Hobby hackers sued for tinkering fav games

[Malicious Intent]

Hackers sued for tinkering with Xbox games

In the first case of its kind, a California video game maker is suing an entire community of software tinkerers for reverse engineering and modifying Xbox games that they legally purchased.

Tecmo, Inc., a subsidiary of a Japanese company, announced a federal lawsuit Wednesday against Mike Greiling of Eden Prairie, Minn., and Will Glynn from Davie, Fla, for alleged violations of US copyright law and the controversial Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

According to the complaint, Greiling and Glynn were webmasters of ninjahacker.net, an online forum dedicated to creating custom content and modifications for certain video games. Also included in the suit, filed January 21st in Illinois, are up to 100 anonymous users of the site, whose identities the company vowed to unmask.

"[W]e believe it is our duty to uphold the integrity of our work," said John Inada, general manager for Tecmo, in a statement. "Hacking of this kind will not be tolerated and we intend to take all necessary measures to protect our intellectual property."

The lawsuit claims the ninjahacker.net users decompiled the code to several Tecmo titles, including Ninja Gaiden, Dead or Alive 3, and Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, and figured out how to create their own "skins" that change the appearance of game characters. They swapped modding techniques and hundreds of custom skins over the website message board.

The defendants are not accused of pirating the games, and the modifications and methods at issue appear no different than those employed by hobbyists on other video games - from Halo to the Sims 2 --for years. But according to the lawsuit, Tecmo suffers in the practice anyway.

"Most of the skins posted on the Message Board by defendants show Tecmo Characters with appearances that are different from the original Tecmo designs," the complaint notes. "Several... are designed to make Tecmo Characters appear naked."

The harm isn't just to the wholesome values of Dead or Alive Xtreme Beach Volleyball, hinted Tecmo spokesperson Melody Pfeiffer. There's a principle at stake. "Hackers, if they're allowed to do this kind of thing, will be allowed to hack into any game, anywhere," Pfeiffer warns. "We spent millions of dollars to develop these games, and people are coming in and changing the code to their liking, and that's illegal."

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[method77]

what a bunch of crap :reallymad:

[Redneck4sure]

I hope Temco loses their butt. This is as stupid as the woman sueing McDonalds because her coffee was hot.....only in reverse. The company is moron here.

[rainbowdemon]

How is this illegal? If I buy a new car, I can do anything I want to it. As far as I can tell, this is no different.

[Malicious Intent]

You do what RainbowD? That's awful!

Companies spend millions of dollars to develop those cars, people can't just come in and change the engine to their liking. It's illegal..

[Redneck4sure]

How is this illegal? If I buy a new car, I can do anything I want to it.

True but will they let you drive it on the street?

[rainbowdemon]

people can't just come in and change the engine to their liking.

Once you've bought it, sure you can. I don't see why it's any different for these games.