A teachable moment
Microsoft Xbox Lives plays rough and hard to get. Toronto Star:
As many as 1 million Xbox Live players around the world have been disconnected by Microsoft as suspected pirates, the tech magazine Information Week reported Wednesday. Gamers disconnected from Xbox Live would not be able to access their accounts or play over the Internet but could still play offline.
“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty, and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” Microsoft said in a statement quoted by Information Week. Microsoft has said only a “fraction” of its 20 million users are affected, but accounts of the number knocked off the system were building through Wednesday.
“My Xbox was modder (modified) so I got console banned,” a gamer named Harjit B reported on a Canadian information site this week “Will I get caught again even though I’m not using a modded Xbox anymore? Cause I don’t wanna lose my rank in Halo 3.” A Canadian gamer named Alex also said: “Obviously Microsoft has run a scan on me and realised my console has been modified and therefore banned the console; which is fair because that’s the risk you run by using modified hardware. But the most important thing to me is that I get my gamertag back. I’ve been working on this for about two years and really don’t want to have to start all over again.” In both cases, they were told only the console is blocked.
My two sons use to play all the time and a number of their friends paid $20 bucks and had their consoles modified so they could play ‘hot’ copies of the latest games for the tinest fraction of the retail price. At the time, my sons were too young to have a grasp of intellectual property rights ,but I still put my foot down. Good thing too – as our current Xbox 360 is the third replacement console Microsoft had to ship us under the manufacturer’s warranty. A modified console voids the warranty and there is no way I would have taken to shelling out for two extra consoles all due to manufacturing defects.
I am only surprised it took Microsoft so long to get pro-active although I do expect it won’t be long before a few talented souls with too much free time and a twisted ethical sense find a way around to shield the modified consoles from Microsoft’s prying eyes.
