Federal authorities in the U.S have dropped the case in a first-of-its-kind 'game console modding' trial.
The law around console modding is 'a grey area' to say the last and it seemed like prosecutors wanted to throw the book at Defendant Matthew Crippen and send a clear message to all those game pirates out there.
Crippen was alleged to have run a business modifying Xbox 360s in order to let users play pirated games, but yesterday the opening statements in the trial were delayed when the judge laid into prosecutors, saying he had “serious concerns” about the case.
Which included: the prosecution’s plan to use two witnesses who may have broken the law, a Microsoft employee who had admitted to modding Xbox consoles in college, and the an Entertainment Software Association investigator who may have violated California privacy law by videoing the defendant allegedly modding a console.
Plus the ESA agent had also said during his testimony that he’d seen the defendant insert a pirated game into a console, but the evidence wasn’t formally submitted to the court ahead of the trial, making it inadmissible.
And after this shambolic legal performance the government decided to back off and "dismiss the indictment, based on fairness and justice,” according to prosecutor Allen Chiu.
But this doesn't mean the ESA have gone away some other poor modder is going to become the piracy skapegoat and this time they won't screw the evidence up.
And maybe if games weren't so hideously expensive Crippen and Co wouldn't exist.
Source: CVG