Was Microsoft Right To Ban Pirates From Xbox Live?
During the last few days it became evident that Microsoft had initiated a mass banning of modified consoles operating pirated games on Xbox Live.
But was it right to do so?
During the last week, Microsoft acted on a method it has developed to detect modified Xbox 360 consoles running pirated games and took action to permanently ban them from the Xbox Live gaming service.
If reports are to be believed, up to 1 million consoles were banned in the swoop.
“All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty, and result in a ban from Xbox Live,” Microsoft said in a statement.
But was Microsoft right to take this action, which, perhaps not all that coincidentally, coincided with the release of Modern Warfare 2, the most anticipated online-capable game this year?
My opinion is this – all is fair in love, war and piracy, and those that pirate anything should fully understand that at times there will be drawbacks.
Anyone familiar with the satellite/cable hacking scene in Europe (I presume the US position will be similar) will know that while it’s all very nice getting free services for months and months on end, eventually there is a payback of sorts, albeit in a limited way.
In response to a new ECM (electronic countermeasure) the special box you bought will stop working or the pirate card will need updating, usually just as the latest blockbuster or sporting event hits PPV. Virgin Media and NTL TV pirates will discover this next year when Nagravision 3 is implemented.
It’s a cat and mouse game. If people rely on pirate products, they must accept that these are the rules. The suppliers of the product or service will do everything they can to stop pirates getting their stuff without paying them for it and of course, they are completely within their rights to do that.
But what Microsoft did was different. Although using pirate games and modified consoles is against the Xbox Live terms of service, instead of canceling a user’s Xbox Live account, it actually banned the user’s console from accessing the service.
This means that if that particular Xbox 360 gets sold on (which is going to happen) the person buying that unit will find that it has reduced functionality, in that it won’t be able to access Xbox Live. The unsuspecting buyer will effectively be punished for the actions of someone else.
So while I believe that Microsoft has the right to terminate a user’s Xbox Live account for a breach of the agreed terms and conditions, I think it’s a step too far to deliberately damage their hardware, albeit in a limited way.
As I mentioned earlier, Modern Warfare 2 was released this week and in my opinion it is absolutely worth every penny, and there will now be many people who have had their consoles banned looking on in envy. They will all have to buy new consoles if they want to experience the amazing online play that Xbox Live offers.
The question is, will they risk modifying their next console?
As always, that’s the gamble….
Spind when natal comes out Microsoft will keep it on the 360 for a month or a year earn as much as possible with more people buying the system then they are going to come out with a new system. To maximize profit.
you know whats fucking cheap? 570 dollars for my elite consle, 75 dollars a game, 40 dollars for a charger pack which is exhausted after one year, 30 dollars for a new mike because the one they give you is shit, 70 dollars for xbox live anually, 150 dollars to ship my red ringed xbox because they produced a faulty machine and decided to sell it. Shut the fuck up you stupid pussy bitch and grow a fucking brain your getting husstled hard out of your money and your just watching like a stupid fucking donkey.
It’s easy everyone! Buy a Ps3, it has free online services, trophies, and pretty much everything else the 360 has plus more. M$ is getting wayyyyy tp picky and expensive with all the money they already have. Fuck them.
Everyone get the fuck over it. If you don’t like something, don’t fucking buy it. Well I did forget, this is the internet where everyone just bitches all day. Get the fuck over it.
Banning their live account makes no sense. Banning consoles is entirely the right way to go about it. If the console is modified and then MS ban the user from xbox live – the console is still modified, so they can just set up a new account and make the initial banning a pointless exercise. Also, let’s say that I share a console with my brother/son etc and I decide to modify it. My brother/son/whoever else goes on XBL and MS detect a modified console and ban the user account. This sounds a bit similar to what we are all complaining about with the whole 3 strikes thing – how can you punish multiple people for the sole actions of one? Simple: you can’t. What you can do, though, is ban the box. Sure that punishes everyone, but it’s not as permanent as banning the account, because you can go and get another console and presto – back online.
I got my console banned during this effort as well. Another plus point for MS is that banning sells more consoles, because people will have to go out and buy a new one. However, what’s more likely to happen is that people will go and buy a new console, wait a few months, RROD their banned console so they can claim a new one from the store under the other console’s warranty (you can force 3 red rings by removing the thermal paste from the cpu/gpu). Now they have 2 consoles. They can either sell one to recoup some of the money (not like they haven’t already saved enough on games to cover the new console anyway), or they will mod one and leave the other – that way in the future if one gets banned they can still play legit games online with the other.
Why is banning the box good. Obviously banning thier live account is better. If they faound the bok had modified files on the first xbox account whats to stop them from finding out you the same modified xbox on your new account. you got to think about this shit. After awhile people wouldn’t get X-box’s if its so expensive and your shit will break.
I don’t understand your question. You basically just said the same thing as me.
Banning the box is good because one box can have any number of live accounts. Therefore taking out 1 live account on a box and leaving all the rest is pointless. Also, taking out the only 1 live account on a modified box is pointless because it takes the user about 4 seconds to set up a new one and continue playing pirated games.
Take the box off the Live service and it doesn’t matter how many accounts were on it and how many new ones the user sets up, they still aren’t going to get online with it.
You seem to be getting confused with how it works – “If they faound the bok had modified files on the first xbox account whats to stop them from finding out you the same modified xbox on your new account”. Well, if you use the same modified xbox on a new account, the box is still banned from live, so it makes no difference. That’s why it is more effective to ban the box and not the account.
“After awhile people wouldn’t get X-box’s if its so expensive and your shit will break”. Exactly. You’ll get fed up of buying new XBoxes and just stop modifying them.
The article was about Microsoft being right or wrong in banning the boxes. The answer (in my oppinion) is that they were right, for all of the reasons I listed above. Your counter argument seems to be that they were wrong because it stops people pirating games, but that was their intention in the first place. I’m not saying it isn’t bad for the pirate, of course it is. That was their aim all along, so in fact they were right to do it.
Banning the console itself is rude and direct to the point but i guess still M$ has the right to do it.
What is indeed (in my opinion) over the line that M$ damages YOUR hardware as if the banning from XBL wasnt enough punishment.
And yes it will generate a bit more of income for them, but what is the reason that the 360 is still on competition in the first place?
Because it can be modified, among other reasons of course but in my opinion the one i just said is the one with most weight.