U.S. Man Gets Prison Time for Illegal Chip Sales

["Hamaker, Chuck" <cahamake@email.uncc.edu>]

U.S. Man Gets Prison Time for Illegal Chip Sales
BY Reuters.com,  April 9, 2003
http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?storyID=2539097

" David R., of Blacksburg, Virginia, was sentenced late last week in
federal court in Virginia after pleading guilty in December to one count of
conspiracy to violate copyright laws under the Digital Millennium Copyright
Act. "

---------------

A Virginia man has been sentenced to five months in prison and fined
$28,500 for selling imported chips that illegally modify Microsoft Corp.'s
Xbox video game console.

David R., of Blacksburg, Virginia, was sentenced late last week in
federal court in Virginia after pleading guilty in December to one count
of conspiracy to violate copyright laws under the Digital Millennium
Copyright Act.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization that has opposed the
DMCA as being overly restrictive on free speech and the fair-use rights of
consumers, said R. was one of the first people to be sent to prison for
violating the DMCA.  ....

He was charged with importing and selling about 450 Enigmah "mod" chips,
after-market processors designed to be attached to the Xbox's motherboard
and circumvent its security measures. ..

R. was accused of importing his Enigmah chips from Great Britain, and a
number of British Web sites, like Bald Bouncer (http:/www.baldbouncer.co.uk)
still sell stand-alone "mod" chips like the "X-ecuter2 Pro" and Xbox
consoles with the chips pre-installed. 

From: digital-copyright Digest 14 Apr 2003 15:00:00 -0000 Issue 175