Nevermind Global Terrorism Lets Target Modchips

[koiulpoi]

Steadman, the problem is that it was a huge waste of money. Modchips have completely legitimate uses - Homebrew, imports, and backups. I played Sega Genesis roms (yes, that's edgy, I know) and Japanese RPGS on my Dreamcast, and I play ScummVM on my DS. On my XBox, I have XBMC (for playing movies and music), and I put the games I own on my harddrive because they load much, much faster that way.

Are you really going to sit here and tell me that what I've done is strictly illegal? Because it's not. Stealing games is illegal. So, those disks are illegal. The chipped consoles, while they might be illegal, should not be. Once you buy a piece of hardware, it's yours. You should be able to do whatever you want to it, and that includes buying a small chip and soldering in a few wires.

The other thing is that (this also happened in the USA, almost the exact same story) it's a waste of the taxpayer's money. They took money out of your pocket, out of my pocket, to go "raid" modchip dealers. So yes, there are definitely better things these thousands of pounds could be going to, from education to healthcare to any number of programs. Or, it could've gone back to the taxpayer instead of being sucked up by a "need" to get rid of "stolen" material.

And they even have the gall to throw out the "millions of pounds" statistic for how much money they've lost. Where do they get these numbers? Do they realize that most of these pirates would buy little to none of the material they've stolen? It's not lost revenue. Doing this will not likely help the businesses in the area. In fact, I bet there are any number of things they could have done with the money they spent on this program that would have a bigger, more positive impact on the community's economy. They're making things up to get uninformed people on their side.

Yes, piracy is wrong, clearly. But our already stretched-thin police force shouldn't be focusing on crimes that have little impact on society.

Also, Steadman, you should look up what the "strawman" argument is. Much of what you said was not said by the people who you think you're refuting. You're setting up false arguments so that you can easily beat them. It's a fallacy.

[cloud_952]

I can't stand arguments like this. Yes, there are bigger and badder things in the world, but NO, we should not shut down all of society just to deal with them. According to the logic presented here (regarding global terrorism), we should also stop fining speeders, no longer arrest thieves, and really.. is $#@! even worth it? There IS terrorism, you know.

Yeah, sure, maybe there are other issues to pursue, but you still have to take care of the other issues as well. Even if you don't approve of which issues they're looking after (modchips, etc), the whole argument is stupid.

[homebrew1973]

I visited that car boot sale on that day and left about half an hour before it was raided. There was over a dozen stalls selling pirate games and new films on DVD such as Harry Potter and The Simpsons, yet only 3 people were arrested! And the way the police swooped on the place it was like they were hunting for terrorists or escaped killers, the word over-zealous is an understatement...

And we`re constantly being fed that rubbish that such things fund the likes of terrorism, prostitution, people smuggling blah blah blah. I always laugh whenever they say it funds drug dealing, especially when you consider how many pop/film stars and actors are drug addicts, surely in that respect people buying films etc in the shops are funding drug dealers even more?

It`s all a rip-off and scam from officialdom! Designed to take more freedoms away from us in the name of things like that totally bogus war on terror (war OF terror would be more accurate). Politicians lie, you can always tell that when they speak.

If companies want bigger sales rather than bigger piracy they can start by reducing prices, releasing games on the same day worldwide and at the same price, else the pre-owned and import markets will just get bigger. Will they be their lawyers` next target? Remember Lik-Sang....

[acn010]

thatsts just plain retarded, i better think that is reasonable people getting fined, buy omg arrested??? ha ha h ha

[stedaman]

Steadman, the problem is that it was a huge waste of money. Modchips have completely legitimate uses - Homebrew, imports, and backups. I played Sega Genesis roms (yes, that's edgy, I know) and Japanese RPGS on my Dreamcast, and I play ScummVM on my DS. On my XBox, I have XBMC (for playing movies and music), and I put the games I own on my harddrive because they load much, much faster that way.

Are you really going to sit here and tell me that what I've done is strictly illegal? Because it's not. Stealing games is illegal. So, those disks are illegal. The chipped consoles, while they might be illegal, should not be. Once you buy a piece of hardware, it's yours. You should be able to do whatever you want to it, and that includes buying a small chip and soldering in a few wires.

The other thing is that (this also happened in the USA, almost the exact same story) it's a waste of the taxpayer's money. They took money out of your pocket, out of my pocket, to go "raid" modchip dealers. So yes, there are definitely better things these thousands of pounds could be going to, from education to healthcare to any number of programs. Or, it could've gone back to the taxpayer instead of being sucked up by a "need" to get rid of "stolen" material.

And they even have the gall to throw out the "millions of pounds" statistic for how much money they've lost. Where do they get these numbers? Do they realize that most of these pirates would buy little to none of the material they've stolen? It's not lost revenue. Doing this will not likely help the businesses in the area. In fact, I bet there are any number of things they could have done with the money they spent on this program that would have a bigger, more positive impact on the community's economy. They're making things up to get uninformed people on their side.

Yes, piracy is wrong, clearly. But our already stretched-thin police force shouldn't be focusing on crimes that have little impact on society.

Also, Steadman, you should look up what the "strawman" argument is. Much of what you said was not said by the people who you think you're refuting. You're setting up false arguments so that you can easily beat them. It's a fallacy.

Your joking right?

If he had just copied the games then fine, but the fact that he was selling illegal copies makes it ten times worse. Ofcourse its lost revenue, people buying there illegally copied games, making companies like Ninteod lose money.

This is the police force, they do there job. We aint paying anymore for them to do a special raid. What are you on about? Do you send some money for the Police task force on piracy unit or are you just being scammed ?

"Yes, piracy is wrong, clearly. But our already stretched-thin police force shouldn't be focusing on crimes that have little impact on society."

Your crazy!, a good job by the police in a raid on piracy, and your saying that. So now all our polcie forces are focussing on crime involved with piracy and theres no-one catching murders etc?

I havent really sat here and said, that your doing soemthing illegal. That was your first post, that would have been a miracle...
You say yourself that stealing the games is illegal, so what is your arguement?

So they shouldn't have bothred with this petty small raid and let him sell games and make millions from illegal activities. YES NICE IDEA. At the residential state he was selling 500 consoles mized and 5000 games all illegally copied, and you think thats acceptable ?

Don't get me wrong, the prices charged for games and dvd's are extautionate, and lead to more priacy, but for someone to make a profit off of it is a disgrace. If this was a raid on someone who ahd copied things for himself, that would have beena waste ofr esources as so amny people copy dvd's and games. But to sell them its retarded and sohuld be dealt with by the police.

There's is nothing anyone can say that can argue against that!

Sounds like to me you do a bit of illegal piracy selling yourself!

[stedaman]

False arguements?, how can an arguement be false. The arguement is what we set it as.

[ish420ism]

I don't see how a piece of hardware can be illegal. If these mod retailers had only mod chips and no games would they be safe from procecution??

[homebrew1973]

Forgot to add; when the local paper reported it they also claim that copies of GTA IV and Halo 3 were seized! By whom, time-travellers posing as police? Honestly, those intellectual prostitutes and the crap they print make me :rofl: