British Modder Convicted Under New Law

[wraggster]

via gamasutra

In stark contrast to Wednesday's news that mod chips were to be formally legalized in Australia, British trade organization ELSPA has announced that a man in England has been sentenced to one hundred and twenty hours community service for running a "while you wait" modding service.

The conviction was made at Carlisle Crown Court on the Scottish border, where Stephen Fitzgerald pleaded guilty to nine charges relating to "chipping" games consoles, contrary to the British Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 (copyright circumvention offenses). He was ordered to pay £2,500 towards prosecution costs and subject of a Proceeds of Crime Act (2002) confiscation order for £2,710, to be paid by May 23rd or face three months in jail.

Fitzgerald was picked up by Police, $#@!bria Trading Standards and an ELSPA investigator in April 2004 when, trading as www.mods-and-sods.co.uk, he operated a stall at a computer fair held at the Swallow Hilltop Hotel in Carlisle, where he offered to modify PlayStation and Xbox consoles while people waited. His stall also offered and advertised for sale pre-chipped PlayStation 2 and Xbox consoles.

[mentalmummy]

Hello, my first post here so I`ll jump straight in with a comment

As I understand it there is a technical way around this. One is to flash firmware with a different BIOS, such as the Cromwell BIOS for Xbox 1, which is definitely still legal as the BIOS contains no copyrighted code apparently.

The second, and one I have seen done on some websites and in shops, is to install a modchip with switches on whereby the buyer must flick the activation switch that enables the modchip when they get it out of the store and home.

I`m not naming any places where this can be done, I hasten to add, merely saying that I have seen proper business outlets openly sell modified consoles and I always understood that if you did not sell the chipped console in a state able to play copied games (ie customer must flip activation switch, not the modder) or the item was a firmware mod that this was technically legal?

PS regarding the Cromwell Bios being legal, I am not an expert on BIOS and stuff like that but according to Wikipedia it is a legal BIOS (they have a good section on the history of modding and games consoles which is a good read)!

[chemical]

He should of said that it was to play homebrew not copied games