A Southern California man is set to go before a jury here Tuesday on criminal charges of violating copyright law by modifying Xbox 360 consoles to play pirated games. In the first trial of its kind, defendant Matthew Crippen is charged with two counts of violating the anti-circumvention provisions of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA. He faces a maximum three years in prison if convicted.
The 28-year-old Crippen suffered a devastating blow to his defense last week when a judge ruled that he can’t raise a “fair use” defense at trial. Two other key evidentiary issues in the case are unresolved, and are expected to be ruled upon at any time. One issue is the admissibility of a covert video recording of Crippen allegedly performing the modification. A second is whether the jury can hear the testimony of hardware-hacking guru Andrew “Bunnie” Huang, who is prepared to testify for the defense that installing a mod chip does not circumvent a copy-control mechanism within the meaning of the DMCA.
