Can we ban confessed pirates and modders?

[dunno001]

Well, those who advocate piracy, sure. Let's get rid of them, since we don't need them. Talking about piracy in general, though... that's a touchy one. For instance, I'm considering looking into the P2:IS patch for a game I own. It probably means I'm going to have to burn another copy of the game. (As in, a copy of my legit version, not a second burnt copy.) I'd say merely talking about it should be fine. Those who admit to it, well... that's even tougher. If they're blatant about it, with no reasonable justification, then get rid of them. Rules on what makes "reasonable justification", though, would need to be set, and that's just not going to happen, making it implausable to try to do this.

But modding? No, that's not a bannable offense. Most European gamers can tell you how they get shafted on a lot of games, and have to import them to even play them. Even in the USA, there are plenty of games that come out only in Japan (and that occasional EU/JP only release; I still remember you, Terranigma), and again, we can import them. So does this mean I should have 2 (or 3) of every console? That's overkill; modding is a more effcient way of playing these games. Yes, I have a Famicom here, but there's also a modded SNES, Saturn, Dreamcast, PS2, and a dead modded PS1. All of these are just for imports. Then again, I love the systems that don't need to be modded. I've a handful of import GB/GBC/GBA games, and more Japanese DS games than the average Japanese owner has!

Now, if you mod to pirate, then I'll defer you to the first paragraph...