Microsoft’s ongoing crackdown on pirates and modded Xbox 360s is said to have resulted in 600,000 Xbox Live accounts being banned from North America alone, with more to follow…
The “disturbing truth” runs thus:
A conversation with a friend who works for a call center that handles an Xbox 360 account has yielded a disturbing truth: Microsoft has started its annual Xbox Live banning spree and it has disabled 600,000 accounts so far in the US and Canada.
The target of the banning spree are mainly people who have modified their consoles to play pirated games. My trusty source says that they have been given instructions to push for a million banned accounts by the time the holidays are over.
Leaving aside the question of the reliability of this “trusty source,” it is obvious Microsoft has banned a very large number of Xboxes, and an even larger number of Xbox Live accounts.
Such is the ire of these unhappy pirates that the man in charge of Xbox Live has been subjected to the usual deluge of Internet harassment, with him reporting death threats against himself, his family and even his dogs, along with threatening calls throughout the night.
For those interested, the chat logs of his (genuine) appearance on IRC to beg/threaten his stalkers into stopping are visible below:
The threats relented after he mentioned they were being reported to police – with the bans evidently proving quite effective, it seems the Xbox 360′s noisy pirate community is proving quite the pushover so far.
Via Hachimaki.
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4chan fails. They should really know when their taking things too far. Though I can't say I fully approve of the ban and I lol'd each time he said his dogs were getting death threats.
Not like I connect my modded 360 to the internet anyways because of this. Further reason why I should continue pirating.
Hahahha, because they actually try and stop pirates (from stealing THERE stuff) you are further justified in being a pirating thief asswhole? Good luck trying to convince people you being an asswhole is justified by MS trying to stop you being an asswhole.
WHa Wha the cops stopped me trying to rape a girl, I guess I am justified in doing it!
Banned Xbox 360s can still play pirated games. They simply cannot log onto XBL, have access to Media Center, install games onto the HDD, and a few other features. Hardly the end of the world and for pirates to threaten others with violence is truly pathetic.
Also, this ban wave is more then playing bad rips or playing games early. Looks like Microsoft can detect modded firmware this time around so nobody is safe who has modded their system.
woohoo we should all get our paperweight xboxes and throw them in front of ms :D
Oh how the parasites weep...
You say this with Steve Baller's cock in your mouth.
serves them right?
this is like criminals bitching at cops for them getting caught.
there's only three reasons you want to pirate:
1. you're ten.
2. you're poor.
3. you're a rich asshole.
2 !!!! I`m poor and hungry !!!!111
Well, the only reason I would mod a 360 would be to play imported games from Japan. The funny thing is, the whole region-protect thing is a violation of international free trade laws, so they shouldn't be putting in region protection in the first place. Why ban people for setting things right with their consoles? This just finalizes my decision to jump for the PS3, despite it's flaws compared to the 360.
Sankaku internet lawyers are the best.
Sorry Anonymous, I might ask you to please define what these "Internation free trade laws" are. There is no such thing. The whole world is not in some sort of grand customs union where there are no tariffs or quotas. They still exist and since the Doha round 8 years ago, the members of the WTO are still bickering over things such as agriculture.
Why do companies participate in region coding? The answer is simple. It is called price discrimination. They are trying to extract as much surplus they can from the consumer as to increase profits.
The fact they can "ban" your system which is in YOUR posession after buying it seems illegal already.Once you buy something regardless of contract in FULL.That item is 100% yours,unless your ripping off the design to sell it as your own.They have no right to damage,or disable it.However what isnt right is game pirating when the games ARE available in the pirates country etc.I believe someone else pointed out "region-control software" is against the international trade law.However the case certain games and DVD's not available in the US etc can ONLY BE PLAYED on a either modded Xbox,or Import model (meaning all the games would have to be the import type aswell)Thus defeating the purpose.Also the ridiculous failure rate,and lack of GOOD console-specific games (Halo ODST and GoW2 were garbage fillers) it seems rather retarded to scare away the only other fans youve got.I have a PS3,and I was thinking of getting an Xbox but for all I know simply saying "PS3" on XBL (WHICH SHOULD BE *UCKING FREE) may get me banned.
They have the right to ban you from Xbox Live if you break their terms of use, just like stadium organisers have the right to kick you out of a football audience if you cause trouble, even if you've paid for a ticket.
They can ban it from XBL but they can't ban the HD or brick it or prevent the modded console from playing new games.
Self destructing property you own violates this law if it happens take them to court.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act]
the dead of their 'live'
I can see the death of XBL happening very soon.
Isn't he what you call a cyber terrorist? Attacking and sabotaging or destroying consumer devices, albeit with EULA on his side, but that is no contract in most countries. And terrorism isn't excused by any EULAs.
Terrorism is UNLAWFUL destruction and terrorising of innocent people. I see no innocence in the pirates and I see no lawful action in there thefts.
There was no violence, terror or intimidation from MS, just a simple banning of items used to illegally acquire products. With the EULA and TOS being broken too they are perfectly in there rights and it's the pirates that have done the bad things.
MS has committed stuff that could be called terrorism since 1988.
A good example would be what they pulled in 1989 in an attempt to kill BTRON.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BTRON
We could have a a real OS as a standard vs the ox cart of shit we have now.
http://tronweb.super-nova.co.jp/btron.html
If someone steals from microsoft all I can say is good.
They are a company that needs for their to die and the sooner the better.
My question is how they "know" you're running a modded console. I have two 360 consoles, one of which is a legitimately purchased NTSC-J unit that I play import games on. My North American Live account has a number of import games listed, along with various achievements obtained.
Microsoft's Xbox360 is threading the path of self destruction....(._.) Without piracy there is no reason to stay with Microsoft. Time to become friends with Sony.
Their not doing anything different then what they were previously doing, which is, banning consoles with bad ripped games.
People are just downloading bad rips of Modern Warfare 2, and that's resulting in a ban.
okay, a whole lot of people are really missing the big point.
It's not the fact that if you are pirating or not that's disturbing. It's the fact that companies are allowed to control the hardware you own.
Think about it. Since when is something you paid hard cash for not yours anymore. It's your hardware. You should be allowed to do whatever you want with it. Banning someone off the XBOX Live network is justifyable since it's MS' own network. However, reaching in to blow up your hardware to render it useless is waaaaay over bound.
If the trend continues, soon you'll have TOS on everything.
You bought a car and the TOS says it's only allowed to run in your state. Cross the state? BOOM! your engine is dead because they blow up a little chip inside your control board.
Bought a new house? Well, it's comes with a TOS that you are not allowed to paint your wall, plant more tulips. If you do? BOOM! they blow up a little chip in your furnice's control board. Yeah you can LIVE there, but there is no heat.
Let me say it again, when did it start that we don't own thing we buy anymore? Do we really want to allow companies these kind of power on your posession?
oh yeah, and on the chip reference, what my friend told me is that each XBOX has this chip in the circuit board. If they detected you they run surges over it and basically fries it.
Currently there is no way to replicate or bypass that because it's encrypted.
Xbox 360s don't include hard drive installation by default, this was added by MS in an upgrade. So how exactly are they rendering it useless again? Was it useless when you bought it, before you connected to Live to update it and agreed to their terms and conditions?
More like you rented a cable TV decoder for your house and agreed to terms and conditions that you wouldn't misuse it. If you do, they cut your service off and ask for the decoder back and that's that.
hilarity, these people steal games while game artists and developers lose jobs, and they see nothing wrong with that.
Fuckwits, keep stealing and there won't be any decent game studios left... only ones that cater to the idiotic fanboys that will pay for anything.
If the cost of games were reasonable, people would buy them. See any recent statistics from Steam. When L4D went on sale at 50% off, sales grew something like 3000%. No, that is not a typo. Three Thousand Per Cent. People are willing to buy games when they are affordable. When they aren't, people don't. It's nothing to do with the game artists or developers. It's the idiotic publishers who decide to charge too damn much.
Your statement about "stealing" is quite silly. Nothing material is taken from the companies. They've already spent the money they were going to spend to develop the game. No one is taking that from them. Their income comes from sales. Thing is, no one is obligated to buy. Just because a company spends millions of dollars on a title does not mean that I or anyone else has to buy it from them. Nothing is being taken. The company is just failing to sell. Whose fault is it that the company is failing to sell the product they invested in so heavily? The only two groups involved in the sale is the seller and the consumer, and as I stated, the consumer is under no obligation to buy. That leaves just one group: the seller.
Stop blaming consumers for corporate failure.
Even if the price is too high theft is illegal, what you should do is wait for the price to go down and play other games till then. You cannot excuse pirating (which often has people pirate games and then not pay for them AT ALL) by just saying the stuff is over priced. Console games here in the UK go for £35 to £45 retail and go down to £20 (about half price) within a year usually. Your saying you can steal shit because a year is too long to wait?
YOUR choosing to not buy it immediately so that means YOU should be the one to wait for the price to go down. You shouldn't receive the benefit of getting an illegal copy for free, with no obligation of purchase, right away just because you don't want to be patient.
So, you are saying that I should be permitted to steal an Audi because I feel the prices are too high?
lol... nice work sherlock.
I'm glad microsoft is committing suicide, I always hated xbox anyway. It just gives people an excuse to go buy a PS3.. lol. Why bother paying extra money for xbox live when you can use a system with better graphics, FREE access, and bluray built in? Either that or mod it and just don't use online services. :)
things not so simple as u think, better graphics? not really especially if it`s multiplatform, free network? It`s lag as hell I had 2 ps3 they both was loading friend list for 10 minutes and ps3 have less of good games. Blueray? BD is great but it`s cost soooo much in my country
piracy is illegal and they have the right to eliminate the source of piracy a.k.a modded xbox360s
dont bitch about ur xbox not working properly anymore
if u steal then be prepared of the consequences
go buy urself a real one and play it like it is
we have just determined someone used your TV to watch an illegal dvd and have send in our elite squad to your house to destroy your TV.
As an avid supporter of Big Corporation, I am sure you would gladly cooperate. We thank you for your cooperation.
Interesting thing - one friend was complaining that he bought a new blu-ray player and tried to play a Spiderman movie on it. He have large LCD television. The BR player always check if the television is really a television (and not a PC/recorder or anything else what can be used for piracy) via some feedback. Since his television is quite old it didnt supported this, so the BR player just said that it wont play anything.
Solution was simple - he used pirated software to simulate the feedback and is now playind legaly bought movie via pirated software.
A public service announcement to all the people whining and bitching about how Microsoft have no right to do this, how it's illegal, how they're actually digital terrorists remotely detonating all your miniature World Trade Centres... MICROSOFT'S LAWYERS KNOW MORE ABOUT THE LAW THAN YOU DO. IF THERE WAS EVEN THE SLIGHTEST CHANCE THIS WAS ILLEGAL, OR THEY COULD BE SUED FOR IT, THEY WOULDN'T HAVE DONE IT.
Every time I see someone post here who thinks they know more about the law than Microsoft's extremely highly paid legal team, I die a little inside.
Thank you.
Yes, because it isn't like Microsoft would do something so unscrupulous as throwing money at a problem to make it go away. /sarcasm
I'm sure the only reason they have lawyers is so they know whose palms to grease in the legal hierarchy.
If this makes playing on Xbox Live a little more quite and mature, I say it's ALL GOOD.
Lol ... quite and mature ... on Xbox Live ... but it COULD happen, right?
Crap .... I wasn't logged in ... I apologize ...
pfft. Like everyone said, I believe that its just another hapless ploy to get sells figures up. Tell me is it just coincidence that they decided to do it with christmas around the corner? I dont think sooooo.it really is a 25/75 through up with MS on the losing side of the ratio. Check it: pirates only bought the system in the first place to modd games and stuff. Being the initial and only cost for running decent games was a brilliant trade off. Now that MS has "banned" their HDD's, do you really think they wont find another way around it? I say they will find an alternative before christmas, and MS will be royally screwed over. Im pretty sure, honestly ppl who play on XBL will get caught in the crossfire, and they will lose their already dwindling fan base. Why ban the few (40%) working system? Between the RRoD, and MS, who will survive?
Lets see: MS 1 Hackers/Pirates: 2
It seems MS is trying to get back at the modders of the XBL community a little too late. And it is too well timed to be called a coincidence. Why wouldnt they have started banning people from their hard drives last year? Surely the fact that 1) Their sales have taken a massive beating due to the PS3 Slim, and 2) christmas is around the corner? Its timing is too well placed to be called a fluke. MS screwed up this time, and this is a very lop sided effort. It's a 25/75 throw up, with MS on the losing side. Lets see shall we? With the plague of the RRoD still devouring consoles in every continent, and now this stunt in NA, which group of 360 owners will be left standing and not caught in the crossfire of MS vs Pirates?
Bah, I got banned,...so what. I'll get a new system black friday cheap from amazon or a used one from gamestop with a extra service contract and use both. Only need live for the 2 games I actually play online any way. Gears, gears 2. I'll DL everything else and buy legit copies of what i wanna play online. After sending the system back to em twice already for repairs , it was gonna break any how. To be honest, im happy the ban wave hit. Now hackers and modder will come up with better solutions and exploits. The same think happened on the original xbox, just to a much lower scale (live ain't have 20 million users then) and it wasnt the end of the world. Modders just got better and bucked the system again. Hell, modder "darkAlex" is notorious for releasing hacked psp FW THE DAY AFTER sony a new FW. MS fired off a huge salvo yes, but this fight is just gettin good........
Mysterious Voice: "Yet another display of Microsoft's draconian strategies. Planning to destroy 1,000,000 consoles can only mean some legitamite owners will have to fall. Save yourself now! Get a PC."
What if there's less then that? There's always the chance that they won't need to ban 1,000,000 owners.
Mysterious Voice: "Just wait. I'll prove you wrong."
that's what you get for supporting a Microsoft console (you dweebs!)
Honest people : 1
Pirate hackers : -1
Honest people: -1 for paying sucker price to publisher.
Big Corporations: -1 for bad press and generating customer hostility
Pirate hackers: +100 for already played games that worthed more than the console's price at sucker rate.
xbox360 arcade = $200
if you managed to play more than 4 games during the life of a hacked console, you win.
and I think most pirates already won.
@ Char
The Magnuson–Moss Warranty Act does not apply. The purpose of the Act is to make warranties on consumer products more readily understood and enforceable.
Remember the terms of service that you agreed to (but probably never read) when you first connected to Xbox live?
You can thank the Magnuson-Moss Act for that one. If, like most people, you never bothered to read it and didn't realize that consequences of modding your Xbox is actually stated there, then tough luck.
And yes, it's very disheartening to hear a lot of people suddenly becoming "legal experts", and imply the limited knowledge they know of the law is better and can suddenly replace years of law school by highly paid M$ lawyers.
And for that matter, I won't be surprised if somebody DOES seek legal action for the banning, and have the case thrown out faster than you can say, "Red Ring of Death".
And by the way, and if you're referring to the Wikipedia excerpt that states:
"Warrantors cannot require that only branded parts be used with the product in order to retain the warranty.This is commonly referred to as the 'tie-in sales' provisions, and is frequently mentioned in the context of third-party computer parts, such as memory and hard drives."
It won't do any good.
A careful reading of the actual Act found in the FTC website (and not just the Wikipedia article) gives an example of a permissible provision:
"Improper or incorrectly performed maintenance or repair voids this warranty."
Good luck trying to explain to the courts that your console was properly 'repaired/modded'.
may i know who is the artist of the cover picture, and which series are the characters from? they look familiar, but i can't place them...
Why is everybody crying about being banned?. We all knew this was coming and the risks involved, so just do what most people including myself are going to do and buy a console for legit online play and use the banned modded one for offline play. Simples
Truth behold, the ps3 is the better console for now....
Microsoft caught them off guard
Microsoft : HAH F*CKING OWNED!!!
MS Pirates: oh, it's ON NOW!
wow, didn't know xbox are this insane.....but then I guess ps3 fans would also react just as well if sony suddenly were to ban them from their account and totally cripple their machine. Guess Sony isn't totally stupid after all
Bottom line is that people screwed with that-which-should-not-be-screwed-with.
If you knew that modding your car in a certain way would void your auto-insurance policy or smoking crack would void your health or life insurance, you wouldn't be getting pissed off at the issuing companies when they refuse to give you what you've been paying them for.
And for those people that say that it's wrong to take away physical property that you had paid for...well...what do you want? If you were to read your instructions manual, you'd know that use of the product makes you automatically agree to the terms of the licensing. I'm pretty damn sure that there's some kind of disclosure when you first sign in to XBL as well.
To address the best point where your metaphor breaks down: Insurance companies don't come by and steal your engine if you modify your car; and they won't snap your spine and paralyze you from the legs down if they catch you smoking crack.
Modding your car can't void you insurance it also cannot void the warranty for unrelated parts and systems.
As for smoking crack well that would violate privacy rules.
Both of those examples would be a dream case for a lawyer as they would know they will be getting paid.
Even the drug tests companies use can result in a massive law suit as they have been proven to be remarkably inaccurate.
MS broke the law plain and simple. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Act [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Act]
Its not to boost sales at all its to stop people being cheap and buy the game if you cant afford the game why get the console?
Why? Do the Microsoft own the games that are sold for their consoles? I dont think so. The game developers and distributors do. Microsoft sells licence for using XBox development tools to them and they sell the games. Microsoft have money only from selling the console itself and for XBox live fees.
By the way to buy game that is not worth even half of its prize without any chance to return it if it sucks or to sell it to someone who might enjoy it is surely alright. I would rather be a cheap pirate that sometimes buys a game he liked than a idiot who spends all money on overpized games that I usualy delete even before finishing them, because they suck. And no DEMO versions are not enough to check if the game sucks or not, not to mention that nowadays a DEMO versions are quite rare.
RROD is exaclty way I pirate games. They got enough money after from shitty hardware. They will never have a dime of it again in games. I download games I dont use xbl why pay for it.
Microsoft is just being greedy assholes as not all mods are pirates.
Sometimes you want to play backup or you just want to install and run homebrew.
Lets face it the built in media player facilities ion the 360 are lackluster at best.
I would not buy another 360 if I got an HD ban I'd sell my collection of games on the bay and never buy an MS product again.
But then I own a Wii and PS3 and never really had a reason to buy a 360 until some good homebrew solutions show up for it like the Xbox 1.
What I find really surprising is the HD banning has not gotten them sued under the Maguson-Moss warrenty act.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson%E2%80%93Moss_Warranty_Actbe [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson–Moss_Warranty_Actbe] legal by the HD thing is illegal.
The XBL banning might be legal if it's listed in the ULA before hand but the HD banning is illegal.
My only guess why they have not been taken to court is someone at the DOJ must have their cock in the mouth of a complementary whore from M$.
Another reason PC is still King!
Because you can pirate anything and get away with it?
You can't play pirated games on the PC through online; so the same is for the Xbox 360, if you were to get banned.
If your smart, you won't get banned.
A popular ModernWarfare 2 rip is going around the pirate community.
Since ABGX doesn't support Wave 4 games, people are assuming that it's a good rip.
It's not a good rip, and a ton of people are using it.
THAT IS THE ONLY REASON WHY PEOPLE ARE GETTING BANNED. (Yes, THAT many people are using this bad rip.)
Microsoft is using this to their advantage, and creating a 'scare tactic' to prevent people from pirating games.
If your careful, and do your research, you won't get banned.
I've survived every ban wave that has ever came into existence, and this ban wave will be no different.
I've survived every ban wave since early 07 but fully expect to be banned next time I plug my network cable in....There are 9 of us in a group, we've all been very careful, none of us have played any wave 4 games because there's no abgx for wave 4 yet...None of us have ever played a game downloaded from the internet or an 'early" release. All of us are on current ixtreme firmware. 5 of 9 of us have been banned since 10/31/09 in this wave.
I have both the xbox and a ps3..I've always done everything on the xbox but now will do all online on the ps3, it's simply a better platform..the only thing better about the 360 is that it was moddable (not anymore)...
"5 of 9 of us have been banned since 10/31/09 in this wave."
Well, see, now I know your lying. =P
That, or, those five people did something stupid without knowing it. (It happens.)
Microsoft has been saving a lot of flags, and not banning any people for a bit.
Now that they've collected this many, their banning all of them, slowly.
It's all a scare-tactic, and it's working.
I'll tell you what, after Christmas, I'll come back here. (As that's when this 'ban wave' will be over.)
I'll tell you if I've been banned, and I can already tell you I'll be fine. ;)
ABGX won't be updating for a while, but it's a safe move to not burn Wave 4 games, as there's bad rips going around.
what`s ABGX anyway?) I really need few of ur advise to stay alive xD
solution? THROW THAT PIECE OF JUNK IN THE COMBUSTIBLE GARBAGE AND BUY A PS3
Glad to hear the pirats are banned!
They know you Mod your Xbox 360,they know you rip off a game, so better becareful what you say on Xbox Live they will Band you for saying you Mod your Xbox anyways.
If you want to whin to a guy who works at Microsoft threatening his murder his wife and children go ahead you will find yourself in trouble now then pirating a Video game.
Please forgive this ignorant PC-fag for asking a n00bish question, but how exactly can Microsoft ban HDDs when the console isn't even online? If you never connect to the internet, your console is safe, right? (Please don't tell me you HAVE to be online in order to use the XBox...)
On another note: words can't even begin to describe the awesomeness of the title pic.
Well you can't win'em all ( for the pirate player)and no you don't need to be connected to play any game .Unless you want to play online, but you are required to create a profile on your HDD and I did mod my bannedBox only to bypass region lock
They can't the idiots who got their hard drives banned were dumb enough to mod their consoles and then connect to MS servers.
It should also be possible to disable the console's funcionallity through a firmware upgrade that comes with a game. Mind you, I've never owned any console after SNES so I'm not really up to date with modern console gaming.
What kind of idiot goes online with a modded console anyway? They had it coming.
Every PC gamer of all time has gone online with a 'modded' console.....
well i have a pc and only played starcraft online with the original game i own.
I don't think it's a good idea to go play online with a pirated version anyway.
600 000 of idiots actually + myself who still not banned mhahhaha )))
600 000 of idiots actually + myself who still not banned mhahhaha )))
shi... double post I`m sorry guys (
Well. I'm always in live with my x360 even though it's modded. Well recently I haven't been but then again I don't play too much anyway. xD All I do is always evade updates when they come out and do them 2-3 days later since I know they catch modded consoles like that and when a game comes out a week or two before it's release date I either wait for the game to be officially out or just unplug the net cable and bash away at the controller xD This april I'll be making a year since I had my console modded and for now I haven't had any problems with live xD
This is all positives as far as I'm concerned. The pirates get what they deserve.
I have a r4 for my DS and I assumed there were a large number of people playing downloaded games but wow, never knew there were this many people and on the 360 alone
Losers that got nothing better to do, sigh...
Wow, so no one here mods there consoles?
Glad they're banning pirates. Ninja's are better anyways.
NO!!!! Vikings FTW!!!!!!!!!!
Polish Cavalry pwnd you all!
So a million banned users at $49.99 per year for Xbox live is $49 million dollars lost (in US alone). Glad Xbox sales are making so much for Microsoft that they can write off such losses. Wait, I thought xbox isn't making money yet for Microsoft. Another nail in xbox's coffin.
Dude does NOT deserve death threats
600000 people banned ? Impressive, they really have a lot of time to spend...
Maybe since I'm not a pirate, I don't mind this ban. But honestly, setting a quota for them is really pushing it, and makes it seem more like a dick-move than just trying to stop pirating.
I see what you're saying but the reality is that they know that's the actual number of pirates out there. The sheer number of pirates makes the very need for such massive banning ridiculous.
just wondering how many live players ARE there? if they ban most or all of them, wont the legit players have less people to play with? is this good or bad?
Who wants to play with pirates anyway? They smell bad and suffer from scurvy.
Well if you don't mod it it's fine, although I still wish my Xbox could place the Japanese locale games. Well least I still have the PC versions of them.
Serves them all right. If you pirate you must be aware of the risks attached. It's only natural for companies to protect their IP and ban pirates. Now will all of you 13yo please stop, the guy is only doing his job and it's YOU who should be harassed like that.
Also kudos for Stephen Toulouse. Him standing up was just as manly as it gets.
So what of network neutrality? If Microsoft can selectively ban any box that it deems 'modded' (if we wanna go that route instead of saying we wanna back up games like we do with music, photos, and many other things on a PC, and playing burned copies on a pc isn't illegal, especially if you own the original copy and want to preserve its livelihood) without proof of actually 'illegal' activity (or at least against microsoft's terms). By the same logic, anyone who has a gun is likely to be a killer...
You must be an American.
Everyone who has a gun IS likely a killer. To anyone with common sense beyond the US. Who the hell "legally" backs up shit by voiding the warranty and TOS and modifying the console physically?
That's a stupid argument. Stop being such a limp dicked pussy and admit it, you're a pirate. They made the install to hard drive function available for the very reason of not getting your disc scratched.
Instead of trying to block the games themselves from working like Sony and Nintendo do with firmware, Microsoft has the balls to straight up ban anyone dumb enough to try to screw them over. It's how it works, and the fact that these pirates will buy back the consoles shows just how good a console it is.
If you're not allowed a gun in your country (just like your not allowed to mod the console due to the TOS) then yes they can assume the worst. Just because you choose to mod it differently doesn't matter as your still modding and that's something they say you shouldn't do. It's like me carrying a gun and saying I only use it to deter attackers but I never kill people with it, in england (where guns are illegal) you think the courts would let me off?
This is not an issue of net neutrality. Net neutrality means that nobody has the right to limit or deny you network access for any purpose, unless they have concrete proof of criminal activity.
M$ on the other hand are bricking hardware which falls completely under their control and you have agreed to it by buying an X-Box. This is the price you have to pay for supporting a closed platform, as opposed to an open one such as the PC.
As Benjamin Franklin has said so many years ago: "People willing to trade their freedom for temporary security deserve neither and will lose both.
If we restrict liberty to attain security we will lose them both."
I don't mind them banning piracy, but seriously if they want to cope the problem regarding modded Xbox, they should at least stop those pointless regional lock bullshit.
Wow... Microsoft is effectively killing off their fanbase. And I thought the XBox360 being "moddable" was its main advantage against the PS3.
Microsoft isn't killing off anything. You don't make money off people who don't pay for games so they're not losing anything by preventing theses people from playing their xboxs.
not even if those people pay $5 or more per month to play those games online?
They ARE getting banhammered, their hardware still works fine, all the online features(game updates, xbox live arcade, xbox live marketplace, multiplayer, etc.) are just disabled because their console was banned for being modded. Microsoft does this because not only can modders be pirates, they can cheat in the online games by modding the data on their disks giving themselves unfair advantages.
Also Xbox Live is free, its called an Xbox Live Silver account, it gives you access to the Xbox Live Arcade, the Xbox Live Marketplace, and some Multiplayer Games.
Shadowrun, Lost Planet: Colonies, Universe at War: Earth Assault, Phantasy Star Universe, and Final Fantasy XI are all completely playable online with a free Xbox Live Silver account.
The Xbox Live Gold account has an annual fee of US $50 a year, a yearly fee not a monthly fee, and enables online multiplayer for everything else.
If you have been an Xbox Live Gold member for over a year you can pay US $6.95 for Microsoft to send you an Xbox Live Diamond card. An XBL Diamond card looks like a credit card with your gamertag on it. It gets you discounts at Arbys, Carl's Jr., Gamestop, Sirius sattelite radio, Cambridge Soundworks and other Xbox sponsers. It also gets you a month of membership with 24 Hour Fitness lol.
Thats mostly everything about Xbox Live for the uninformed.
Microsoft isn't doing anything wrong. People violated the TOS and therefore get banhammered.
Unless you are a certain company called KyoAni, in which case being a dick to your customers gets you sale on recycled products!
They're not getting banhammered, they're getting their hardware disabled. Personally, I haven't owned a console since the N64, but I do play games on the computer. I can honestly say that if a company not only banned my account, but also did something to my hard drive, I'd be pretty pissed.
That's not to say that they didn't go against the ToS, but in light of the fact that they're trying to meet a quota on bannings with a target date which corresponds with a season in which people tend to buy more stuff than usual, it's looking like MS is *trying* to be a dick about it. Now, I'm no PR expert, but last time I checked, companies that acted like dicks tend to lose their base, which has some rather unhealthy long-term effects.
Except they could have made a bundle off (hardware) sales. This is true of, but not limited to, controllers, plug and plays, remotes, memory cards, and HDMI cables (because i don't believe those come packaged either the core or elite systems) Quite a few bought their 360s (only) because they could mod them. After all, I doubt there are (many) pirates who don't buy ANY games.