College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA

According to CBS11tv.com, a southern California college student has been arrested on allegations of bypassing the DMCA by installing modchips into consoles.

A Southern California college student has been arrested on federal charges that he illegally modified video game consoles to enable the machines to play pirated video games.

The U.S. Attorney’s Office says 27-year-old Matthew Crippen was released Monday night after posting $5,000 bond.

The California State University, Fullerton student who lives in Anaheim is accused of modifying Xbox, PlayStation and Wii consoles in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents got a tip from the Entertainment Software Association and searched Crippen’s home in May.

He was indicted on two counts by a federal grand jury. Crippen faces 10 years in prison if convicted and is scheduled for arraignment on Aug. 10.

Attempts to reach Crippen for comment were unsuccessful.

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA digg it :College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA spurl :College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA reddit :College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA blogmarks :College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA Y! :College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA Slashdot:College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA Technocrati:College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA RawSugar:College Student Charged with Circumventing DMCA

No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010

From vgt247, here is a brief synopsis of Michael Pachter’s view of the future for current and next generation consoles.

In a recent industry newsletter he sent to our in-boxes, Pachter reiterated what he told us at GDC that this current console generation is that last, and if not - it’s going to be a while.

“We do not expect a “new” console in 2010 (other than the long-rumored high definition Wii, which is likely to upgrade the Wii to current console technology),” he wrote. “We do not expect the ‘next’ generation to begin before 2013, if at all.”

“We remain convinced that the publishers will resist the introduction of any video game hardware technology that requires a refresh of software, as the publishers have as yet to capitalize on the immense investments made in being competitive in the current cycle.”

consoles

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010 digg it :No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010 spurl :No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010 reddit :No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010 blogmarks :No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010 Y! :No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010 Slashdot:No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010 Technocrati:No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010 RawSugar:No Next Gen Consoles Untill 2013, Maybe HD Wii in 2010

ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty

Mobil.idg.se (translated) is reporting that four maintainers of ThePirateBay.org have been found guilty and are sentenced to one year in prison.
 
Tranlated:

Prison for all four
Andreas Thors, PC for All
 
Today, it became clear. The four guys in the Pirate Bay has had its ruling by the Stockholm District Court.
 
Pirate Bay trial is over. At least in the district court. Today at 11 became a public ruling.
 
All four accused, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström sentenced to one year’s imprisonment.
 
Damages are high. The total damages the sum of all involved are over 30 million.
 
Fredrik Neij, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundström convicted all of abetting the violation of copyright law. By contrast, dismissed the indictment for the preparation of the above crimes.
 
Gottfrid Svartholm Wargs they are more extensive. In addition to ruling on the above violation of copyright law he is sentenced for violation of the law against dangerous to health goods, and violation of the Act prohibiting certain doping substances.
 
This is most likely not the end of the trial against the Pirate Bay. Experts and those involved are agreed - ruling will be appealed.
 
- This case will go in all three instances, the Supreme Court must give it leave to appeal. We can probably not expect a pre-verdict until about five years, said Marianne Levin, a lawyer and expert on intellectual property rights to the PC for All during the trial.
 
While Pirate Bay Peter Sunde agrees:
- It is irrelevant how it goes in the district court, there is no real ruling until the Supreme Court should have their say.

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty digg it :ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty spurl :ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty reddit :ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty blogmarks :ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty Y! :ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty Slashdot:ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty Technocrati:ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty RawSugar:ThePirateBay.org Found Guilty

Team Twiizers’ Comments on the Update

Team Twiizers has made some comments about the recent Wii System Update 3.4.

Long story short, everyone needs to calm down about the update.

Nintendo released a recent update that once again tries to secure some existing bugs on the console, breaks some things, deletes others. This time they’ve also gone around and modified the TOS. As usual, mass panic ensues.

The people who are panicking can be divided roughly into two groups (non exclusive):

* The pirates
* The clueless

This should go without saying, but we don’t want to have anything to do with the former group. Nintendo is obviously going to fight piracy (and that’s going to hurt homebrew). We’ll have to deal with the homebrew part, but don’t expect that to help piracy in any way. It may, or it may not. And if it doesn’t, pirates will have to deal with fighting nintendo themselves. The usual messages about WADs, “backups”, and all that crap are going straight to /dev/null, and we’re seeing quite a few bans due to piracy on #wiidev recently. Don’t ask us about it, don’t talk to us about it.

The clueless are panicking because, well, that’s the thing to do (OMG, new update! What will we do!). Read the Wiibrew page about the update. To clarify some things: the Twilight Hack is gone and probably won’t be coming back. There are other game exploits on the table (which haven’t been announced yet). Given the ability to run PPC code, we can install stuff and exploit IOS, as the HBC beta9 installer already shows. In short, homebrew isn’t going to go away. We can “do anything” right now. But we do need to figure out what to do.

All we’re concerned with is the ability to run homebrew (from-scratch programs), not necessarily modify the existing system. This means that we’re not necessarily concerned with getting things like menuloader and DVDX working again. Menuloader involves hacking the system menu - which is pointless if it can be replaced. DVDX enables DVD use - which is pointless if there are other ways or you use an entirely new IOS. We’re also not big fans about installable stuff - the utopian homebrew ecosystem would be contained entirely on removable storage and involve zero changes to NAND (implausible, but hey). Either way, the ultimate goal is to have homebrew that is able to use the Wii’s features, period. How that is accomplished is irrelevant, so old methods of doing things aren’t necessarily going to work in the future, nor do we care about it (we’ll find alternatives if necessary).

You may be wondering what it is that we’re doing anyway. Basically, we’re looking at the current situation, moving on with existing projects, and trying to figure out what the best course for the future will be. Quickly releasing hacks as soon as they’re available might not be such a good idea for the future - it’s best if we think it through a bit. We’ve also got tons of stuff to do. Prognosis is good, and hacks will come out eventually, but you’ll have to wait it out. And you shouldn’t expect anything in particular. Remember, it’s about the end result (homebrew), not about how we get there. Also, don’t take some ideas that we’ve thrown out there previously as definitive - we’re rethinking things right now.

In short, calm the hell down and just wait. Don’t update if you don’t feel like “change” - you’ve got that option so far. And if you’ve updated, my suggestion is that you wait. Avoid hacky workarounds - they can be worse than the problems they purport to fix.

Thank you xboxbman for the heads up.

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update digg it :Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update spurl :Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update reddit :Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update blogmarks :Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update Y! :Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update Slashdot:Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update Technocrati:Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update RawSugar:Team Twiizers' Comments on the Update

GBATemp Sold - April Fool’s

GBATemp.net has been sold to CNET.

Dear members, GBAtemp is now over five years old and is continuously growing in both size and popularity in ways we would never have expected in the past. As you can imagine, keeping such a popular website running smoothly and without hiccups is both an expensive and tedious task.

Up until now the sites hosting has been funded by the staff and more recently our affiliates whom we thank very much. Unfortunately we have reached a point in our GBAtemp’s life where it’s impossible to keep the site running by ourselves; we don’t have the time or funds to keep this community online 24/7 — a huge task for such a small group of staff members who have day jobs to attend to.

You may have heard rumours in the past few weeks or months that GBAtemp was considering an offer from an interested party. These rumours are true. Today we become an official CNET Networks channel partner and the site becomes full property of GameSpot.

(more…)

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :GBATemp Sold - April Fool's digg it :GBATemp Sold - April Fool's spurl :GBATemp Sold - April Fool's reddit :GBATemp Sold - April Fool's blogmarks :GBATemp Sold - April Fool's Y! :GBATemp Sold - April Fool's Slashdot:GBATemp Sold - April Fool's Technocrati:GBATemp Sold - April Fool's RawSugar:GBATemp Sold - April Fool's

Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally

IGN is reporting that Nintendo has asked the U.S.A. to take more initiative in dealing with piracy issues worldwide. While not stating the U.S.A. is directly a problem, Nintendo wants the U.S.A. to pressure other world governments to take a stronger stance against video game piracy, and piracy enabling devices.

Nintendo of America Inc. has asked the U.S. Trade Representative to encourage specific governments around the world to take a more aggressive stance to combat piracy of Nintendo video games and systems. Nintendo filed its comments under a “Special 301″ process, in which the U.S. Trade Representative solicits input from the public to underscore specific areas of concern.

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally digg it :Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally spurl :Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally reddit :Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally blogmarks :Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally Y! :Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally Slashdot:Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally Technocrati:Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally RawSugar:Nintendo Wants U.S. to Deal with Video Game Piracy Globally

Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong

TehSkeen is reporting that a law in Hong Kong has just gone into effect that makes Modchips as well as the Installation of Modchips Illegal.

From the Explanation:

Examples of the sorts of activities that would attract
civil liability:

Ģ a person offering a service to modify game consoles or
selling mod chips for insertion into digital game machines so
as to enable others to play pirated computer games

To combat the rampant sale of modified game consoles and other
tools which help the public to pirate copyright works, we propose
to criminalize the making, importation or export for sale,
or dealing in any circumvention tools. We will also criminalize
the commercial provision of circumvention services.

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong digg it :Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong spurl :Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong reddit :Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong blogmarks :Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong Y! :Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong Slashdot:Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong Technocrati:Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong RawSugar:Installation and Sales of Modchips now Illegal in Hong Kong

Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New

Some other Wii news sites (we wont name names) are erroniously reporting that Nintendo has opened up the Wii Opera SDK. This is not the case. The Hullbreach SDK is an independently developed set of homebrew tools for making Wii Browser apps.

Not only is this not an official Nintendo release, it’s not even new. Our readers may recall that reported on on the Wii Opera SDK not once but twice, earlier in August and no major changes have occured since.
While we don’t normally post corrections for news on other sites, it would seem that this particular story has snowballed quite a bit and with the number of reports we’ve received about it, we felt it necessary to post a statement.

Regardless, the Hullbreach Wii Opera SDK is still a fantastic homebrew product, arguably the best Wii Opera SDK available. We encourage those interested in developing Wii homebrew for the Opera Browser to try it.

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New digg it :Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New spurl :Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New reddit :Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New blogmarks :Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New Y! :Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New Slashdot:Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New Technocrati:Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New RawSugar:Wii Opera SDK - Nothing New

Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites

London based Financial Times is reporting that Nintendo is targeting DS game pirate websites in South Korea. As the Wii is still not released there, this mainly pertains to DS titles as of now.

Nintendo on Monday in a rare move demanded South Korean prosecutors investigate domestic websites that have uploaded illegal copies of the companys games.

The move marks the first time the Japanese video gamesmaker has called upon prosecutors in Asia to help combat piracy, a problem that has dogged the games industry increasingly in recent years.

Until now the company had issued warnings to pirates but had not requested action from the relevant prosecutor. The company has been more active in the US and Europe, with some perpetrators fined millions of dollars.

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites digg it :Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites spurl :Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites reddit :Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites blogmarks :Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites Y! :Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites Slashdot:Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites Technocrati:Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites RawSugar:Nintendo Targets South Korea Piracy Websites

Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory

Several major gaming sites are reporting on the latest development in Nintendo’s war on piracy. As many of you remember Nintendo played a major role in the ICE raids earlier this year, as well as many other raids of modchip installers and distributors throughout the world including similar events in Europe, China, and Mexico.

The latest of which went after the Supreme Factory in Hong Kong with the aide of the Hong Kong government. For those of you who don’t know Supreme Factory is the manufacturer for Divineo which manufactures Cyclowiz modchips for the Wii as well as the CycloDS carts for the DS among other things. Divineo also has strong ties to several teams and news organizations.

For the most relavant breakdown of what this latest development means for the Nintendo modding community, as well as the larger modding community, you should read the Divineo Raids article by Brakken on tehskeen.

Discuss this topic in our forums.

del.icio.us :Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory digg it :Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory spurl :Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory reddit :Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory blogmarks :Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory Y! :Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory Slashdot:Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory Technocrati:Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory RawSugar:Nintendo and Hong Kong Officials Raid Supreme Factory