Kotaku: modders

All Counts Thrown Out in Criminal Case v. UK Modder

Owen Good — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 10:00:00 MDT

Wednesday, a UK judge threw out 26 charges against the self-styled "No. 1 name in console modifications," leaving MrModChips, as Neil Higgs is known, to freely do his business (from his parents' home.) More broadly, some are hailing the decision as effectively ~~legalizing~~ legalising console modifications in Great Britain, six years after a similar decision in Australia.

Higgs got into trouble because he sold modchips that allowed copied and overseas games to be played on Nintendo and Microsoft consoles. In October, Higgs was convicted of 26 antipiracy counts and faced a £1M fine and two years in jail. But a judge ruled in favor of his appeal, which is that any copyright infringement involved here had taken place before the use of the modchips Higgs had sold, and thus the chips themselves do not circumvent copyright protection. Thus, there was no basis for charging Higgs, and he's free, and his legal bills will be reimbursed.

His website is back up, replete with a posthumous Churchillian endorsement of his fight, though it doesn't look like he's taking orders just yet.

Gamespot points out Australia's de facto legalization of mod chips in 2002, when a judge found that mod chips prevented legal activities such as playing backed-up or imported games. That ruling also found that mod chips did not violate laws against circumventing copyright protections.

MrModchips wins appeal in £1million UK modchip case !!![Team-Xecuter, via Gamespot]

Ben Heck, Not A Huge Gamer

Mark Wilson — Thu, 27 Mar 2008 11:40:00 MDT

Reuters just ran an interesting profile on internet-famous console modder Benjamin Heckendorn. It's definitely worth a quick read if you're interested in the man behind the DS Atari 2600 or Xbox 360 laptop, but we particularly enjoyed his response to his own gaming habits.

I didn't used to play, but last year I went out of my way to play more video games. I would probably maybe buy one game a year. Last year I said you know what, this is ridiculous.

Uh oh, all those games will probably rot his brain.

"Modder" turns hobby into career [Reuters via BoingBoingGadgets][Image by Maxamegalon2000]

Modder Banishes PC To Hell

torif — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 16:00:50 MST

Nothing says serious gamer like a Dell Inspiron M155 with Satan's head glaring back at you! PC Modder Ken Kirby decided his computer needed a facelift, and opted for a more grotesque one in its place. The handiwork is pretty neat, but I don't think I could sleep in a room with that thing staring back at me. *shudders* It even has its own smoke machine.

The "Great Satan" Case Mod [ExtremeTech]

Modder Faces Jail Time

Kim Phu — Tue, 26 Jun 2007 13:40:00 MDT

In San Diego, a modder named Frederick Brown was arrested after his house was raided by the San Diego Computer and Technology High-Tech Response Unit (otherwise conveniently known as "CATCH"). Brown had advertised on Craigslist and other website as being able to install mod chips and provide counterfeit games. The raid in his home proved he had over a thousand copies of pirated games as well as a large number of mod chips and hard drives preloaded with games that could be installed onto Xbox consoles.

Brown allegedly was turning modding into a business, so it does make sense that the ESA chose pursue a criminal case against him. However, what does that mean for the average kid who just wants to mod their console to play games from other countries? It seems like console manufacturer's have avenues other than physically blocking modders to get them to stop like making every game available to every one at the same time. It's called subtitles. Tell your game developers to use them. Kim Phu

Modder Faces Jail Time After Raid Turns Up Counterfeit Games, Mod Chips [Ars Technica]

Co-Op Available in Halo 3?

Kim Phu — Mon, 21 May 2007 09:40:00 MDT

The words Halo and Starcraft have been ringing in my ears since last week, and with the two highly-anticipated games being released (well, one being a semi-release), it looks like these two candidates for Prom Queen will be sounding out campaign speeches until one of them gets the crown.

Since we've had the whole weekend to soak up Starcraft news, let's turn our attention back to the Halo Beta. Rumors from the modding sector have unearthed a list of on-screen text for Halo 3's multi-player and single player campaign:

The game cannot start because all players are set to observer. Too many players for splitscreen. Only 2 players may play splitscreen coop on the same Xbox 360 console. The party size is too large to start the game. Up to 4 players may play coop on Xbox Live or System Link. Loading information from Xbox Live...

Provided this isn't just a rumor, this could mean that people who got banned from Xbox Live are going to be pissed. Microsoft hasn't confirmed any of this yet, but if they want Bungie to be the online belle of the ball, they will. Kim Phu

Massive Halo 3 Feature Leaked? [CVG]