Today the ESA announced that a federal court in California ordered a group of defendants to pay over $9 Million in damages for violations of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. The violations we're against Divineo, the maker and distributor of mod chips for all consoles, French Resident Max Louam and Canadian Resident Frederic Legault for the trafficking of mod chips and a software circumvention device called the HDLoader.
The use of Mod Chips and HDLoaders allows users to either pirate games or allow their consoles to play pirated software. The HDLoader specifically made it possible for users to rip a legal copy of a game directly to a hard drive to be played from the hard drive instead of the disc.
“Mod chips and HDLoaders are key elements in facilitating video game piracy because they allow people to play illegally copied games on illegally modified video game consoles,†said Ric Hirsch, Senior Vice President of Intellectual Property Enforcement for the ESA, the trade group representing U.S. computer and video game publishers. “This Court order is very important because it recognizes the significant damage that mod chips and HDLoaders cause the entertainment software industry and delivers the clear message that trafficking in circumvention devices that enable game piracy will result in heavy penalties.â€
The DMCA, which was enacted in 1998, prohibits the manufacture, distribution and sale of products or services that circumvent technological protection measures designed to prevent unauthorized access to, and copying of, copyrighted materials.
Source: Game Informer Online
Damn...9 million dollars....I want that mod chip....
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