Two owners of a Los Angeles game store and a third man have been charged with felony violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act for modifying original Xbox gaming consoles to copy pirated games onto the machines for future play. If convicted, the trio face up to five years in prison.
The three men are being accused of “conspiring to traffic in a technology used to circumvent a copyright protection system and conspiring to commit criminal copyright infringement.” Allegedly, the two owners of the Acme Game store on Los Angeles’s Melrose Avenue (Jason Jones, age 34, and Jonathan Bryant, age 44, both of Los Angeles) sold original Xbox consoles which had been modified by a third man (Pei “Patrick” Cai, age 32, of Pico Rivera). The modified Xbox consoles contained modification chips and large-capacity hard drives to enable users to copy rented or borrowed games onto the console for future play.
The alleged modding operation was reported to authorities by the Entertainment Software Alliance, which characterizes Acme Games as “major pirate game retailer.” The ESA says private investigators sent to the store in May 2005 were able to purchase a modified Xbox console pre-loaded with pirated games. Subsequently, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents paid $265 to have an Xbox console modified and set up with a new hard drive containing 77 pirated games.
According to the complaint, Acme Games owners ran modified Xbox consoles as demonstration systems and would promote the advantages of the modifications to potential customers, who would then be solicited to pay from $225 to $500 for the modifications, depending on the nature of the changes and the number of games to be pre-loaded onto the new drive. The complaint alleges Cai would then pick up consoles to be modded, perform the changes at his home, and return the consoles to the store to be picked up by customers.
