Man convicted for selling modified Xbox console in UK

Man convicted for selling modified Xbox console in UK

A 22-year-old Cambridge graduate has become the first person to have been convicted in the United Kingdom for modifying the Xbox gaming console. He was sentenced at the Caerphilly Magistrates’ Court to 140 hours of community service. He was charged for selling modified Xbox consoles in which he had added a big hard drive containing 80 games.

The gaming industry is happy about this first case of its kind in the country considering piracy causes billions of pounds worth of losses to the industry. Games industry spokesman Michael Rawlinson said in a statement: “This case sets a major precedent which marks a milestone in the fight against piracy.”

These sorts of activities have been illegal in the country for about 2 years now when UK enacted the law to come in compliance with the European Union directives. The law says that it is illegal and punishable by law to circumvent copy protection systems. It is quite common for such people to modify the consoles to bypass the copy protection shipped with the consoles to play pirated games.

The person convicted was selling the modified console with a 200 GB hard disk loaded with around 80 games for just £380.