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If this guy isn't prosecuted, then that will prove to the community of hacker/crackers/modders, that they can and will be able to get by with their illegal activities with very little consequence, therefore the makers of games won't have any money to make games and the economy of gaming will crumble very rapidly.
Finally, this will spread to other games as well... and to other software, leading to the destabilization of the economy.
The meaning of money is becoming warped in these times... Get a job, buy the game. It's only $70.
But all in all, the kid needs a spanking.
So, everyone's lesson: use the Golden Rule which is (in my opinion), do to other as you would have them do to you... and in the mean time don't commit to making an illegal business/operation via the "super-secure" internet (including Kijiji, eBay, a site that you own/made, etc).
Thank you,
Have a great morning/afternoon/evening/night!
Also, have you heard about game companies laying off people, closing studios etc. in the last two years? Yup, despite the fact that they "make BANKS look poor".
Oh, and ask yourself: why not go into a store and steal a game if $70 is too expensive? That's something different? Nope, it isn't.
You're ill-informed if you think that a company gets all the money that a product is being sold for in a store.
If you think that sales minus costs equals profit, you should really take some business 101 classes.
I hold my point. Why don't you go in a store and steal something if you think it's too expensive? Why don't you go and snitch that $10,000 Rolex, it sure is cheaper to manufacture and the manufacturer is making a huge profit?
Everyone who is using "backup copies" not made by him or herself is a thief. It's that simple.
On the other hand you may just be an uneducated ill informed mug, u ever heard of supply and distribution chains? Or do you know charitable ones who provide logistics FOC for Games Manufacturers. Re-read your post and ask yourself 'am i an idiot for what i said?'
Point blank he is a theif and a crook and i hope he gets everything thats coming to him...=)
2. if you actually read the article, it stated that you had to have a modded console to even play the game, meaning they were already deep behind enemy lines before they purchased. and, frankly, they deserve to get banned for playing a game BEFORE THE RELEASE DATE. when you mod the console, you void the warranty AND violate the terms of service of XBL, knowingly.
2. Your point is moot. It's illegal copying and this guy should be arrested and prosecuted
1. i'm not advocating piracy, you're putting words in my mouth. by the way, these kids aren't hackers. one guy STOLE A BOX containing , mailed or emailed a friend a copy of the game, and distributed it on the internet. there is no hacking involved, they are actually THIEFS and PIRATES. (you know what "umbrage" means, but not the difference between "piracy" and "hacking"?).
2. i never said he shouldn't. again, putting words in my mouth. i stated that in order to even play this game he was selling, you would have to be on the verge of piracy in the first place. nobody that bought this game early was an innocent victim. you had to know who to go to and what you were doing.
So basically, your point is that it's not a crime to steal from somebody as long as they make too much money. After all, they shouldn't be allowed to be that rich if the community around that isn't equally as rich... Last I checked, we called that communism.
hahahaaaa hah aahahahahaa hahaha lol loooooooooooolllll
I do agree with the rest though.
use your brain
people ITS A FUCKING GAME!
theres a world out there besides video games.
if your getting all rolled up about that theres something seriously wrong with you.
i seriously could not care less if they get the game 2 months before me ill still end up kicking there ass come release day.
Have not paid for a game in 4 years
Suck on it
They make bad xbox'es so fuck em
Break down every year.
Ripping people off just to fix it so we are doing it back
MW2 --- 14,000 players online and counting
When these so called "thieves" copy a game, download a game w/e the source who is it hurting??
The majority will continue to pay, and the games will still be developed.
When they "steal" from Activision, who is actually getting hurt? no-one. not-one-single-human
think about it, if I steal from you. Its personal, I've done a crime to the human race. But if I eat a candy at a grocery store? Who am I doing this crime to? the store owner? it doesn't hurt them at all.
Besides it has been a proven fact, at least it music, that "pirates" actually bought more music than anyone else!!!
But, to the author of this article.. myself and many of us would very much appreciate it if you and the rest of the media would stop portraying hackers in a negative light. This guy is *NOT* a hacker. He is not deserving of that title, nor will he ever be. A hacker is a computer guru, a wiz kid, a programmer, or anyone who's just plain bad-ass with a computer. A CRACKER on the other hand, does damage, breaks into financial systems, pirates software (also known as a "software pirate"), and they are criminals. A Cracker is a hacker who's gone beyond the darkside. True there are "Black-Hat" hackers, ones who disregard the law and do dastardly deeds, but even they are above crackers.
Stop disgracing hackers. We don't appreciate it.
If everybody would hack games the gaming industry wouldn´t make money enough and would stop making games.
MODDING DOESN´T HELP ANYBODY
That is just the fact, you like it or hate it but it is the fact.
(Of course it is just my opinion so, well I think you get the point)
nothing?
Havent paid for a game in 4 years
They rush the xbox to the customer even thou its a bad product and have to pay $140 to fix it
Its all planned out
Soooo, fuck M$ and all the whiners.
1 week early --- MW2 ---- 14,000 players online and counting
suck on that M$
Such a shame because he's kinda cute.
...so think twice...if everyone paid about $25 for CoD4...then MW2 will either have been the same as CoD4, crappier, or even wouldnt have happened
This kid hasn't done anything productive, to call him sophisticated because he can "make counterfeit copies look like originals", that's hardly sophisticated. "Cracked the copy-protection", Really??? Are you guys serious??? Obviously they haven't even done their research on how these things work, the kid hasn't truly hacked anything, he's a script-kiddie, piggie-backing off of other people's work and articles like this glorify him as some illicit hacker in the night. Newsflash! The kid is not a hacker, he can point, click, type, and print. That's hardly a sophisticated piracy ring. They caught one guppy in a huge pond and are trying to convince everyone he is a 38lb. bass!
I want to stress that I do not condone piracy and in no way am I endorsing what this kid has done, my point is that these so-called "cyber-crime" units are just as undereducated about the game they are playing as this kid is. Undoubtedly this kid's attorney will play up to the fact that he is only 18 and doesn't know any better, this is likely his first offense, and by the looks of his dad's business he will have some reputable character witnesses to back him up. He'll probably be slapped with some outrageous fines to pay as a result of a lawsuit from Activision, but no criminal or federal charges will be filed against him as that would be horrible publicity for Activision.
It really is a double-edged sword, yes the kid should be punished, but to what extent? In my opinion the books need to be re-written to deal with digital copyright infringement instead of the DMCA garbage document we have which is HEAVILY based on outdated physical media. This is 2009 and our judiciary system seems to be having trouble keeping up with technology. It really is a shame that IPCyberCrime has made such a huge deal out of this, as I said the kid is a thief and should be punished, but they are plastering him like he got caught hacking into a bank's network and stolen millions of people's credit card information. It's funny that those attacks happen on a daily basis and they are always kept very hush hush. You tell me, would you rather see a kid pirating some video games have this much effort put into taking him down and charging him millions of dollars for damages or would you rather see the effort put into taking down someone who has stolen millions of credit card numbers and potentially much more personal information which could lead to other cyber crimes like identity theft?
AND theh have decided to turn their backs on th PC community do fukem - won't spend a penny on the game - but i'll be playing it.
what i want to know is why it seems to be so easy for leaks to get out these days :S
And selling stolen goods on craigslist hardly counts as cybercrime... that's like saying stabbing a homeless guy on the street makes you a world class assassin.
You believe this crime is as bad as stabbing or shooting someone? I believe doing it on a mass scale, there should be a hefty fine. But jail tme is ridiculous. That should be reserved for the real crime commiters (rape/murder/etc). No use in ruining the guy's life.
"Activision spends MILLIONS of dollars advertising/etc., Infinity Ward MILLIONS of dollars in development. They are entitled to make MILLIONS of dollar back, and the point of bening a business is to make money"
You are right. So right in fact that, in order to make money, companies ultimately make the consumer pay for everything: the advertising, the development costs, the packaging, etc... And if they don't make a profit, they turn around and tell the government: "hey! we lost money this year so we don't have to pay taxes." And funnily enough, the consumer ends up paying (in some twisted way of course) even if he didn't want to buy the thing. And don't tell me it's not happening like that, especially after what happened in the last year with US banks and car companies...
HAH! They ship it to the stores overnight via freight as soon as it hits the main american distro facility. The expensive stuff goes in there; Ipods, laptops, Jewelry, never ever $50 games. The distributors would have to force them and that'd never happen for the kind of margin they make on media.
BTW, you're never going to make it as a wage slave at best buy especially when you know the company is gunning to maintain a turnover quota; The US government holds its head high about piracy because it happens over the internet instead of in person to person and says "well we can stop it!". This kind of activity will become more and more as common as the "streched out recession" turns into a "streched out depression"; kid was 18, didn't think he had anywhere to go in life because the world was crumbling around him, decided piracy was the best bet and now he's going to become a media sensation that will be made an example out of.
Incredible.
This is classic bad management in motion; nobody wins.
There is only one outcome of that and everyone knows it; managers get fired..
good job men. Del Amo you are my god.
402 this is the price of your treason.
iw, killed an entire community
There is no reason for piracy. All these people should be put away, and one day will. I hope all those losers playing the pirated copy online get banned forever. They shouldn't be allowed to ever be back online.
Just becasue you play PC does not make you a king among men. It doesn't give you the right to praise a loser for pure theft. Get it through your head. How would you like it if I took your paycheck on friday? You worked all week for it but I saw you take that extra five minutes on your break so I am just going to steal all your money! That would be wrong just like your wrong for laughing at this loser stealing.
As to game prices... if it's too high a price, don't pay or wait until it's on sale, becomes a "Greatest Hits" or buy it used. That's the way the "free market" is supposed to work. The revenue generated is divided by the retailer (who has limited shelf-space and needs to make a profit to pay for all of their overhead), there's the cost of goods (not just the disc but packaging, artwork, manual, etc.), there's the royalty that needs to be paid to the platform (Sony/PlayStation, Microsoft/Xbox, etc.), the cost of marketing - TV, internet, promotions, etc. (Sidetrack: ever wonder what happened to all your favorite game mags? Everyone want's it now for free and turned to the internet... I'm not saying its wrong but the cost of expediency meant a loss in the publications we used to love to read) and then there's the scores of folks who work on the game as well as all those that support the business (yes, even their healthcare plans!).
The revenue that is left over covers cost of development of other games (which may be a hit or may not) as well as the next sequel which needs to be bigger, better, faster and bolder.
Seems a lot of folks need to pull their head out of their arses and get real. Stealing is wrong. If you can't afford the price, then wait or go find something else to do... like read a book (you can get those from a library for free!).
That's an interesting statement. How do you determine the worth of a game? Look back ten, 20 years - gaming has pretty much stayed stable price-wise while absolute costs for everything else (food, housing, cars, gas, movie tickets) has gone up. At the same time, production costs for games have gone up, too.
Do you play all the games you pirate? Or just a few? Why not buy those, if not on day one, then when they are in the bargain bin a few weeks to months later?
"He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects."
If this is the best guy you could get to comment on "security and chips" then you need to worry. The article is horrendously inaccurate and technically incorrect in almost every aspect.
There was no "code to crack" to copy the disc, unless he meant opening the case to get to the disc. 360 HDs cannot be pre-loaded with games, Xbox 1 ones could.
Online piracy is considerably more sophisticated than one kid ripping a stolen retail copy and uploading it to a few bit-torrents sites. It's wrong and yes it's illegal, but it's also well organised with a fairly stringent set of rules and the vast majority of groups don't do it for money.
If you're going to write an article, get it right.
. took the l ean, the server dedicated ,game console. and the new anti-cheating you think will be the best. with punkbuster at least it could do something about cheaters. now it will not have admin as we detect cheaters.
i am a modder and on every modding site there is outrage. Uploading it to the internet is a big thing but he went to far by trying to sell copies. First rule of Xbox mods: DONT SELL THE GAMES IDIOT.
I thank him for getting me MW2 but trying to sell it is just low. Do not say modders are bad just because you cant be one
Also, it's funny how they point at PC gamers as the problem when a lot of the torrents that come out early are for 360. Like so.
Damn...
I'm old...
Hahahaha! FUCK THIS LITTLE BASTARD! KILL HIM ACTIVISION.
And oh yeah, all you flaming homos trying to defend this runt, you're all just dirty faggot pirates yourselves. I don't know why you think of yourselves as intrepid entrepreneurs or something, or gifted and whatnot. You're just fucking crooks. Measely, whining, bitchass, no-life, never-been-laid pimple-faced faggot crooks. And the only reason you complain about "durr-hurrr, greedy Activision!" is because you're too much of a lazy brokeass to get an education and a job that allows you to enjoy spending money. $60?! You're seriously gonna complain?!
LAUGHING MY FUCKING ASS OFF, FUCK ALL OF YOU PIRATES!
Besides who would pay to buy this game anyway?? I mean why support a company that is ripping off an entire community. Once the PC gamers are out of the way they will start with the consoles.
Also forgot to add whoever the retard is who keeps copying and pasting his comments is can you please go stand on a landmine???
This is something that should not be taken lightly since it is stealing and im sure brakes many other laws. Regardless, the person has been caught so be thankful for that and don't complain about what needs to be done because im sure it will be done in time.
Ain't that cute, lol
persoannly i dont give a shit , it is wrong for stealing them ( the guys who took it and sold it to him) but he bought it never the less .
at some pont in time i wish i could get the 9 grand i was fined but thats m bad , they really should have just sent me to prision ounestly .
but in the end of the day this guy is just making a profit from someone elses work , I am a programmer , I dont sell my work i just release it and get donations for the work i did , i didnt charge a over price for a simple bit of work .
I own 19 xbox 360's and i have flashed every single one of them ,but i still buy the retails but i just play the backups of them yet i am the bad one lol ,
anyway this kid was a n00b , he didnt crack any code or nothing he simply he didnt chip it or even crack the secruity , he simply flash one of his xboxs with 0800 fw and opened up Xbox backup creator
click "Complete backup" and then simply opened abgx360 and checked it and then burned it at 8x speed with ImgBurn , and then got cought selling it . just from that paragrapgh above i have named 5 things some one else |(hackers) have spent there time doing for free , so no he isnt a cyber thief , he isnt a hacker , he is just someone who can use google and has a little bit of help from the crew at xbox360iso , and also to the guy wrote this article : you dumb read up on the internet , use google learn about what real cyper thief means ,
Defination of cyber thief :
a person or group who release such copyrighted content on the internet for free or charging for a link to it"
thats the defintion of it so why is your version diffrent to what it means /
Jed
Fucking moron.
This kid is an idiot and I bet he had a rich daddy anyway, so WTF did he need to make money off pirating games.
You're either totally ignorant or just tying to CYA with a laughable excuse of a defense.
How about YOU decide to put out a game? Go ahead, I mean it's just $20, "on a disk by disk basis", right?
f'tard.
Do yourself a favor and repair that caps lock button. Maybe steal a new keyboard in the store?
1: Piracy is theft. Theft is WRONG.
2: Cost too much? Don't buy it. Mclaren Mercedes big bucks. Can't afford it so steal it?!
If your parents could put the pipe down for a while maybe they could teach the difference between Right and Wrong.
1) the electrical outlet's name is steven, a cute, skinny, 10 yrs old
2) You just gave steven a pirated copy of MW2
3) While steven is playing, you got your dick fully inside his tight little asshole
Nothing to brag about, that would make any dick hard, more over if steven's real name was stephanie