Community Forums => I'M BACK => Topic started by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 11, 2011, 11:39:15 AM
Title: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 11, 2011, 11:39:15 AM
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRuBes2JSQo
Summary: 2 men show up in The Peoples court, one man complaining that he gave his Wii to his neighbor so that he can mod it for free games, the other for not getting paid what he thinks he is owed for mod chipping the Wii to play free downloaded Pirated games. The judge is clueless and makes the modder give the Wii back and the client is now forced to pay him $160 for the mod chip that is now in his Wii.
Does someone want to go ahead and forward this gift-wrapped present on to Nintendo for me? What a bunch of morons.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Caliban on March 11, 2011, 01:01:46 PM
I'm surprised the judge didn't do anything right there.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Morari on March 11, 2011, 01:44:03 PM
It's a civil case. The judge couldn't do anything. It's the same reason prostitutes can bring people up for failing to pay for "services rendered".
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: ThePerm on March 11, 2011, 01:56:26 PM
jeez, well the judge can do something, and just throw the case out.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Caliban on March 11, 2011, 02:05:52 PM
It's a civil case. The judge couldn't do anything. It's the same reason prostitutes can bring people up for failing to pay for "services rendered".
I see.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: TJ Spyke on March 11, 2011, 02:09:50 PM
The People's Court isn't even a real court. All TV court shows are just arbitration. Both sides agree to waive any legal lawsuit and let the "judge" make a ruling. So all the judge in this case could have done was throw it out or award money to one side.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Stogi on March 11, 2011, 02:10:56 PM
"I see."
That's a weird response...
Either you had that happen to you and couldn't figure how it was legitimate or you're planning to work them corners and this pushed you one step closer.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 11, 2011, 02:19:29 PM
It's a civil case. The judge couldn't do anything. It's the same reason prostitutes can bring people up for failing to pay for "services rendered".
But a prostitutes "services" can be defined how ever she wants. "He payed me for 30 minutes of my time, the sex was just because I liked him"
These guys clearly came into the court room, on TV, and admitted to participating in questionable acts for illegal purposes. As far as I know, mod chipping your console is not illegal, but they both said it was to pirate games. Surely there is legal action that can be taken by interested parties for these 2 idiots being so damn stupid.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Caliban on March 11, 2011, 02:24:52 PM
Either you had that happen to you and couldn't figure how it was legitimate or you're planning to work them corners and this pushed you one step closer.
hahahahahahahhahahahahahaha Nothing like that. I just thought that a court is a court, just as a judge is a judge. Both represent Justice... to an extent apparently.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Morari on March 11, 2011, 02:41:54 PM
It's a civil case. The judge couldn't do anything. It's the same reason prostitutes can bring people up for failing to pay for "services rendered".
But a prostitutes "services" can be defined how ever she wants. "He payed me for 30 minutes of my time, the sex was just because I liked him"
These guys clearly came into the court room, on TV, and admitted to participating in questionable acts for illegal purposes. As far as I know, mod chipping your console is not illegal, but they both said it was to pirate games. Surely there is legal action that can be taken by interested parties for these 2 idiots being so damn stupid.
I don't care to debate the legalities of prostitution, specifically. I merely mentioned it as an easy parallel. While you're correct, most people (and courts) wouldn't exactly see it as that. Personally? I feel that outlawing such simple things is pretty ridiculous, especially when the sole means of enforcement is generally state-funded deception and outright entrapment or customers.
Now, that aside. Modding hardware isn't illegal, though it's not expressively permitted either. It is circumnavigating copyright protection schemes, which is clearly against the ever-so-corrupt DMCA. However, it allows for a lot of fair-use situations, which are permitted. With the recent rulings on rooting mobile telephones, I think it'd be hard to argue against hardware or software modding. That said, of course pirating games is illegal. The case wasn't to prove whether or not he was pirating games however, it was to prove whether or not the defendant had followed through with the services which had been paid for. Civil cases (like this is parodying) generally don't go fay beyond the immediate situation at hand.
As backwards and corrupt as our legal system often appears, is it any surprise that people take more solace in the commercial-backed safety net of television show judges instead? :P
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 11, 2011, 02:53:14 PM
I'm not even suggesting that they should be arrested on their way out of the courtroom, just that these 2 went on public television and admitted to criminal activity. The judge didn't really seem to let on if she knew what hey were trying to do was illegal or not, but that's not my reason for posting this.
Couldn't Nintendo use this televised court case in a separate case against these 2 idiots for conspiring together to modify a Wii in order to obtain pirated software? Is there a case there?
It would be just like a crackhead taking another crackhead to court because he paid the dealer crackhead $XX for 3g of crack, but the dealer crackhead only gave him 2g of crack and won't refund him the rest of the money. Not to mention that the crack wasn't as good as advertised as it was cut down with some shady non-crack ****. Now that judge may give to case to the buyer crackhead and order the dealer crackhead to refund him the difference of a 2g sack and a 3g sack, but wouldn't the Narcotics Dept have a case against these 2 idiots for admitting to the using, buying and selling of an illegal controlled substance?
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Morari on March 11, 2011, 02:59:33 PM
I don't think that something like this, which is admittedly all for show, could be used as any sort of evidence. Even if it could, no one really admitted to pirating any games. The best that they did was allude to the fact that they intended to download unspecified games in the future, once the modchip was properly implemented. We can only assume that he actually meant "pirated copies of commercial products".
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: ThePerm on March 11, 2011, 05:06:55 PM
well they perjured in court..we know damn well they want their games for free not for on the cheap...
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: King of Twitch on March 11, 2011, 05:18:23 PM
Stupid scientists. If we had realistic robots by now none of this would be a problem.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Stogi on March 11, 2011, 05:23:00 PM
What if at one point you couldn't tell if you were banging a robot or banging a human? Is that what Blade Runner's about?
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: ThePerm on March 11, 2011, 05:24:39 PM
japan is working on it
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=in8B-PCGsRo
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 11, 2011, 05:27:58 PM
He said it was for free games, but did he specify Homebrew vs. Pirated retail games?
He didn't specify, but I doubt "Games are too expensive at $60 so I get chip to download for free" is referring to homebrew. At the very least it's probably cause to to ask his ISP what he has been downloading to see if any further action against these 2 should be taken.
I can't be too surprised that cops would be looking further into my actions if I walked into a court room and basically said "your honor, I bought this gun because it's dangerous slangin' on these streets". Actually it seems like an invite for further investigation by any authority that had nothing better to do and needed an easy win on their record.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: UncleBob on March 11, 2011, 08:34:06 PM
Nintendo hasn't really shown much history in going after individuals for buying/downloading illegal copies of games, so I wouldn't expect them to do much with regards to this. They tend to go after the sellers more than anything.
Of course, I'm not a lawyer, but since the service of modding a console is not illegal, the dude who did the service was right to demand his payment. Regardless of what illegal uses the guy may have had for the modded Wii once he received it, so long as the guy doing the modding isn't stupid enough to sell the service of modding the system *and* supplying the illegal copies, then he's not doing anything (legally) wrong.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 11, 2011, 09:11:33 PM
It was also legal to sell Tobacco Water Pipes in California until you said they were for smoking *EXPLETIVE*. Then you were selling product with intent to do illegal activities.
The idiocy of it all is admitting in a court on TV what it was for and why they were doing it. Not saying that Nintendo would spend the resources to sue these 2 for alleged piracy, but the fact that it's a pretty open and shut case with a little more investigation needed, since they provided intent on camera, is just stupid on both of their parts.
(also there is a reason this thread is in the Funhouse and not general or Nintendo chat. I didn't want it to get too serious. just wanted to point out some stupidity)
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: TJ Spyke on March 11, 2011, 09:36:04 PM
Like BNM said, if you sell something KNOWING it will be used for illegal purposes, you can get in trouble for selling it. If I legally sell someone a gun I own and they tell me they plan to use it to kill someone, then legally I could be charged for the crime too. If this guy knew the modded Wii would be used to pirate games, then he can be held responsible for it. It's pretty stupid to go on TV and admit that you are breaking the law.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: UncleBob on March 11, 2011, 10:15:05 PM
While I disagree with you on the likely outcome of any legal action taken against either one of these guys by Nintendo based on this episode of The People's Court, I'd like to point out that charging $160 for something that can be done with a $50 copy of Smash Bros and an SD card is even more stupid than going on The People's Court. :D
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: NWR_insanolord on March 11, 2011, 10:18:40 PM
Charging that much isn't stupid if someone's dumb enough to agree to pay it.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: ShyGuy on March 11, 2011, 10:20:52 PM
While I disagree with you on the likely outcome of any legal action taken against either one of these guys by Nintendo based on this episode of The People's Court, I'd like to point out that charging $160 for something that can be done with a $50 copy of Smash Bros and an SD card is even more stupid than going on The People's Court. :D
Price is determined by free market forces, you red commie!
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: BlackNMild2k1 on March 11, 2011, 10:52:46 PM
While I disagree with you on the likely outcome of any legal action taken against either one of these guys by Nintendo based on this episode of The People's Court, I'd like to point out that charging $160 for something that can be done with a $50 copy of Smash Bros and an SD card is even more stupid than going on The People's Court. :D
I was gonna point that out, but I got carried away in the "Confessions of a Pirate" that was happening in that court room.
For $160 he could have done much better considering he could have rented that game, bought a 2GB SD card for $5, bought an external 2TB HDD for ~$100-$120 and still had some money left over to pay for the internet connected needed to download all of his "free" games.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: BranDonk Kong on March 12, 2011, 12:58:24 AM
Someone posted that link in #psgroove earlier, it's pretty hilarious. Modchips for the Wii are stupid though, since all they let you do is play games off of DVD-/+R discs. I guess technically you can run some type of installer disc once you have a chip installed, but it would be easier (and free) to just use an SD card and BannerBomb or something like that. I do understand that some people do like to make legal backups of their discs, but I prefer to take my games and install them to my USB HDD. First, you would need to get a certain DVD-ROM that can read Wii discs to make the backups, or you'd have to install a USB loader, rip the disc to your HDD (or SD card) using your Wii, then burn to a disc from your PC (both of which are legal methods in most regions), or you'd have to download them illegally. With a USB loader, you just attach an HDD, and rip the game straight to the HDD from the Wii, then keep your precious $50 game scratch free forever, and of course delete that **** should you ever get rid of the game. However, and many will disagree (and also, I do not do this), but since a lot of people consider buying and selling used games just as bad as piracy, then buying the game at retail (dev gets paid), installing the game to your HDD, then selling the disc to GameStop or whatever...really doesn't seem that bad. The devs are never going to see any money from that game again, so your initial purchase is the only thing that really matters. Technically it's win-win for all parties involved, since there's no stopping used game sales.
Title: Re: How Stupid can 2 people be? Very. Wii Pirates in The Peoples Court.
Post by: Morari on March 12, 2011, 02:21:00 AM
