The owner of a Maryland-based retailer has been sentenced to five months in prison and fined $247,237 for selling modified Xboxes that let players play pirated games, the Entertainment Software Association said on Thursday.
Biren Amin, owner of the Pandora's Cube chain, is the fourth person associated with Pandora's Cube to be convicted and sentenced for game piracy. Last month, Hitesh Patel, a store manager, was sentenced to four months in prison, four months under house arrest and two years of probation.
Mguresh Amin, another store manager, received a sentence of six months of home confinement, 24 months of probation and 150 hours of community service. Herbie Walker, a senior retail manager, was sentenced to six months of home confinement, 24 months of probation and 100 hours of community service.
The ESA called the sentencing "a clarion warning for others contemplating computer and video game piracy," with ESA president Douglas Lowenstein adding that "sentences of this magnitude send a clear message to game retailers that selling pirate products has serious consequences, including prosecution to the fullest extent of the law."
Once out of prison, Amin is subject to five months of home confinement and three years of supervised release. He must complete 80 hours of community service as part of his sentence.
In addition to imported games, anime and hentai DVDs, Pandora's Cube also sold "Super Xboxes," modified versions of Microsoft's console with a larger hard drive that came prehacked and loaded with illegal software for $500.
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Bad move...