Jeffrey J. Reichert was sentenced to one year and one day in prison for for violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, said Steven M. Dettelbach, United States Attorney for the Northern District of Ohio.
Reichert, age 27, of Northwood, Ohio, was found guilty earlier this year following a jury trial before U.S. District Judge Donald C. Nugent.
On April 3, 2012, a federal grand jury returned a one-count indictment charging Reichert with knowingly manufacturing, importing, offering to the public, or otherwise trafficking in technology, products, services, devices, components or parts thereof, which were primarily designed to circumvent technological measures designed to effectively control access to a work copyrighted under Title 17 of the United States Code, for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain.
Specifically, the defendant was charged with trafficking in modification chips (also known as “Mod Chips") which are primarily designed to circumvent the technological measures designed into video game consoles (such as the Nintendo Wii) to prevent access to copyrighted works.
This case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Robert W. Kern and Chelsea Rice of the Cleveland U.S. Attorney’s Office, following an investigation by the Cleveland Office of the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).
Source: U.S. Department of Justice, Office of the United States Attorneys
