Category — Police Actions

Major Video Game Piracy Raid in Mexico City

March 17, 2008 at 11:06 am - by Dale Dietrich

Five Hundred Mexican police officers raided four Mexican video game piracy operations in the Tepito area of Mexico City (the center of the local black market) netting some 28,000 pirated game copies, 290 DVD/CD burners and 900,000 game covers.

Categories: Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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Texas Student in Hot Water For Making Counterstike Map Based on his High School

April 30, 2007 at 1:21 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Police Report (April 26, 2007)
A day after the Virginia Tech massacre, police in Fort Bend Texas investigated an Asian high school senior, Paul Hwang, as a potential “terrorist threat” for making a counter-strike map mod based on his high-school, Clements High. His family’s home was subsequently searched.

No charges were laid but ornamental knives and a hammer were seized from his room. The student was transferred to another school. The parents are appealing the transfer.

Note: It is unclear from conflicting reports whether the student was arrested or not.

Dale’s Comment: This is an example of a talented Counter-Strike modder being in the wrong place at the wrong time. There is nothing unusual about high-schoolers making mods for the popular Counter-Strike video game. In a twist on the common writing adage “write what you know”, this unfortunate student modded what he knew, and got caught up in a storm of contemporary controversy.

As a side note: This teen looks like he may have a career in the video game industry. As can be seen on this Fox News Video Report the mod is very good.
Fox News Video Report

Categories: Modding Cases, Police Actions

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The RCMP Seize 1000 Counterfeit “Magic Mega Game Plug and Play” Systems in Ottawa Area

December 4, 2006 at 3:17 pm - by Dale Dietrich

As part of an investigation that started last August, the RCMP have seized about one-thousand counterfeit “Magic Mega Game Plug and Play” video game systems from three Ottawa-area malls. The consoles were sold for about $60 and features over 150 copyright-infringing Nintendo games among others. No charges have been laid - yet.

Sources: CFRA Radio | Ottawa Sun

Categories: Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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FBI Shuts Down L2Extreme.com’s Unauthorized Lineage II Servers

November 20, 2006 at 6:02 pm - by Dale Dietrich

The FBI has shut down an illegal game operation that allegedly provided subscribers with fraudulent service to, and code for, Lineage II. Apparently L2Extreme.com (now seized by the FYI) had some 50,000 active users. NCSoft says it lost millions in revenue from this. The operators of L2Extreme.com face a fine of $250,000 and up to five years in jail. NCSoft has said it has no plans to pursue the users.

This case is different from the Blizzard v. BNetD case because in the BNetD circumstance, they had reverse engineered the Blizzard server software and, presumably, wrote emulating software in a “clean room” without access to the original Blizzard server software - thus no direct copyright infringement. In the L2Extreme case, it is alleged that the L2Extreme.com server software was pirated (ie: copied) NCSoft server software.

Categories: Copyrights, Hacking, Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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20 Duplicating Machines Seized in U.K.

September 20, 2006 at 9:26 pm - by Dale Dietrich

A man was arrested and police Seized twenty duplicating machines and 5,000 master discs were seized from the man’s premises in Lowestoft, Suffolk UK.

Sources: Gamasutra

Categories: Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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Canadian RCMP Raids Game Piracy Shops

July 18, 2006 at 3:06 pm - by Dale Dietrich

According to the ESA, the Mounties seized thousands of pirated games in Markham, Ontario’s Pacific Mall. One person was arrested. Stores in the same mall had previously been raided in April of 2005, but piracy continued there regardless.

Sources: Gamasutra | GameSpot | GameDaily.biz | Gamers.com

Categories: Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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Malaysia Seizes 1.5m Pirated Game, Film Discs

April 19, 2006 at 5:40 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Authorities in Malaysia have revealed that they have seized 1.5 million pirated game and film DVDs and CDs worth an estimated 51.3 million ringgit ($14m) in raids so far this year. Almost half of these were meant for export, showing that video game piracy of physical discs is still a major issue in many regions.

Source: Gamasutra | GamePolitics.com

Categories: Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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Another UK Game Piracy Raid

March 16, 2006 at 3:32 pm - by Dale Dietrich

Twenty-nine individuals were arrested in the North of England. Merseyside and Lancashire police raided seventeen separate addresses in the Sefton and Skelmersdale areas of Liverpool, with a total of five major duplicating operations apparently being uncovered.

Sources: Gamasutra | Next Generation | BBC

Categories: Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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ELSPA Aids British GameCube Pirate’s Sentencing

February 23, 2006 at 12:38 pm - by Dale Dietrich

A retailer was ordered to pay 3,310 pounds ($5,768 USD) in fines and serve 240 hours of community service for manufacturing and selling counterfeit games for all console systems after being apprehended by a joint operation of the ELSPA, Staffordshire Trading Standards, and the local police.

Source: Gamasutra

Other Piracy Related Posts:

Categories: Criminal Convictions, Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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Xbox 360 Customer Arrested for Queue Jumping

December 19, 2005 at 3:43 pm - by Dale Dietrich

A Baltimore man was arrested for “disorderly conduct” jumping the queue while waiting to purchase an Xbox 360.

Source: Xbox 360 Fanboy

Categories: Police Actions

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Man Arrested for Virtual Mugging in Lineage II

August 18, 2005 at 3:21 pm - by Dale Dietrich

A man has been arrested in Japan on suspicion of carrying out a virtual mugging spree by using software “bots” (a form of cheating) to beat up and rob characters in the online computer game Lineage II. The stolen virtual possessions were then exchanged for real cash.

The Virtual Crimewave (September 10, 2005)
Man Arrested for Virtual Mugging in Lineage II (August 18, 2005)
Spurned Woman Charged after Deleting Ex’s Lineage II Gaming Data (January 20, 2005)

Categories: Cheating, Police Actions, Virtual Crime Cases, Virtual Property Cases

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ELSPA Announces Counterfeit GBA Game Crackdown

July 4, 2005 at 1:30 pm - by Dale Dietrich

The UK’s ELSPA (Entertainment and Leisure Software Publishers Association) has announced that a 40 year old Birmingham woman has been arrested for importing counterfeit Game Boy Advance cartridges and selling them on eBay.

Sources: Gamasutra | GameIndustry.biz

Categories: Piracy Cases, Police Actions

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