Modifying your Xbox is against TOS. Don't want to be banned? Follow the TOS. 

@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - I agree.  We all knew that piracy was wrong from the get go too. Too bad, so sad...

mathematicalbagpiper pretty much summed it up. It doesn't matter WHY the console was modded. According to the ToS, there is no legit reason to do so.

@mathematicalbagpiper@xanga - agreed.

last i read they were poking around to see if people were interested in a lawsuit. I doubt it will get anywhere.  Most judges will throw it out pretty quickly,

I think they caught more average people than piracy.
They are gonna have a hard time in court(*)

I CALLED IT! I swear I did!  Back on that post that's linked in the article that I wrote.

Microsoft is going to feel a burn on this one. It was totally irresponsible to break all those xboxs in one fell swoop. It is illegal to scan hard drives like that without consent of the owner. Let alone break their investment. Sure, they say it's against the TOS, but as far as I recall, the TOS does not say we will ban your Xbox from playing online if you break the terms. They say they may discontinue use to the service - A ban from the SERVICE - not from your Xbox.

I don't know if anyone has been keeping up with this lately, but many places now refuse to buy/sell used xboxs due to the fact that there are literally a MILLION out there that are unusable for half of their game content.

@scrambledmegsntoast@xanga - I can't say I've ever agreed with you before, but damn was I glad to read your post. Tort law indeed. I was looking for that word when I originally wrote my first post. I wouldn't be surprised if Netflix and the like got in on this and demanded some sort of retribution for lost profits.

People must understand - Not every modder and hacker wears a black hat! There are legitimate purposes to hacking, and it seriously sucks that we all get labeled in one group. Has anyone heard of Counter-Strike? that was a MOD for Half-Life. Custom Xbox cases (which are honestly, works of art) are MODS. Without hackers to show the flaws of security systems, how would they get better? And how would you stay safe?

Glad to hear IP is taking a stand for the gamers, but I'm not going to lie. The best they can hope for is just getting a prorated refund for the remaining time on their subscription. No way they'll unban all of them...It's still shit though. HDD's can contain sensitive information. You can't just go scanning them and breaking them like that. Totally unprofessional.

If these people read the licensing agreement that you sign upon purchase of your console and online membership, they would see that Microsoft very clearly states that ANY unlicensed modification whatsoever, regardless of effect on game play or console function, is a nullification of your contract with the service provider.

Of course, most people don't read TOS agreements and licensing information.
Sucks to be them. I look forward to seeing their cases fail.

always read the tos before playing online..duh

I don't think this case is going to amount to anything. And if it does, I think its just going to ruin things for everyone in the long run one way or another.

Either way, I think its just a bunch of whining. People need to just suck it up and get over it. Yes, the consoles cost a hell of a lot of money, but its your own fault if you mod them and get caught and then have to face the consequences.

Now, as for people who might have been effected who didn't deserve it...or those who were affected by this and had their consoles banned and had not modded their consoles in any way, they deserve some compensation.

However, if something is against the TOS, it doesn't matter why you have done it it is still against the TOS and still subject to the consequences.

I can't blame people for trying, but now that they've been caught they just need to get over it. Save up for a new Xbox and this time don't mod it in any way. They're expensive, and it might take a long while for some people, but maybe there's a lesson in that for them. :/

Why is everyone screaming and crying 'PIRACY' with this?  Probably 90% of people modded their systems not to pirate games for any kind of profit, but to save the games they had purchased.  Every gamer knows you'll wear through copies of games if you play them enough.  The modded systems allowed gamers to copy a game they had already purchased and play the copy - therefore saving the original.  Last I understood, piracy was supposed to be copying a game you never payed for.

All that stupidity aside, the case MAY have merit.  I can't remember the whole ToS from my XBox, but if it says anything about Microsoft not being responsible if damage comes to the console as the result of their actions to stop 'piracy', then the case kinda falls apart.  If that's not stated in the ToS, though, then the gamers have a case as long as they can prove the damage was solely caused by Microsoft's actions and not by the modding they'd done to their own system.

Personally, I hope the gamers get somewhere with this.  Modding to use copies of games you already own shouldn't be an issue.  The only reason it is is because a) it's hard to monitor, and b) it loses game creators a lot of money.  By purchasing a game once and copying it for your own personal use (to avoid scratching and wearing out the original), you wear through copies and are able to continue playing the game with a freshly made copy.  Without the mods, you're forced to play your original game because a copy won't read on the system.  Then, when the game wears out, you have to go and buy a new copy.  Depending on the game, that can be difficult, if not nearly impossible to do, as well as costly.  I don't even own an XBox anymore (and when I did, it wasn't modded), but I can understand why someone would do that to save their games.

I think they may win. The TOS stipulate only Xbox Live service, not the whole shebang. I remember when I first read about the lawsuit. My initial response was "They can't win", but then I thought about it and realized "Oh wow, they probably will win." Microsoft overstepped themselves a little bit here. They went too far in the search, and they disabled too much. They went beyond the TOS.

@fugita@xanga - The DMCA cuts against this, though. Making a mod to hardware that violates any sort of security against "piracy" is verboten in the DMCA. This is why the DeCSS code got in trouble. Regardless of if they were pirating it, it did circumvent the anti-piracy functionality. The DMCA doesn't allow this and strongly favors Microsoft on that point. In general, the DMCA cracks down on fair use freedoms and expands IP-owners control.

It's true, they did violate the ToS, but consider this...

...have you ever seen what microsoft is charging for EVERYTHING on their system?  You have to pay to see a MUSIC VIDEO, to see an EPISODE OF TV.  How ridiculous is that?  It's ABSOLUTELY ridiculous!! You already have to pay for the gold membership, and now they'll charge you whatever they can get!!!

So modding your system is wrong, but microsoft is full of selfish sons of bitches.