The Entertainment Software Association (ESA) today applauded the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland for handing down a sentence including prison time for Hitesh Patel, an employee of Pandora's Cube, a major retailer of pirated game software and modified game consoles in the Washington, DC area. Judge Peter J. Messitte ordered Patel to serve eight months for his crime, four months in jail and four months of home detention, in addition to 2 years of supervised release.

"We are grateful for the work of U.S. law enforcement and prosecutors for bringing this defendant to justice," said Douglas Lowenstein, president of the ESA, the trade association representing the U.S. computer and video game publishers. "Sentences of this magnitude send a strong message to the pirate community that intellectual property theft is a serious crime with serious consequences."

Patel, 31, of College Park, Maryland, pled guilty to charges of conspiracy to commit felony copyright infringement and to violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Patel managed one of the Pandora's Cube locations and served as technician for all three stores. He assembled and modified Microsoft Xbox video game consoles, turning them into what Pandora's Cube called "Super Xboxes." These "Super Xboxes" defeated the Xbox's copyright protection system and permitted the user to avoid purchasing and paying for legitimate video games.

Three other Pandora's Cube employees are expected to be sentenced by Judge Messitte next month: the owner of Pandora's Cube, Biren Amin, of Laurel, MD; and two managers of Pandora's Cube stores, Mrugesh Amin of Laurel, MD, and Herbie Walker of Hyattsville, MD. The cases against Pandora's Cube employees were the result of a joint effort of the United States Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Section ("CCIPS"), the United States Attorney's Office for the District of Maryland, and the United States Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement ("ICE").

Enacted in 1998, the DMCA prohibits the manufacture and distribution of products or services that circumvent technological protection measures designed to prevent unauthorized access to and copying of copyrighted materials.

The ESA is the U.S. association dedicated to serving the business and public affairs needs of the companies publishing interactive games for video game consoles, handheld devices, personal computers, and the Internet. ESA members collectively account for more than 90 percent of the $7.3 billion in entertainment software sales in the U.S. in 2004, and billions more in export sales of entertainment software.