Wednesday, December 21, 2005

DOJ Charges Xbox Hackers

The Department of Justice said this week that it has charged three Los Angeles area individuals for selling modified Microsoft Xbox 360 machines that allowed for the playing of pirated video games. The US Attorney in Los Angeles said that two store owners and a third man were charged in a federal copyright infringement case for selling modified Xbox game consoles. The owners of ACME Game Store on Melrose Avenue allegedly sold Xbox game systems which had been modified to include a hard drive, allowing users to copy rented or borrowed games onto the consoles. The individuals charged were Jason Jones and Jonathan Bryant, co-owners of the ACME Game Store, and Pei "Patrick" Cai, the third individual who provided the technology to modify the Xbox. The DOJ said that all three were charges with felony count of conspiracy to commit copyright infringement, and to violate the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA). According to the DOJ, the case was spurred by an investigation by the Entertainment Software Alliance.