4 ms·

> Gary Bowser had a key part in an international piracy hardware manufacturing operation Are you gonna cite this part or just the no-big-deal-really parts?

nerdponx 3y ago
It seems like the subject of the article, no? What's not clear is that it's really such a bad thing. Sure, maybe it should be illegal and he should get some kind of fined for what he did, but 40 months and garnishing his wages for the rest of his life seems out of balance compared to the actual harm that was done.
noirscape 3y ago
Sorry - thought the article would be sufficient on that on its own. Xecuter was the international piracy operation. They moved millions in terms of sold products over the years and had deals with Chinese factories to make that stuff "at scale" and had exchanges on how to get their devices past border controls; all this stuff is in the legal complaint he got jailed for.
- crtasm 3y ago
  I don't believe they were selling copies of any games? Modchip operation.
  - kevingadd 3y ago
    Xecuter for some reason decided to also sell access to game dumps instead of just modchips/flash carts. IIRC it was never proven that Bowser was specifically involved in that part, but the group did it for sure.
  - noirscape 3y ago
    The software their modchips used (called SX OS) took a lazy shortcut that also effectively means it embedded chunks of the Horizon operating system that the Switch uses (the filesystem module to be exact), combined with embedding gamecard headers in the software to trick the gamecard firmware. It also embedded a massive chunk of the free CFW Atmosphere (which is GPL2.0-Only, with some modifications), and they obviously never open sourced it. So yes, they were effectively selling their customers (modified) copies of Nintendo's software.
    - crtasm 3y ago
      Thanks for the extra information.
- FireBeyond 3y ago
  Oh, yes, and Bowser was just ... "updating the website from time to time" because "the people actually doing all the manufacture and sales were not really social". I don't buy that. Piracy operation has some semi-retired guy just "help out" with their website because he's more of a people person than they are, but other than that he had no idea what was really going on?

nerdponx 3y ago

It seems like the subject of the article, no? What's not clear is that it's really such a bad thing. Sure, maybe it should be illegal and he should get some kind of fined for what he did, but 40 months and garnishing his wages for the rest of his life seems out of balance compared to the actual harm that was done.

noirscape 3y ago

Sorry - thought the article would be sufficient on that on its own. Xecuter was the international piracy operation. They moved millions in terms of sold products over the years and had deals with Chinese factories to make that stuff "at scale" and had exchanges on how to get their devices past border controls; all this stuff is in the legal complaint he got jailed for.

crtasm 3y ago
I don't believe they were selling copies of any games? Modchip operation.
- kevingadd 3y ago
  Xecuter for some reason decided to also sell access to game dumps instead of just modchips/flash carts. IIRC it was never proven that Bowser was specifically involved in that part, but the group did it for sure.
- noirscape 3y ago
  The software their modchips used (called SX OS) took a lazy shortcut that also effectively means it embedded chunks of the Horizon operating system that the Switch uses (the filesystem module to be exact), combined with embedding gamecard headers in the software to trick the gamecard firmware. It also embedded a massive chunk of the free CFW Atmosphere (which is GPL2.0-Only, with some modifications), and they obviously never open sourced it. So yes, they were effectively selling their customers (modified) copies of Nintendo's software.
  - crtasm 3y ago
    Thanks for the extra information.
FireBeyond 3y ago
Oh, yes, and Bowser was just ... "updating the website from time to time" because "the people actually doing all the manufacture and sales were not really social". I don't buy that. Piracy operation has some semi-retired guy just "help out" with their website because he's more of a people person than they are, but other than that he had no idea what was really going on?