San Francisco (CA) – A Southern California college student has been arrested for allegedly “jailbreaking” an unspecified number of video game consoles.
According to the Associated Press, law enforcement officials obtained a warrant to search the residence of 27-year-old Matthew Crippen after receiving a tip by the Entertainment Software Association (ESA) in May.
Crippen was indicted on two counts by a federal grand jury for illegally modifying Xbox, PlayStation and Wii consoles in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act. He was subsequently released after posting $5,000 bond. Nevertheless, the California State University student faces 10 years in prison if convicted.
Federal prosecutor Mark Krause told Southern California Public Radio that Crippen advertised online and had a “large” clientele that was interested in playing low-cost pirated video games.
“So they would go to folks like Crippen, who would basically hack Xboxes and circumvent the technological measures that manufacturers had employed to try protect their interest in their intellectual property of their games,” explained Krause.
