Before you go out modding your console, read this

From BBC news: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8354166.stm

Thousands of gamers may have been cut off from Microsoft's online gaming service Xbox Live for modifying their consoles to play pirated games.

Online reports suggest that as many as 600,000 gamers may have been affected.

Microsoft confirmed that it had banned a "small percentage" of the 20 million Xbox Live users worldwide.

Microsoft said that modifying an Xbox 360 console "violates" the service's "terms of use" and would result in a player being disconnected.

"All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live," Microsoft has said in a statement.

"The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them."

The Xbox 360 is equipped with Digital Rights Management (DRM)technologies to detect pirated software.

But many gamers modify their consoles by installing new chips or software that allows them to run unofficial - but not always illegal - programs and games. However, some chips are specifically designed to play pirated games.

Microsoft has not said how it was able to determine which gamers to disconnect.

"We do not reveal specifics, but can say that all consoles have been verified to have violated the terms of use," the firm said in a statement.

Affected gamers were met with a message during the login process informing them that they had been barred from the service.

Reports suggest that the ban does not stop the console from working and only affects a gamer's Xbox Live account.

Industry figures suggest that piracy may cost the video game industry as much as £750m a year.

In other news, a UK court has dismissed a man's appeal against an earlier conviction for selling modification chips - "modchips" that allow gamers to play illegal games.

Christopher Gillham's earlier conviction was upheld by Hereford Crown Court which found that playing counterfeit games on a modified console infringed copyrights.

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I feel that anyone who mods their console should be prepared for this possibility as it violates the user agreement. There is a link to a kid who got banned saying he did it because he could not afford to buy the game. I don't understand this feeling of entitlement piraters have to think they should get something they can't pay for.

 

I'm reminded of Nelson, the bully from Simpson's, who would point and laugh when another character did something obsurdly stupid and felt the consequences.

Seriously, if you mod your XBoX and connect to their service, you're asking for a ban and you know it. Same deal with the people who get the games in advance and then try to play online.

For most pirates, it's not a feeling of entitlement. It's a chance to screw the company out of the money, or even to get a game that wouldn't be released there otherwise. On the other hand, some do it because they feel they deserve it regardless of consequences. Others do it just to prove that the industry cannot stop pirates. And that they only loose money from people who don't buy because of the excessive anti-piracy laws.

 

That would be a sense of entitlement. I was specifically referring to the people who say they pirate games because they cost too much.

 

Most of my friends/old friends all played Xbox 360 live online.. They are into every single game that comes out.. The ones that take days and weeks to do one simple thing and find it in game. But anyways to the point! Most of them moded there Xbox 360. One of the other friend that I don't hang around much even moded it (and had some sort of programs) to get games from the computer to his xbox.. SO bascially most games he played online went to xbox which I never learned how he did it but he did.. Anyways I am just pointing out that many people around here did mod and still will. My question is Id like to know if they were banned from xbox 360 so I can laugh. Beacuse there life = xbox live online lol And it be really funny to know it happen. I also feel Microsoft did something good tho. Because games aint nothing, cds aint nothing.. I use to buy them all the time.. now you can burn them(I really dont like burned items) because I like having the actual casing and disc. But hopefully those people get caught and rest gets banned as well..

 

http://www.dailytech.com/Modders+Re...n+Xboxes+Banned+by+Microsoft/article16818.htm

It looks like hackers have made a counter for Microsoft's scans.

More interesting than that is how much of an anti-Microsoft bias this article has. It's like they think Microsoft has done something wrong by punishing users who violated their EULA. There is also a funny grammar error. Can you find it?

 

It's already been taken down, apparently.