The BBC is hilarious when it tries to cover technology news, because it clearly has no idea what it's talking about, especially with videogames. Case in point: A kid got banned from Xbox Live because he was pirating a game. Not only does the BBC let him look sympathetic and act like he didn't deserve it, but they give him a column to cry about the situation!
"At first I was in shock," explains BBC Radio One listener Raz. "I mean it's always at the back of your head using pirate games you know there's that possibility but you haven't heard about it, there's been no warnings and you haven't heard it happen to anyone in the last two years.
"I wasn't expecting it. I was just like, 'OK, what do I do now? Is this just a joke?' So I thought, 'Let me restart the Xbox'. I restarted, signed in again, same message. I did that three times, same message. I was pulling my hair out thinking, 'No, why me?"
Why you? Um, maybe because you, I dunno, pirated Xbox 360 games and then was stupid enough to log onto Xbox Live!?
"It's like telling someone their dog's just died," he continues. "... I've probably saved about £600 and I've copied roughly 30 or 40 games. A lot of them I've downloaded or I've taken off friends that have downloaded themselves. To be honest, I've contemplated whether to move to Playstation 3 or buy another Xbox. I wouldn't do it again but I really don't know if I'm going to get the Xbox again now."
Yes, how dare Microsoft refuse to deal with people who steal from their publishers!? The outrage! Seriously, this article is unbelievable, and I'm amazed the BBC is hosting it. I could understand if he was banned for no reason, as happened to me once, but to whine because you ripped Microsoft off and got caught is ludicrous. I'm sure Roman Polanski's thinking "Why did I do to deserve this?" as well.
Contest:
2:40 PM on 11.11.2009
| 
I mean seriously, these idiots are just bogging down human evolution. Where is natural selection when you need it?
Most of the time.
agreed. look at what they did with third party hard drives.
They dont want users doing shit with their console.
@CtMythic
See, that is a fair thing to complain about. There should be some investigation and discretion involved, I agree. But that's not really what the BBC's article seems to be about. "Woe unto me, I openly admit that I stole games but then I got banned" sounds a lot like "BAWWWWW" to me.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/newsbeat/hi/technology/newsid_10000000/newsid_10002900/10002915.stm
@CtMythic: You're just plain dumb.
Exactly. They voided their warranty and only warranties that are valid can play on Xbox Live. It is just one way they attempt to make a tamper free online service.
I'm with M$. Ban them. If you want to pirate that is at your own risk, but do so knowing you will never be the same again and will have less features.
Needs more chlorine.
1) Raz is 25, and dumb.
2)He uses arguments that other people cant afford the games so he shouldnt have to pay...therefore is a moron.
3) Newsbeat is a news site aimed at under 30s (not that successfully I admit,and is more a comment place (like Destructoid but with less knowledge) rather than the news section.
TBH he's a dumb moron who managed to get his side of the story out there. The fact it makes it obvious that he's a dumb moron crybaby is due to the fact that he shouldn;t have been doing it.
If Newsbeat had interviewed someone who modded their console for a different reason, then we wouldn't have cared either way, but at least Raz wouldn't be on my list of people to ban from the internet forever.
Note to self make list of people to ban from the internet write the word Raz, get a nice hot cocoa.
To support him I bought all of his movies on DVD.
Saying you can't afford games, they're too expensive, MS is evil or any other dumb thing as a justification for pirating games is no dumber of an argument than saying it's okay to do it because you disagree with DRM that only exists because people pirate games.
Fixed.
It's a good thing that article doesn't have an 'add comment' function.
YDI YOU MASSIVE TOOL!
Yeah, Microsoft went out of their way to pull a prank on you! Good show.
This is a 25 year old MAN who stole 30-40 current gen games BY HIS OWN ADMISSION and says he didn't expect any repercussions.
I can only assume that his Xbox Live behavior was EQUALLY as retarded and I thank Microsoft for performing a service that ultimately benefits us all.
Oh at first it's banning pirates. Soon enough they'll be putting robbers in small, confined cells with metal bars, segregated from the public! Then they'll pass laws saying that you can't punch old ladies in the face!
This is all a plot by the government to implement some sort of Orwellian nightmare state! The horror of it all!
I mean what's next, the coppers are going to come after me because I stole that Ferrari!? I mean, I was never going to buy it anyway, right, so no sale lost! Or what about when I steal electricity - I was never going to pay for it anyway!
This poor young man is a HERO being OPPRESSED by BIG GAME INDUSTRY! How ELSE could he possibly accrue the 30 to 40 games EVERY SINGLE PERSON NEEDS in order to sustain themselves!? Games are a vital part of a daily diet didn't you know! It's not like you could just...... not have them!
I don't know who I'm more appalled at... The BBC for running the story, or for the guy going to the BBC and then publicly stating that he stole at least £600 of software.
"I still think they should lower the prices. There are 16-year-old kids out there, they don't earn money so they go screaming to their parents saying, 'Can you buy me this game?' Fair enough, one game once in a while but the amount of games coming out, good games, everyone wants to play them all. And for them to pay £50 a game?"
This is what I hate most about pirates, their bullshit excuses and ridiculous sense of entitlement.
afaik you can't even play any copied games on the PS3 due to the absolute mental security-settings that Sony had put on there... guess they learned their lesson with the PSP...
as for this guy... I really can't describe how pissed of this type of people make me... I work my ass off, but since I'm paying of our appartement and I'm trying to save a little money, I really can't get a LOT of great games out there... only game I bought this last 2 months was Forza 3, no Borderlands, no MW2, not any of the other great ones that has come out in recent weeks... And I'm pretty sure I'm not alone in this situation, yet I refuse to pirate these games since it IS theft. Some of these jerks even boast about it when they play online, and then I really wish M$ and Sony would implement a feature where you can 'tag' someone so they know that they should check this guy's xbox/ps3 out and then they can ban him for 9999 years :-)
BBC should really take better care about what filth they put online... I think it's an outrage that a 'news'-source like this is actually rooting for pirates. Everyone should print that article and if ever one of your friends gets in trouble for pirating, you can cite the BBC and show that companies should NEVER punish somebody for stealing from them :-)