US Raids 30 Sites for Mod Chips

[directive0]

Man I'm happy I live in Canada.

This will effect the supply of chips to us, surely.

 

[coolbho3000]

From a comment on Kotaku:

This whole task force they have makes me laugh so hard. Illegal guns, drugs, etc all over the country and they act upon this type of stuff and focus on it.

So true. Before you focus on piracy, focus on the real issues. The issues that actually kill/injure people.

 

[ugly_rose]

Is the US government in such dire need of modchips that they raid 30 places for 'em?

Good Lord.

So the pentagon likes their wii's modded, huh?

 

[JacobReaper]

Man I'm happy I live in Canada.

I'm happy that you live in Canada too!

I'm just messing with you, dude.

lol, but i hate it that there doing that with modchips.. like... LET US BE, wthere raising gas prices like 90% in US so, we'll save money on games and not be poor -__- lol *sigh*

 

[Sinkhead]

Is the US government in such dire need of modchips that they raid 30 places for 'em?

Good Lord.

So the pentagon likes their wii's modded, huh?

- Sam

 

[DSGRIM]

Since it is not illegal to sell those mod chips in legal areas like the US, they couldnt have been hit for that. They should have been smart enough to not ship to the UK (which was illegal) but they imported and now they are screwed.


The UK Nintendo ect were having a fit about people over seas selling the chip when it was made illegal in their own country. US guys are safe peoples dont worry.

(Downloading games ect is still illegal so you can be hit for that, but just buying one/selling one to the legal public is ok)

 

[ZeeMox]

I ordered the CycloDS Evo from Modchipstore.com yesterday. Now they have no advertised products on the main page and live support is off

I think I'm screwed.

 

[ZeWarrior]

Yup your screwed they killed modchipstore considering all their Modchips and case mods are out of stock.

 

[aslacker55]

It seems that one of the people raided was FallsInc, a moderator from xbox-scene. You can read his story at http://forums.xbox-scene.com/index.php?showtopic=615642.
He was just a small time moder. An undercover agent bought a chipped Wii from him and then they raided him. It such a sad story, I hope he gets out of this ordeal without too much damage to his life.

 

[JacobReaper]

I ordered the CycloDS Evo from Modchipstore.com yesterday. Now they have no advertised products on the main page and live support is off

I think I'm screwed.

i feel sry for you

 

[directive0]

I see kicktrading.ca no longer sells modchips... or at least my cursory glance didn't see any. Related?

 

[Hooya]

I see kicktrading.ca no longer sells modchips... or at least my cursory glance didn't see any. Related?

Did they ever? They're still selling flash carts, so I dunno what to make of it.

 

[GeekyGuy]

Nice... that's a fairly well sized raid there on people too stupid to cover their tracks.  Just a teeny percentage of the pie, but it's still hurtful.

Cover their tracks??? These are legal retailers not criminals selling bootleg dvd's in China Town. I know you all know ModChipMan.com....word is he was hit.

Yeah, I really have a hard time believing that these arrests will hold up in court. I doubt those who filed the complaints (likely a coalition of the Big 3 gaming companies) are after any actual prosecutions. They know all too well that a legal battle alone is enough to put most of these small businesses out of business permanently.

The Supreme Court of the U.S. has ruled that it is constitutional to create a reasonable quantity of back-ups of your legally owned media (that does not, however, include doing so via downloading -- in order to be done legally, it has to be done directly from the hardcopy). Of course, there's plenty of grey area to argue, but a device that allows you to playback back-ups -- such as a Wii modchip -- is not clearly a device intended for use with pirated materials. It remains to be seen what the courts will say regarding these retailers and the modchips, etc.

Again, though, it's a small price for the gaming companies to pay, considering the increase in profits they hope to gain by curtailing the use of pirated gaming media.

 

[Mangofett]

I see kicktrading.ca no longer sells modchips... or at least my cursory glance didn't see any. Related?


Did they ever? They're still selling flash carts, so I dunno what to make of it.

No, they never have.

 

[martin88]

Edit: double post.

 

[VmprHntrD]

Yes I stick by 'cover your tracks' as modchipping isn't exactly legal, not the act itself but what they allow to be done is just that. Now I know that argument is fairly crap because you could say my CDRW should be illegal since I *could* warez games. Thing is the US loves to clusterfuck with laws and twist things to work their way with lawyers and big companies. Take Nintendo and them wailing on the asians who make counterfeits, or Sony kicking Lik-Sangs ass too. They also do have that right to dictate what a system can or can't run, and using a chip circumvents that at the least even with a legal other region title, but easily lets burns play too. And then you have your GBA copier dev kits and so on which got banned because of what Nintendo contorted the courts into thinking they were just meant for theft and essentially the gba copier is the same function as a vhs or dvd recorder.

I'm not agreeing with what happened, the 'nice...' was sarcasm, but seriously with all the efforts the big 3 do to screw over people doing chipping, burns, modding hdds(xbox) and so on I'd think these retailers would be a bit more careful in their line of business as I know I would be.

 

[JacobReaper]

yup, i hate wat the government is doing

 

[chronjohnson]

Whatever, they don't want my business so I'll take it overseas. I love when stores I've patronized faithfully for years decide to no longer offer product. Actually I don't. It causes me to hate them forever. All these people who no longer have mod chips weren't raided, you know. They took your money, your consoles, and whatever else you'd sent them and shut down, all because a few installers across the country had their doors kicked in. Just like when Roberto kept the Barksdale's money but still set up the empty car in the garage for Bodie. Let's not be boo hooing any companys that won't ship you what you ordered. I've noticed that santimonious gamers who are actually against piracy tend to have trust funds. And modchipman is a bitch.

 

[GeekyGuy]

...Let's not be boo hooing any companys that won't ship you what you ordered....

Well, I wouldn't know diddly-squat about the rest of what you said, but -- yeah -- I don't feel sorry for the companies. I feel sorry for me and anyone else who's still waiting to receive the products they paid for. I'm not sure what's going on at this point, but it's still pretty early to make any assumptions.

But I did order a CycloDS Evo card on the 31st, and haven't heard anything from Modchipstore, whom I bought it from; no shipping date, no tracking, no responses to the contacts I've made. I don't wish them ill, but I'm concerned about getting what I paid for, not their lot in life. Sorry if that sounds cold, but a deal's a deal, and I put up my end.

More importantly, however, what does this mean for the community we're discussing?