower days if you damage a disc the company will replace it for a small P&P fee. Which I have done a few times when one of my sons got hold of my games.
So their is no need to copy games at all!!

[Quade013]

I completly agree that any type of piracy is illegal and just plain wrong. Imagine a world where everyone bought the products that they used in their homes and offices. The companies could lower their prices, because they would sell more copies of their products. Whether we are talking about music, software, or games the companies and or indivduals that create such titles invested a lot of time and money in to the creation of that product. We as consumers should thank them by paying for their hardwork and effort.

[daniel.isaac.h]

Aw, Here in the states, modding is legal. There is a whole new world a modded xbox opens. I don't pirate games... I think that is utterly unethical. At the same time though. A modded Xbox opens doors for emulators, web browsers, media players (which have streaming media), and programs that allow you to play games out of their respective regions.

[Jeet]

modding sucks though cause then you cant play on LIVE

[Father Campfire]

Aw, Here in the states, modding is legal. There is a whole new world a modded xbox opens. I don't pirate games... I think that is utterly unethical. At the same time though. A modded Xbox opens doors for emulators, web browsers, media players (which have streaming media), and programs that allow you to play games out of their respective regions.


It does do what you say but 99% of people who mod their xbox do it for one reason so they can pirate games. Which happens all the time. The problem is no matter how cheap software is people will always pirate software as they don't want to shell out their cash for something they can get for free.

[citizen X]

This article shoes that the government is now taking the gaming community seriously. And realizing that the games now make more money then moves do,

I also say on the new, people talking about halo the movie, shore it’s just a sentence but on a national news station, I think it’s a sign that the whole country is taking gaming more seriously and not just the government

[morphec]

Thier is no need to mod as it is ilegal in the UK not sure about USA.
Modding is only for one thing. Use cheap knock off games and that needs to be stammped out.

I am against piracey 100% their is no excuse.

Nower days if you damage a disc the company will replace it for a small P&P fee. Which I have done a few times when one of my sons got hold of my games.
So their is no need to copy games at all!!

:bird: you must be nut's imo, yeah sure it's illegal but if you think of the price that these game's come out at around £40 in the uk which imo is a shocking price to pay, i don't have to much game's here as i cannot afford to pay £40 a game!

The only way you can solve piracy is to lower the prices of game's altogether

[daniel.isaac.h]

I guess I agree with morphec. piracy does the exact opposite that you conclude to... People must drop prices to match piracy, not raise them. That is true when something is stolen from a local store, but if it is taken from the source, the source must have a good gimmick to push their items.

[djbelay]

The prices for games are insane! They are burned on normal dvd-rs and sold for $60! Now, I know it took a lot of hard work from the people that made it, and there were lot's of people invovled, etc, but thats still a lot of money. People who have jobs should back me up on this. Sure its great when your parents buy it for you, but when you get older, you don't want to waste that kind of money. Though, that still doesn't excuse people from burning games illegally. I use to get all the new games, but now I rarely get games! IMO, i rather use the money to buy a cheap deck for my car or something.