Modding is not the same as piracy
Who would have thought that selling modded Xboxes was illegal? Apparently three Los Angeles men didn’t. Jason Jones and Jonathan Bryant, owners of the ACME game store in L.A., started selling modified Xboxes to customers at an incredible markup—sometimes netting over $500 for a modded box.
Source: Xbox Modders Get Thrown in Jail - Gizmodo
As the owner of a modded Xbox, this story just pisses me right off. My problem, though, isn't that those guys got arrested—it's that these news sites are reporting it as if selling a modded Xbox got them in trouble.
Of course, were this the truth, it would have me insanely pissed. But no, what got these jackasses in trouble is that they included a replacement hard drive with 77 pirated games pre-installed along with that modded Xbox they sold. That's ballsy. Did they not expect to get in a bit of trouble, especially while running a public store?
This isn't a makers-versus-the-law issue, and it pains me to see any tinkerers standing up for these guys. Having the right to pop the hood on your own bought-and-paid-for equipment is one thing—selling copies of someone else's work is another thing entirely.
Archived Comments
It's so much easier to ignore minor little points like this and focus on the headline-grabbing "PEOPLE SELLING MODDED XBOX PUT TO DEATH!!!1". Agreed, it's an asinine practice but it will always happen.