Massive Mod Chip Raid Sweeps Nation

**Shrygue** · August 1st, 2007, 22:34

via Kotaku

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents from nearly two dozen cities executed 32 federal search warrants in 16 states in the past 24 hours as part of a mammoth crackdown on chip modding.

Operation Tangled Web, the result of a year long investigation headed up by the ICE office in Cleveland, is the largest national enforcement action of its kind targeting the sales of modification chips and "disc copyright circumvention devices" in history.

Neither the Department of Justice nor the ESA would name the businesses, homes or storefronts involved in the sweep that took place in California, Florida, Hawaii, Idaho, Illinois, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Texas, and Wisconsin today.

The modchips and circumvention devices allowed users to play pirated software on the PS2, Xbox, Xbox 360 and Wii.

"Illicit devices like the ones targeted today are created with one purpose in mind, subverting copyright protections," said Julie L. Myers, Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security for Immigration and Customs Enforcement. "These crimes cost legitimate businesses billions of dollars annually and facilitate multiple other layers of criminality, such as smuggling, software piracy and money laundering."

Newly minted ESA chief Michael D. Gallagher was quick to offer federal kudos:

"Plain and simple, selling and distributing products to illegally bypass game consoles' piracy protections is a crime with real-life consequences. This is not a game; we're talking jail time. Enforcement initiatives of this scope send a clear message to both the public and pirate community that this illegal activity will not be tolerated," said Michael D. Gallagher, president of ESA, the trade association representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. "We commend Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), the U.S. Department of Justice, and the participating U.S. Attorneys' offices for targeting individuals and groups selling 'mod-chips' and pirated game software."

Now that the threat of terrorism and border safety concerns are a thing of the past we can finally get down to dealing with the real threats to America's borders... dodgy copies of Wii Sports.

More information on the article here

**BelmontSlayer** · August 1st, 2007, 22:56

Sigh...Only in America...

**zevende** · August 1st, 2007, 23:02

Bastards! They want to send people to jail for modchips?! Death to the ESA and everything they stand for!

**Mr_Biggs** · August 1st, 2007, 23:07

what a load of bull$#@!. they're cracking down on people running unlicensed copies of games, while johnny addict is raping our daughters. what. the. ****.

**psp411** · August 1st, 2007, 23:14

only america...

**Airdevil** · August 1st, 2007, 23:15

I know MOST people who have modchips on their consoles use it for piracy reasons.

But surely theres the odd few who use them for legit reasons?.... like for development and homebrew reasons?

**cory1492** · August 1st, 2007, 23:21

What it's going to do: disrupt the lives of people who deal openly and honestly in the (grey) marketplace, while making a (black) market gap for those who don't always do so. It will give the task force behind these raids "posterboy" status for essentially fishing with a frag grenade.

What it's not going to do: make a sudden spike of billions of "lost" revenue for any industry claiming such raids will benefit them.

This kind of idiocy (scope and priority) reminds me of a raid here in albert a few years ago, they had so much evidence of the crimes that they could not organize it - the entire crack/heroine dealing ring of 10+ people got let free after 1-2 years in jail, keeping them without charges would be "cruel and unusual punishment".

Airdevil: what I use my mod chips for... avoiding payment of ridiculous after warranty repair fees. Xbox ring of death, PS2 backup to HDD to extend the life of the laser (a chip is just easier in both cases); PSP to restore firmware... in all cases they have brought me peace of mind knowing that all else failing my console will still work years from now without a $100+ repair+shipping fee (provided they are still repairing them years from now, that is).