Sounds good

If someone was banned and didn't have a modded console, I'm sure there is a way to prove it and get un-banned. Anyone who has a modded console should have no case here. It was your own fault for playing pirated games online to start with.

People who put themselves entirely in the hands of some proprietary software/hardware combination for their computing experience, really shouldn't bitch when their e-life is destroyed by their overlords. Fools. I can honestly say I will NEVER in my life put myself in the position where I can be cut off from my own machine and data by some company somewhere - and I'm sure the rest of the Toms Hardware community are right with me.

I don't think modified consoles should just get banned. What I do think, is that users should have the option to "be banned" or pay extra fees for having pirated games on their system. Also, I think that there should be a service, similar to D2D for PC Games where you can download and install games onto your console.

"Recent banning of 600,000 accounts"

The number is over 2,000,000 now! Gotta keep updated dude!

modded console does not mean the owner playing pirated games. Micosoft needs to prove the modded console owner playing the priated game and only ban the player playing the game not the Xbox live service. because the modded console owner could be playing the real game not the priated one

Don't get your hopes up for the people who have banned modded xboxes...

"Are you a recovering video game addict? Have you recently had your XBox account blocked! Then you may have money coming to you! At AbingtonIP we put your video game players first!" [flashes 800 number and fine print]

Just a bunch of Ambulance chasers I say!

Actually as a lawyer (I'll probably get 100 down votes just for that) I kinda questioned this action when I first saw what Microsoft was doing (my lawsuit sense was tingling). Although I don't know enough about this area of law to have any idea about the legality of the action something seems fishy about the extreme nature of what MS did. They probably have a right to ban these consoles from their Xbox Live service, but I'm not sure if they can outright brick (or essentially brick) the hardware such that it no longer operates in offline mode. I'm not sure how this will turn out, but I wouldn't just write off this as a case of ambulance chasing - there might be something to this.

They don't need to prove that:
http://www.xbox.com/en-US/legal/LiveTOU.htm
16. Service Operation and Equipment.
You agree that you are using only authorized software and hardware to access the Service, that your software and hardware have not been modified in any unauthorized way (e.g., through unauthorized repairs, unauthorized upgrades, or unauthorized downloads), and that we have the right to send data , applications or other content to any software or hardware that you are using to access the Service for the express purpose of detecting an unauthorized modification.





All the news I've seen about this has just said that modified consoles were banned from Xbox Live. I haven't seen anything to suspect that those consoles were bricked.

In 2 or 3 months, another decent game will be released, and then another 2 or 3 months after that. This method of releasing a different game every few months will continue for a very long time. So I ask you, when exactly was Microsoft supposed to ban these accounts in order for it not to look convenient with the release of a video game?

Morale of the story, dont be an idiot and break your terms and conditions. These people knew what they were getting into, crying now it's bitten them all in the arse is just pathetic.

This lawsuit will get no where and is laughable. If modded consoles are against the terms then they have no leg to stand on and they people that got banned got exactly what they should have. Who ever the lawyer is that started this suit needs to go back to school...this is like drunk driver sueing over a telephone pole he hit when he crashed.

Is this person serious? MS accepting extra fees so you can pay stolen software on your XBox? That would have MS promoting pirating and that is not going to happen. This would also put MS at liability and they WOULD be sued by the software companies. Wow there is just no shortage of ignorance is there.

Software, movie, and music companies are getting tired of pirating and the more their products get pirated the more of them will go out of business. Expect more radical moves from the companies soon to put preventative measures in place. The simple solution is to pay for the software you want or need.

modded console does not mean the owner playing pirated games. Micosoft needs to prove the modded console owner playing the priated game and only ban the player playing the game not the Xbox live service. because the modded console owner could be playing the real game not the priated one

Would you rather they prove it, ban you and take you to court for piracy? I think banning is getting off easy. If your going to mod, don't put it online. Just get a seperate xbox360 and buy a legit copy from ebay or craigslist or better yet, get a PC.

It is in my opinion that MS should loosen the reigns on this so called 'media device'. I find it just disgusting how I'm unable to stream or copy movies to the drive without some sort of third party application. Shame on you MS for this, however, those that decided to mod the box to play modded games notwithstanding are asking for a 'spanking.
The PS3 is looking so much easier to stream or copy movies to. One can even upgrade the drive without having to purchase via Sony.
Hmmm...PS3 sure looks good now!

Considering they Kicked off over half a million users that pay monthly..tri-monthly or yearly subscriptions.That a lot of money they threw away just to combat piracy that most likely only half of the user's kicked were pirates and the other half were probably people who just like to make back ups of they're games and want them to be playable..So they don't have to go a buy a new copy just because the disc is scratched.

I think this whole thing was retarded.

Come on MS fanboys keep buying new 360s. You have bought new ones when the RROD killed it why not now when MS activly kills your only play that you are paying for. In the mean time PS3 owners will kepp playing for free on consols that are actually built fairly well and don't die every year or two. While your at it buy a copy or two of Windows 7 Ultimate with built in NSA backdoors.

Mac owner?

There were legit consoles that also got banned, my friends dad did. He has no reason to lie to me. As so was his xbox that was modded. He didn't bitch to much just one of those "fuck" moments. He got why he got banned, but no idea why his dads did. They don't live in the same household or anything like that.

If there are more/enough consoles that were legit that got banned, then this suit has a good chance.

Alot of people including myself were Banned for having a "modified" xbox, and everybody i know that has 1 were hit with it as well, but 99% of the people i know only have modified xbox's because we dont want to keep paying 59.99 everytime our disk becomes unreadable. and for the fact that the xbox consoles are poorly constru
cted with the RROD and the Lens crapping out on the drives.

Biggest problem is that when you bought the console and when you accepted the XBox Live TOS, you agreed to not modify the console at all.

There is no excuse.

Just like with Windows. The ToS states thta you have the right to use the OS, but do not own it.

Read your terms and conditions. MS can do what they did, legally. If you didn't read the T&C and you modified the console, then you get banned. Any smart lawyer who get's a "tingle" should read the T&Cs and get the facts before they make some comment about "tingling" sensations. I'm sure MS's top flight lawyers, from top law schools and who are familiar with this area of the law, got all "tingly" about being right. I'm feeling "tingly" myself right now.

And if you modded your console, that puts a big red bulls eye on you for probable copyright violations and that is a lot more expensive than just getting banned. Don't do it, the copyright holder are real aggressive these days and the fines are huge.

Am I one of the very few that read the EULA?

But yeah... how much do that want for a 120GB HDD? It's just a crappy 2.5"... May as well buy a 640GB 2.5" drive for less.
And backups... yeah. My Xbox has destroyed a lot of discs on me now.These things are damned expensive.

Though they pissed a lot of people off, I do think what they have done is legit.

So you actually want the user to pay to play his/her pirated game? It's like asking in a crowd in the middle to Times Square to "please raise your hand if you are a drug dealer"

Also some of these "pirates" wouldn't really bother pay for a game even if it costed 50 cents. (Which really would mean that it isn't a lost sale, just a freeloader)

Just because someone Mods their console doesn't mean they are pirating. Yes I am fully aware that some do and that is unfortunate. However, I had modded my original Xbox for the soul purpose of putting all of my BOUGHTEN games onto the 500GB harddrive that I installed. It saved me always having to change disks everytime I wanted to play a different game. They were all right there. I also had an entire music library and everything else on it along with a Linux OS. Should I have been banned as well for taking something that I purchased and making it more convenient for me?
Sure, some of these people won't have a case. But I think some might. I don't have a 360 because I have gone back to PC gaming but if I did I would almost certainly have modded it as well. I certainly wouldn't want to get banned since my games would have all been bought anyways.

As long as it can mess with MS reputation, I am happy... I still can't believe that I actually bought a retail copy of Windows millenium with my first PC...

2 Millions...? That means more than 10% of xbox live users are using mod chips? All the hypocrisy over the PC user base on piracy seems to be really misplaced with that kind of numbers.

"consoles is *arguably* against the terms of use for Xbox/Xbox Live, Microsoft "conveniently" timed the Xbox console ban to coincide with the release of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2"

no. it either is or it isn't, I can guarantee it says literally in there DON'T MOD THE CONSOLE! and whats convenient about it being done before MW2? they wanted to purge the market of everyone who would pirate it before it was released? they wanted to punish the people properly?

I'm sure all of the console devs have learned from sony loosing the ps2 mod chip case in Aus, and have stuff in place to deal with this.

And backups... yeah. My Xbox has destroyed a lot of discs on me now.These things are damned expensive.


WTF are people doing to their xboxs while the disk is spinning, I have a collection of over 70 games and ive traded a butt load too, not once has the xbox scratched a disk (except when i was having a retarted moment and moved the xbox while gow was running)

"backups" is just another word for i pirate games. stores here offer disk protection 5 bucks and you can return the disk if its scratched for a new one im sure allot of stores do this so backups is not a good reason to have a modded console.