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PAX thief kicked where it hurts by court ruling

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Remember Justin May? He’s the guy who tried to steal the Breach source code off Atomic Games’ stand at the Penny Arcade Expo earlier this year. He didn’t get very far (only managed to swipe 14MB of the 2GB source code) before he was spotted and was forced to flee into the crowds.

He was caught, however, and charged with theft as well as selling or receiving stolen trade secrets. He’s 21 years old and faces going to prison for around five years for not being able to control his geek-fuelled sticky fingers. The court has, however, thrown him a lifeline, but it’s a lifeline that hits a gamer where it hurts.

A judge at the Boston Municipal Court has placed May on “pre-trial probation”. If he adheres to the rules that the court sets out for him, then all charges against him will be dropped. What are the rules? May has to stay in school, which I’m assuming means he has to stay in varsity or whichever tertiary institute he’s studying in; unless of course he’s 21 and still in high school, which would explain why he was dumb enough to try and steal source code off a crowded show floor in the first place.

On top of staying on the academic straight and narrow, May has to stay off Xbox Live and he has to hand over his PC to the police. He also has to try not to steal anything else. If he can do all of this for the next 18 months, then he’s free to go.

It’s amusing to see that this judge knows exactly what to do to piss off a gamer, especially one with an apparent obsession so strong that it led him to attempt to steal source code.

Source: Kotaku

Last Updated: October 28, 2010

2 Comments

  1. I’d rather take 6 months in lockup!

    Reply

  2. Figjam

    October 28, 2010 at 13:46

    Make him play Wii…….no wait, that’s a bit harsh!

    Reply

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