Supreme Factory in Hong Kong was raided last week confirming what my sources knew was a front for Divineo owned and operated by Max Louarn. Divineo is also known to run various subsidiaries including Team Cyclops, DMS Technologies and Maxconsole.com. Divineo is also connected to the Epsilon PSP Team, Viper GC, HD Loader and the Undiluted Platinum PSP modchip. "The search also turned up volumes of documents reflecting the scope of the operation. The Supreme Factory Limited has ties to a French company, Divineo SARL, and its principal, Max Louarn, who are also named in the legal action initiated by Nintendo. The High Court prohibited the companies from further distribution of the devices and from disposing a portion of their assets worldwide, and ordered that such assets be frozen pending outcome of the legal proceedings." - Source: Here Some of us in the scene were aware that Divineo was going to be taken out considering facts such as the ICE Raids in the USA which served as a warning to modchip distributors and used as information gathering and the recent raids in Russia (which are undocumented/confirmed at the moment) so this comes as no surprise. I was personally informed earlier last week that Divineo's China Divineo had been raided, but the only proof I could find was the fact that all Nintendo and Sony console modification products had been removed from Divineo's website. I had waited until it was made public to go forth with the information. Max Louarn the owner of Divineo and Maxconsole was recently sued and to my knowledge is a wanted criminal in the USA and along with a few other guilty parties owes over $9 million in damages to them. Additionally, back in 1994 Max Louarn was busted by the USA Secret Service for being the ringleader in a telephone card fraud scheme. Max has also recently threatened to sue me over my personal Blog. Recent legislation in the USA named the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of 1998 (DMCA) prohibits the use of devices which circumvent copy protection forthe purpose of making illegal copies of digital media is what has brought on these raids. Sadly, while modchips do allow software piracy they also offer amateur developers a chance to create software for a video game system they legally purchased and own. The companies that produce these gaming consoles such as the Nintendo DS and Sony PSP currently have a monopoly over it's development process and requires you to pay tens of thousands of dollars to create your own software for these platforms. The Law in the books is like saying you can buy a car, but you can't add custom tire rims to it - as a car can be used to drive yourself to work (legal) or to run over your neighbors dog (illegal). That's where the legal use of modchips and development units come into play - they allow you for less then a hundred dollars to develop software for these consoles and at least some companies such as Microsoft look the other way when it comes to the use of modchips on their video gaming consoles for "homebrew" development. There was a bit of legislation that was introduced which would amend the DMCA to allow people who own digital media to create backup copies of it for archival and protective purposes. "(F) The prohibition contained in subparagraph (A) shall not apply to a person by reason of that person’s engaging in a non-infringing use of any of the 6 classes of copyrighted works set forth in the determination of the 2 Librarian of Congress in Docket No. RM 2005-11, as published as a final rule by the Copyright Office, Library of 4 Congress, effective November 27, 2006..." If you read paragraph "A" of section 12-01 of the DMCA, it's fairly clear that no circumvention means no circumvention. "No person shall circumvent a technological measure that effectively controls access to a work protected under this title." - Source: Here Sadly, this amendment is currently stuck in the legal system. If it were to become part of the legislation it would not only legalize modchips, but once again allow consumers to make backups of the valuable media they have invested time and money in. TehSkeen in no way condones, endorses and/or encourages using modchips and/or backup devices to illegally copy digital media, but we do however disagree with the DMCA, support the amendment and believe in the power of the homebrew community. With Divineo's assets being frozen and their various distributing warehouses being busted no one is sure if they will be able to stay in business or who will be paying the bills for his other ventures including Maxconsole. http://kotaku.com/gaming/gangbusters/nintendo-and-hong-kong-team-up-raid-pirates-313608.php heres more information.
