Illegal Xboxes 'worth £500,000' seized in Birmingham

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Teajunkie

Teajunkie

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Feb 28, 2006
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Devon uk, hacking one farmers xbox at a time and a
www.LTrepairs.co.uk
One of the UK's largest hauls of illegally-chipped video game consoles has been discovered in Birmingham.

Trading Standards officials said 250 Xbox 360s and hard drives and 450 copied Xbox games were confiscated at a flat in the city.
The haul, given a street value of £500,000, was discovered last week.
Ahead of the raid, officers had been monitoring a website offering consul-chipping following a complaint from the public, the city council said.
The subsequent operation was carried out by the council, West Midlands Police and the Association of UK Interactive Entertainment (UKIE), which represents the video game industry.

Crime 'not victimless'

In a statement, the council said: "Birmingham Trading Standards has unveiled what industry experts have called one of the largest-ever seizures of illegally 'chipped' or 'flashed' games consoles ever discovered in the UK, with an estimated street value of more than £500,000."
The "chipping" of consoles enables them to circumnavigate built-in technology that would otherwise prevent them from being able to run counterfeit or copied games, the council said.
Councillor Neil Eustace, said: "While some may think 'chipping' or 'flashing' is a victimless crime, the truth is that such activity directly supports the black market in counterfeit games, which in turn endangers legitimate jobs and businesses in Birmingham."

Source:
[http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england...ngham-13749497
 
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daniele.phobos

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Mar 23, 2011
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i don't know UK laws...but i have much doubt that replacing a firmware with a custom one represent something illegal...

i think the trial will fully clarify this fact..
 
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forzac4

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Mar 26, 2011
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Jordan
is flashing considered as a crime in UK???
 
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Marlec

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Apr 11, 2010
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WTF £500,000 ??? they must be having a laugh :eek:

even if you value each box at 250 quid each it comes to about 60000 & copied games aren't worth more than a few quid. Trading standards are just trying to make there haul seem massive when in fact it`s jack sh!t.
 
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Morpheuspt

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Apr 20, 2011
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Console flashing is illegal in the EU.

It represents a circumvenction of an anti-piracy measure, which by EU law is considered illegal.

"Unlike Section 1201 of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which only prohibits circumvention of access control measures, InfoSoc Directive also prohibits circumvention of copy protection measures, making it potentially more restrictive. In both DMCA and InfoSoc Directive, production, distribution etc. of equipment used to circumvent both access and copy-protection is prohibited. Under DMCA, a potential user who wants to avail herself of an alleged fair use privilege to crack copy protection (which is not prohibited) would have to do it herself since no equipment would lawfully be marketed for that purpose. Under InfoSoc Directive, this possibility would not be available since circumvention of copy protection is illegal.[6]"

The InfoSoc directive is the European DMCA.

This quote is from the wiki, but i'll easily fetch it from the official InfoSoc website.
 
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Morpheuspt

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Apr 20, 2011
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Avinitlarge said:
This is always one thing that has worried me. Flashing drives is always associated with pirate games. Ive had a few people asking for the games which is one thing I will NOT and NEVER supply.
Click to expand...
I refuse to do so as well. It's up to the customer what happens with their console or what games they put on it.
 
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jamespev

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Dec 6, 2009
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In what way could that be worth half a million pound?? even if the xboxs were all slims and going for £250 each and all the games going for £40 each its still only £80k.
 
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GuitarJimbo

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May 19, 2011
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Does that mean in the EU then that the CK3 Probe and X360USB Pro are not purchaseable legally as they are designed to assist circumvention of digital copy protection?

If so how are UK based stores selling them? There must be a loophole...
 
xbobb

xbobb

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360xboxmods.co.uk
GuitarJimbo said:
Does that mean in the EU then that the CK3 Probe and X360USB Pro are not purchaseable legally as they are designed to assist circumvention of digital copy protection?

If so how are UK based stores selling them? There must be a loophole...
Click to expand...
none of TX products have had any UK safety testing so its a grey area... thou they prob are safe they still aint got the kite mark lol
 
Ubergeek

Ubergeek

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Feb 24, 2003
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California, USA
GuitarJimbo said:
Does that mean in the EU then that the CK3 Probe and X360USB Pro are not purchaseable legally as they are designed to assist circumvention of digital copy protection?

If so how are UK based stores selling them? There must be a loophole...
Click to expand...
what is illegal about a usb to sata convertor or a pin with 3 wires and a switch ?

what is illegal about replacing your dvd drive with another if your drive is faulty and programming the new drive with your dvd key ?

nothing illegal at all.

However people who advertise flashing - thats illegal and ppl selling copied games - thats illegal. You have to laugh when you see all these guys saying "backups is legal" - they are clueless and have absolutley no idea what they are talking about.

But the biggest ever haul in the UK ? 250 boxes ? 450 games ? - thats nonsense. Ive heard of busts with THOUSANDS of discs seized - tens of thousands.
 
xbobb

xbobb

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Jan 26, 2010
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360xboxmods.co.uk
although all tx products are legal there all kinda underground so to say... dought very much they got any pantents or gone thru any uk or world wide safety testing dispite there own.. hence no uk kite marks lol... but this is getting way off topic for the post
 
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