While the Entertainment Software Association plays a massive role in the video game industry, running E3, lobbying on behalf of gamers and game makers, and generally organizing everyone to further gaming's impact. The group also helps to track and bring pirates to justice.
In the ESA's annual report, this anti-piracy enforcement is split into several categories, but in the lead is Major U.S. Enforcement Actions, detailing five instances of pirates brought to justice in America. The moral of this story is not to advertise your Xbox 360 modding business on Craiglist, obviously.
- January 11th, 2012 – Darien, IL police arrested a seller of pirated games in that city, seizing 100 pirated games and six computers equipped with disc-burners.
- February 23rd, 2012 – The Federal Bureau of Investigation raided two retail locations under the banner of Fuzion Games in Huntington Park, CA. 750 pirated Wii and Xbox 360 games, 15-20 hard drives containing thousands of pirated game files, several computers, and more than 50 modded game consoles were seized.
- April 18th, 2012 – An individual selling pirated games and console-modding services via Craiglist was arrested by New York State Police in Queens, New York. The police seized modded game consoles and game copiers, as well as 195 pirated Xbox 360 games. Computers with 800 different pirated Wii and 360 game files were also seized.
- May 10th, 2012 – Los Angeles County Sheriff's arrested an individual selling pirated Xbox 360 games via Craigslist in Lakewood, CA. A computer with two hard drives, 20 pirated Xbox 360 games, and nine modded game consoles were seized.
- October 26th, 2012 – An individual selling pirated Wii games and console-modding services via Craigslist was arrested in San Antonio, TX by that city's police department. 20 computers, hard drives, and other memory devices were seized.
The ESA also made key enforcement moves against video game pirates in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Singapore, Hong Kong, and Korea, but none of those incidents involved the popular internet classifieds board. Remember folks, stick to missed connections.
