BROWNNOSE
BOOTLICKER
AN XBOX MODDER has had his trial put on hold as a US District Judge slammed the prosecution's case.
It didn't take long for the Vole's console to be hacked and used for innovative applications. It took even less time for the weight of US law to come down on the head of one homebrew Xbox hacker, Matthew Crippen.
The US government filed a criminal case against Crippen for homebrew hacking. The prosecution laid charges for violations of the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If convicted Crippen could spend up to five years in federal prison.
However, presiding Judge Philip Gutierrez was so annoyed by the government's case that he spent 30 minutes berating prosecutors in open court.
"I really don't understand what we're doing here," said Judge Gutierrez.
According to Wired, Gutierrez went on to delay the trial, complaining amongst other things that the prosecution plans to call witnesses who could have broken the law in their pursuit of Crippen.
One witness could have broken privacy laws by secretly filming Crippen performing the Xbox hack in his own home. Another, a Microsoft security employee, admitted modding Xboxes while he was in college.
The Judge also did an about turn on two points that run in Crippen's favour. He said that Crippen is now allowed to use "Fair Use" as part of his defence and agreed that the mod could have non-infringing purposes.
"The only way to be able to play copied games is to circumvent the technology," Gutierrez said. "How about backup games and the homebrewed?"
__________________
It didn't take long for the Vole's console to be hacked and used for innovative applications. It took even less time for the weight of US law to come down on the head of one homebrew Xbox hacker, Matthew Crippen.
The US government filed a criminal case against Crippen for homebrew hacking. The prosecution laid charges for violations of the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. If convicted Crippen could spend up to five years in federal prison.
However, presiding Judge Philip Gutierrez was so annoyed by the government's case that he spent 30 minutes berating prosecutors in open court.
"I really don't understand what we're doing here," said Judge Gutierrez.
According to Wired, Gutierrez went on to delay the trial, complaining amongst other things that the prosecution plans to call witnesses who could have broken the law in their pursuit of Crippen.
One witness could have broken privacy laws by secretly filming Crippen performing the Xbox hack in his own home. Another, a Microsoft security employee, admitted modding Xboxes while he was in college.
The Judge also did an about turn on two points that run in Crippen's favour. He said that Crippen is now allowed to use "Fair Use" as part of his defence and agreed that the mod could have non-infringing purposes.
"The only way to be able to play copied games is to circumvent the technology," Gutierrez said. "How about backup games and the homebrewed?"
__________________