Federal prosecutors dropped their case against a California man accused of modding Xboxes to to play pirated and unlicensed games. The reasons the lawyers gave were “fairness and justice,” which was a way of saying they screwed up the case.

Wired reports the decision to drop the case came after the feds’ first witness — an undercover agent who paid the alleged modder to tweak his console — couldn’t show proof that the modder placed a pirated game on his console that backed up the witness’s testimony.

Because the prosecution didn’t reveal in advance to the defense that a witness would testify that the accused modder tested a pirated game on the hacked console, the defense objected to the testimony.

So now the cleared modder, who last year denied a plea deal for probation and restricted computer use, is free and clear, able to change careers and pursue a teaching job.

Prosecutors Dismiss Xbox-Modding Case Mid-Trial [Wired via Engadget]

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