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Thursday August 2, 2007
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So-called "mod chips," custom semiconductors which allow owners of various videogame consoles to add features or remove copy protections, were targeted in a sting Wednesday by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) anti-piracy enforcement division.
Over 30 businesses and homes were targeted, according to various reports, including the Associated Press.
Microsoft, which manufactured the Xbox and the Xbox 360 console, issued the following statement:
"Microsoft applauds ICE for its effort to reduce piracy and protect the intellectual property of Microsoft and its industry partners. This is an important step in the continuing fight against piracy and the threat it presents to the global economy and consumers throughout the world."
So if you're modding your Xbox to import the latest Japanese RPG, you're hurting the global economy. Just so you know.
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August 2, 2007 2:05 PM
Sigh. This is really what ICE chooses to do with its limited recourses? Like there isn't enough child pornography and other, actually dangerous people and things crossing the border to keep them busy.
Of course, this isn't exactly surprising, considering ICE's leader is Julie M. Meyers, recess appointee of questionable qualifications. She does though, have great connections:
"a niece of former Joint Chiefs of Staff chairman Richard B. Myers, and wife of the chief of staff to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, to head the Immigration and Customs Enforcement bureau at the selfsame Department of Homeland Security."
Her questionable qualifications:
"According to the Washington Post, Myers "held a variety of jobs over the past four years at the White House and at the departments of Commerce, Justice and Treasury, though none involved managing a large bureaucracy." She spent a year as assistant secretary for export enforcement at Commerce, where she oversaw just 170 employees and had a $25 million budget. Yet at ICE, she'll have 20,000 employees and a budget of $4 billion."
For more details of Ms. Myers, and cronyism galore, you can check my old, angry article about Myers' appointment here.
http://www.italknews.com/view_story.php?sid=1003