Have you heard about this? Mr. David M. Rocci, a 22 year old kid is looking at 5 years in jail + $500k in fines for selling Xbox mod-chips that allow you to play imported and copied games.
Now, don’t get me wrong, I’m not one of those “all information must be free or die” type guys. I’ll admit to have used pirated software, or downloaded music from kazaa, knowing full well that it’s not right. Stealing is stealing.
But something about this just infuriates me. This kid sold $28,000 worth of mod chips (about 400) to his friends, and a bunch of kids on-line. And now the federal government is stepping in and trying to make an example out of him. Redirecting his website to a page that says “IsoNews is now the property of the United States government”. Jail time, huge fines, and prosecution of all his customers.
Which really makes me wonder: Just what in the fuck is going on in this country?
How is this OK? This kid is looking at more time that anyone at either Enron or WorldCom. For a meager $28,000?
I’m really glad to see that the feds are on their toes protecting me from “terrorists” like this. Thank you DOJ. I’ll sleep better tonight.
Because—and let’s get it straight here—he wasn’t selling bootleg games, he was running a website and selling a piece of hardware that you add to your Xbox so you can play other games, boot Linux, or watch movies on it.
Even though it’s your Xbox, you cannot touch the insides of it.
This is absolute bullshit. What he was doing was wrong, and he should be penalized, but not to the nth degree like this.
I just don’t know. Calgary is looking better and better each day.