UK: Mr. Modchips Gets Convicted

[wraggster]

A 'businessman' who traded under the name Mr Modchips has become only the second person in the UK to be convicted for distributing and selling chipped consoles.

39 year-old Higgs was found guilty of 26 offences: three counts of advertising, supplying and selling modification chips designed to enable people to play illegally copied games on their consoles, 12 counts of possessing 19 chipped games consoles and another 11 counts of possessing Executor modchips for Microsoft consoles, as well as Viper GC chips for Nintendo systems. He was cleared of a further four counts of possessing chipped consoles.

The jury at his trial voted unanimously against Higgs, whose lawyers requested leave to appeal which was granted by the Judge. A date for the appeal hearing has yet to be set.

http://www.next-gen.biz/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=7675&Itemid=53

[acn010]

another store?!?!?!?!?!
wow whats wrong with this month!!!!

[Prasoc]

unlucky, mush

[kcajblue]

whats up with the damn people cracking down on stores.
they dont even have a good reason to do it.

[splodger15]

This guy was in the Sun newspaper today they are cracking down big time.

[Eyedunno]

Man, I'm wondering if there was one retard in that courtroom, or twelve, or thirteen. Maybe the guy's defense attorney was a retard, maybe everyone on the jury was, or maybe both of the above.

[hadrian]

The guy was an ass anyway, conned a lot of people and discriminated against certain people because their countries governments have killed innocent people.

He's a Brit (like me) so thats pretty hypocritical.

[Johnny Rash]

Makes me worried about having 7 modchips in my house...:(

I don't want to go to jail and be a man named 8-ball's girlfriend...:(

[bah]

WTF, Australian law is more lax than British law in this regard then it seems......

The chips themselves and installing them are legal, having pirated games is not.

[Johnny Rash]

Oh good.

Worry gone.

Does that apply to America?

[cal360]

I wonder if that would apply to homebrew enabled consoles that don't use a modchip? I live in the U.K so that's worrying.

[Johnny Rash]

I wonder if that would apply to homebrew enabled consoles that don't use a modchip? I live in the U.K so that's worrying.

See ya' in jail, pal. ;)

[cal360]

I'm doomed :(. Oh well i'll emergrate to Australia then i'd be safe :D.

[Johnny Rash]

I'm doomed :(. Oh well i'll emergrate to Australia then i'd be safe :D.

I'm sure can't get put in the slammer for owning a homebrew capable device.
Because I've never heard of a law that is against homebrew.

However, pirated copyrighted material is different.
Back when I was a freeloading douche the cops came to my house for it.
All those bootleg movies, games, and software.

It's a good thing I wiped my drive before they showed up.
My ISP reported me.

Just keep your head up, man.
http://dban.sourceforge.net/

I'm against piracy now.
It's something you learn when you're trying to sell digital media...

[bah]

Well, I'm pretty sure they're technically legal now.

It was a grey area, until around the time one guy installing them was charged, the judge ruled the pirated games were illegal but the chips weren't.
They were officially legal.

Then sony appealed, and the court agreed. (Link (http://www.out-law.com/page-3776)).
They were illegal!

Then the guy appealed to the high court, and the high court agreed. (Link (http://www.out-law.com/page-6200)).
They are legal once more :)


Unless this guy was selling pirated games, then I think its wrong he was charged, and disagree with putting the word businessman in inverted commas in the article.


EDIT:
This is about as off topic as you can get, but since this is a UK site and all.

To give the firefox spell checker a UK (or a fair few other languages) dictionary rather than the US one, just go to https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/browse/type:3.
Let it install, restart firefox, right click a spell checked field, choose language then select the new one. :)

[Johnny Rash]

Modchips shouldn't be illegal at all in any country.

It's up to the consumer what happens to their purchase.
Not the producer.

That's one of the many reasons you paid money for it.

[The EX]

Good, Mr. Modchips was the worst modchip site I have ever come across.

[SpooForBrains]

OK, the guy may be a twat, but that's no reason to convict him of a crime. Modchips apparently are, and should be, legal.

Which countries did he discriminate against, incidentally?

[bah]

I know I'm bumping an old thread, but whats with the banner ad for mr modchips on the front page (the link still works)?

He got convicted but the site is still up?

[JPJunkie]

Good, Mr. Modchips was the worst modchip site I have ever come across.

yh lol