House raided, two persons arrested in modchip crackdown

Posted Apr 12, 2008 at 5:23AM EST by QJ Staff

Listed in: Wii Tags: ELSPA, Microsoft, piracy, UK

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A house was raided and two people were arrested in Leicestershire, UK, by local police for the manufacturing of Nintendo Wii and Microsoft Xbox 360 modchips. This is part of Nintendo's crackdown strategy to fight back against advocates of piracy on their platform.

According to a Nintendo press release, a small residence in the Coalville area of Leicestershire was the inconspicuous site of hacking and pirating activities. It was discovered through joint efforts by Nintendo, ELSPA, and law enforcement bodies.

Nintendo says that the house had some sophisticated equipment used to produce modchips that will enable fake game DVDs to run on consoles. Around 2,000 chips were seized by authorities and will be destroyed later to make sure they don't wind up in the streets again.

Nintendo warns people not to patronize "rogue consoles" outfitted with modchips. The company says customers are risking functionality in their systems when they decide to try modded Wiis. They also warn that legal accountabilities may arise from using such devices.

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Comments 

 

# pirating? — Orlyeh 2008-04-12 07:51

was copied/pirated software found in the house? if I buy a car, it's well within my rights to modify it to break the speed limit so long as it is still street legal

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# Hmm — J2Jack 2008-04-12 09:17

Seems to me like Nintendo did some lying to the Leicestershire Police honestly...

They're modifying a console, and purchasers mod their own at their risk.

Nothing to do with piracy unless pirated material is found in the house. Dumbasses

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# Pathetic. — SpongeFreak52 2008-04-12 09:57

AND ALONG CAME THE TWILIGHT EXPLOIT! You can't seriously think that you're gonna kill the modding scene, do you Nintendo? ;)

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# ? — BIH 2008-04-12 12:54

The reason Nintendo havnt blocked the Twilight exploit(they could have blocked it but havnt) is because it doesnt allow us to run "Illegal " copies of games, and i dont think they will aslong as it stays on their good side.....

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# & Brian — Stewies 2008-04-12 14:54

BIH is totally right, as long as the Wiibrew scene stays away from illegal wii game executables, homebrew will remain legit in the sense that 'wii' can do more with our consoles.



Victory is mine!

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# Nay — J2Jack 2008-04-12 15:09

I honestly don't think they can block the TW hack from a system software update. They really really would've done already! There are patched discs now in stores but I think Nintendo just banked on not having to patch individual games remotely...

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# Well... — SpongeFreak52 2008-04-12 16:19

Well, we've already managed to write our own channels. So that would make it even harder for Nintendo to block, since you wouldn't need Twilight Princess anymore. +\

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# @ BIH & Stewies — VgSlag 2008-04-12 21:33

Of course you're not right. "Illegal " copies, yeah, of course it doesn't let you run emulators and illegal copies. And of course that doesn't cut in to the VC business model at all, after all it's not like the VC sells classic games for a silly mark up... oh wait a minute.

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# I meant Wii games.... — BIH 2008-04-13 03:30

The emulators dont dent Nintendos profits from the VC.

Aslong as Wii games arnt pirated through the twilight hack i doubt Nintendo will patch it.

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# Emulator — SolidXnake 2008-04-13 08:15

Wait until we get the the emulators for every console out there, are they gonna come after us for not buying their console even if we buy the games to play with emulators?

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# & Brian — Stewies 2008-04-14 15:07

I meant Wii games too if you read my comment properly VgSlag. Even as a Nintendo supporter, I would pirate VC games only because I've purchased them in the past. As I've said before, I hope new Wii games don't take the same path as PSP's games with isos and whatnot.

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