The United States Department of Justice has shared some news regarding Team-Xecuter, which doesn't appear to be a good sign for the company. Gary Bowser, known on GBAtemp as garyopa, Max Louarn, and Yuanning Chen have all been arrested in Seattle, Washington. The US Government classifies these men as "leaders of one of the world's most notorious videogame piracy groups", and will be facing a federal indictment charge, for the selling of illegal hardware that facilitates piracy.

“These defendants lined their pockets by stealing and selling the work of other video-game developers – even going so far as to make customers pay a licensing fee to play stolen games,” said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran for the Western District of Washington. “This conduct doesn’t just harm billion dollar companies, it hijacks the hard work of individuals working to advance in the video-game industry.”

The FBI has also been involved, with each defendant to be charged under 11 felony counts, ranging from wire fraud, trafficking circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. One of the defendants, Louarn, has not yet been extradited, though Bowser has, where he was seen in the court hearing that took place today.

In September 2020, Louarn and Bowser were arrested abroad in connection with the charges in this case. The United States will seek Louarn’s extradition to stand trial in the United States. Bowser was arrested and deported from the Dominican Republic, and appeared today in federal court, in New Jersey.

Each defendant is charged with 11 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and to traffic in circumvention devices, trafficking in circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Source

 

[sudeki300]

so my gf and I had a discussion, how likely is it that Nintendo will go after the SX OS User?

why would they its such a small number, their happy to ban users for being naughty.

 

[manousos82003]

So let me get this straight. I now have to convert all my Xci games to nsp, convert my sxos emunand to atmosphere, and patch all those games? Or wait and pray that someone continues the project? What would be the best corse of action? For me a sxos license owner. And please no "Just buy the game" or any other troll posts. Those will be ignored.

Keep it as it is! Play all the games you already have and till then a solution will come up!

 

[Tumbleweed]

you're not thinking about this logically. why would they continue if resellers are being sued? they're not going to continue at 0 profit. face it, sx os is over. saying that they'll be okay is defending your purchase, when deep down inside you know that we're right. there was supposed to be a reset glitch hack for the ps3. why didn't that come out? lawsuits. Marcan of fail0verflow has even stated that the ps3 would've been fully hacked within days due to nonrandom key on both main ps3 ldrs, but the lawsuits scared off the people knowledgeable enough to make it happen. I'm sorry that I have to be blunt, but this is the reality of things. sx os is dead.

You think the world is just US/UK/CA? How about all other places where they are currently still selling both SX Pro and SX Core... Just check the re-sellers page on https://team-xecuter.com/where-to-buy/ many stores open and selling SX dongles and mod chip. Do you really think they will run dry of money?

Yeah it was quite a big hit, they got Max and Gary well... he was just the front man I dunno why u guys think he was any sort of dev... Also I didn't see @blawar going on with this mess...This is much more against the biggest re-seller than agains TX dev team... Those are in China and money well you can get more, open more stores, you have the whole planet to sell it and plenty of licenses to sell until the switch finally ends his lifetime in a year or so....

Let's wait next nintendo FW update...I bet you guys will be surprised with a SX update.

Edit: This is pretty different from the recent scene busts... When I saw pretty much EVERY topsite and IRC going down, here if this was that serious why the hell the TX sites would be still working....

 

[Deleted User]

so my gf and I had a discussion, how likely is it that Nintendo will go after the SX OS User?

I doubt it - nevertheless it‘s kinda weird to actually pay for beeing able to pirate

 

[britain4]

Nintendo seem to be dealing with individuals with bans, I'm positive they won't be pursuing any kind of legal action against anyone doing this.

TX has to be more than just those two people, I'm sure a lot of this stuff is based in China and I'm hopeful for more updates from them when the next OFW comes out. Even if not - V1 users can still use Hekate with the chips and I'm sure Mariko compatiblity for Hekate/Atmosphere will come.

All of the sellers I found when looking for mine are still selling them and I wouldn't be surprised if they were still manufacturing them.

 

[Tumbleweed]

I doubt it - nevertheless it‘s kinda weird to actually pay for beeing able to pirate

Totally agree with you, I just disagree with people throwing that card over and over here as a justification to celebrate someone arrest or a group demise when the WHOLE cracking scene have turn into that... Profits... just follow the current p2p scene asking for crowd-funding to pay for "personal expenses + hardware|" in order to break Denuvo newer versions... so suck it with this Atmos vs SX thing you guys are a bunch of hatred people without a single of compassion to honestly deserve jail to someone who hang around this forum helping many users for so long, yeah gary always replied my PMs...and I'm a nobody here.

 

[FAST6191]

strange as it may be, but both cobra and true blue lead to the same city in China, so it was most likely the same team, possibly another guise by the sx os team.

Was this city Shenzhen? A city of some 12 million, housing one of the best electronics markets on the planet (do a search for videos of Huaqiangbei), housing several hundred very high end tech companies ( https://www.glassdoor.com/Explore/top-companies-shenzhen_IL.14,22_IC2520983.htm ), being on Hong Kong's (a place with no shortage of tech and educated types either) doorstep and pulling talent from all over China/the world as well as training them up?
Because noting them being in the same city there is a bit like looking at the US and noting there are a lot of technically capable people in California (particularly around San Francisco), Washington state (western half, near Microsoft and all that) and New York, and that there just so happened to be either a few bored students living there or some tech people employed there doing a side hustle in hacking things.

 

[roamin]

so my gf and I had a discussion, how likely is it that Nintendo will go after the SX OS User?

no chance at all.
its like drug dealers, do they want the people who sell a gram or 2 of weed to there mates, or do they get the guy who grows 200 plants and sells it the little dealers.

remove the head drug dealer and you stop the supply to the little guys making it harder for them.

as you can see pretty much all sxos resellers have stopped. nintendo got the big guys and now the little guys fade away. mission accomplished. BUT just like drug dealers there's always a new king around the corner.

 

[gizmomelb]

I doubt it - nevertheless it‘s kinda weird to actually pay for beeing able to pirate

oh summer child you have no idea of history. there have been many commercial hardware and software piracy solutions for the past 40+ years. When someone comes out with something for the PS5 or XBOX series S/X they will sell that also. I love how all these kids think their piracy is free because mummy and daddy gave them their laptop or desktop and internet access (not to mention the switch and SD card) etc. .. yes it's all 'free'.

 

[realtimesave]

Not in my heart. That dude was and is a dumbass.

LMAO he was nice.

Let's hope that he is free like a birdie again in the Dominican soon.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

no chance at all.
its like drug dealers, do they want the people who sell a gram or 2 of weed to there mates, or do they get the guy who grows 200 plants and sells it the little dealers.

remove the head drug dealer and you stop the supply to the little guys making it harder for them.

as you can see pretty much all sxos resellers have stopped. nintendo got the big guys and now the little guys fade away. mission accomplished. BUT just like drug dealers there's always a new king around the corner.

Heh except for here. I call the cops on a place that literally poisons me with their grown weed, cops really don't give a fuck and tell me that they are too busy and have better things to do than deal with drug dealers. I live in California, and I was blown away that cops don't give a shit about that. Not just weed, but any drugs he wasn't specific. That grower is still selling his shit to people. You know what else, if you get arrested they start in first asking if you use meth or anything and get all accusing of it. I guess here they go after the user rather than the seller. Twisted place this is.

 

[FAST6191]

Even if I ignore the increased size flash carts, external hard drives, CD burners back when and fancy DVD burners later down the line (two of them in one machine even), soldering gear and fancy screwdrivers, internet speed bump and call it an incidental/would have got it anyway I guess I hallucinated drive adapters, read tools, mod chips, chip programming gear, flash carts, unlocking services, stealth services, cheat programs, cheat cartridges, software to facilitate manipulation of any number of things (iso handling, iso burning, disassemblers, memory manipulation) and so forth.

It seems to be a real problem among those that have been around this hacking lark for a while. Must be the "hacking will warp your mind" thing we were warned of back in school. All these false memories... they feel so real and yet apparently they are not.

 

[realtimesave]

As - when I read the fbi report- the sxos team is the same as gateway3ds team (or perhaps closely related) chances for a 'release source to public' are very slim.
Gw3ds is already dead for years but no sources are released

I thought everyone already knew that. And that they are Stargate team. It was pretty obvious anyway. Also I was told that the current TX is not the same people as the old TX for xbox. No idea though, they can make up anything they want.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Even if I ignore the increased size flash carts, external hard drives, CD burners back when and fancy DVD burners later down the line (two of them in one machine even), soldering gear and fancy screwdrivers, internet speed bump and call it an incidental/would have got it anyway I guess I hallucinated drive adapters, read tools, mod chips, chip programming gear, flash carts, unlocking services, stealth services, cheat programs, cheat cartridges, software to facilitate manipulation of any number of things (iso handling, iso burning, disassemblers, memory manipulation) and so forth.

It seems to be a real problem among those that have been around this hacking lark for a while. Must be the "hacking will warp your mind" thing we were warned of back in school. All these false memories... they feel so real and yet apparently they are not.

Speaking of CD burners. Remember when you used to walk into Best Buy and they were loaded with blanks in the front end of the store? It was like they were literally telling you to pirate stuff LOL.

 

[FAST6191]

Speaking of CD burners. Remember when you used to walk into Best Buy and they were loaded with blanks in the front end of the store? It was like they were literally telling you to pirate stuff LOL.

You mean I was not just supposed to burn copies of my documents, pictures, own music and such to them to share with others without needing 600 floppy discs, sacrificing a goat to hope the zip drive worked, or use outside the computer in a car or something?
Guess I was doing it wrong all these years.

 

[realtimesave]

You mean I was not just supposed to burn copies of my documents, pictures, own music and such to them to share with others without needing 600 floppy discs, sacrificing a goat to hope the zip drive worked, or use outside the computer in a car or something?
Guess I was doing it wrong all these years.

Well I mean, that's all I ever used CD-R discs for was to burn home movies and whatnot. *shrug*

 

[DrunkenMonk]

You mean I was not just supposed to burn copies of my documents, pictures, own music and such to them to share with others without needing 600 floppy discs, sacrificing a goat to hope the zip drive worked, or use outside the computer in a car or something?
Guess I was doing it wrong all these years.

"own music" that's officially licensed that you made a pirated copy of? That rebuttal was like a b movie plot. Ok effort but these plot holes are visible from space

 

[realtimesave]

SNES instruction manuals tell you that you aren't allowed to back up the cartridge because the cartridge will never fail on you.

I'm not sure if the Nintendo Switch manuals say the same thing or not.

 

[entsd]

Does that mean we will no longer get updates from TX and hacking is dead for good for the switch

 

[ElYubiYubi]

Now we know why the guy installing them here stopped doing the service suddenly. Its not the same as before where console piracy and homebrew was even seen as not that bad and you could find countless Tutorials on YouTube and even the devices could be bought from places like Walmart and multiple websites selling them online like even in Amazon. Those times are over and even for Fan games. You could argue that they are fan games but using Nintendo IPs and those fan games have no permissions from Nintendo and nintendo has all the rights to take them down.

There are multiple Indie studios, more than ever. If you wanna make a game for Nintendo then join one of those studios.

 

[entsd]

Good luck getting Chen extradited from Shenzhen

I don't use the TX products and I know what they do has divided opinion massively in the community but I hate seeing people getting locked up for this kind of shit

Sad times and I really hope nobody who dislikes them comes out and glorifies these actions

I feel bad for them too

 

[iialaq01]

I doubt it - nevertheless it‘s kinda weird to actually pay for beeing able to pirate

Oh now you want them to give you the modchip for free? They spent time and money on it just to make it work and by the way, not all people use them for piracy. FYI, when you hack your switch you can many more things another than playing pirated games.