POST YOUR BANS HERE - NO WHERE ELSE!

DO NOT ASK QUESTIONS, JUST POST YOUR BAN, DRIVE, FIRMWARE, AND DRIVE INFO; What you did, or played before release day...   I have already removed posts that have not conformed.

DO NOT Cry, moan, or complain; you got banned, deal with it; these types posts will be removed, or content edited out.  Keep to the facts, and don't blame Microsoft for your mistake; YOU wasted your money, nobody twisted your arm to MOD your console.

Posts in other forums will be deleted or closed, THEN deleted later!

There is no conformity to the Bans, they just initiate.  Remember, your console "farms" information that can be transmitted at any time.  Your ban could have been for something you did MONTHS ago, they keep the information, and console reported anomalies on their servers.

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CONFIRMATION FROM M$:
Another major HALO release is coming out, and people are playing LEAKED versions, and here is what M$ has to say: Major Nelson Tweets About Halo ODST Bans

Be careful folks! RT @Stepto Hrm. I spy with my little eye some *illegitimate* ODST players. No early play for you. Commencing permabans.

As usual, the ban waves start with an anticipated or major title release.  So, if you played it early, you will get banned if they "spied" it!  They will also use this as another round of bans for detections of MODDED consoles.

Microsoft Confirms LIVE Console Ban Wave to IGN - 9/30/09
From xbox360.ign.com:

"We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs," a Microsoft spokesperson told IGN. "In line with our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community, we are suspending these modded consoles from Xbox LIVE."

Microsoft also added this is a standing policy and isn't tied to any specific time-frame.

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Major Nelson Talks about Latest LIVE Ban Wave - More Bans Today - 11/04/09

As you may have read online, we've been actively banning consoles from Xbox LIVE that have been modified to play pirated games. Our commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure gameplay for the more than 20 million members of our Xbox LIVE community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal, and that modifying their Xbox 360 console to play pirated discs, violates the Xbox LIVE terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox LIVE. The health of the video game business depends on customers paying for the genuine products and services they receive from manufacturers, retailers, and the third parties that support them. This would also be a good time to remind you that the warranty on an Xbox 360 console is not transferrable and if you purchase a used console that has been previously banned, you will not be able to connect to Xbox LIVE.

MORE BAN & OTHER IMPORTANT INFO - 11/07/09 - Grammar and spelling corrected. M$ has gone beyond the normal console ban to include the following restrictions and penalties:

Hard Drive installs are now disabled on the banned console. This means any disk-based games you have will no longer play off of the hard drive. If you attempt to play a game, it will tell you that it was installed on a different 360 and needs to be deleted/installed again. When you delete the game and attempt to install it, you are given a message telling you that it is not supported. There is no way to fix this, that functionality is simply gone from the banned 360.

Windows Media Center functionality is disabled. It is still possible to stream video/music content via the video library.

Your Gamertag may be corrupted. This does not mean your gamertag has been banned, you can recover it using any live-capable 360, however ANY ACHIEVEMENTS YOU HAVE EARNED SINCE BEING BANNED WILL BE LOST. Your gamertag will be corrupted EVERY SINGLE TIME it is used on a banned console. This means you cannot use your banned console to play backups offline just to get achievements - it wont work, the second you put your profile back on a good 360, it will be corrupted and all progress lost. There is no way around this.

The same applies to game saves - if you access a game save on a banned 360, it too will be corrupted when accessed on a legit/unbanned 360! YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED! There is no way around this, either.

Your XBLA games and DLC will still be valid, however to play them on a different 360 you will need to be signed into Xbox Live. This is normal behavior on unbanned/legit 360's as well. They may be corrupted and have to be re-downloaded if you attempt to access them on a banned 360. You can transfer all of your downloaded content to a new 360 here: http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/syste … efault.htm however note that you can only do it once every 12 months.

Remember, if you really want to blame someone, blame the person that decided to modify your 360 in the first place - most likely, that would be you.


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Update 11/11/09 - Insider says MS Plans to Ban 1Million Consoles

Which means, they KNOW they are being selective about it, and could actively ban every single "detected" modded console out there.

From pinoycosplay.blogspot.com:

A conversation with a friend who works for a call center that handles an Xbox 360 account has yielded a disturbing truth: Microsoft has started its annual Xbox Live banning spree and it has disabled 600,000 accounts so far in the US and Canada.

The target of the banning spree are mainly people who have modified their consoles to play pirated games. My trusty source says that they have been given instructions to push for a million banned accounts by the time the holidays are over.

Be aware, that this is just a rumor, and that there's no way to confirm it. What it does point out is, just how many consoles do you think M$ has banned? That site claims 600,000 consoles are banned already, just in US and CAN.  If we assume (through stats) that M$ has sold about 19 Million consoles in those two regions (to date); then it would mean they may have already banned about 6.33% of their user-base since they started the first wave, if we assume about 1 million bans per wave.  I think it's anywhere from three to six percent.


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Microsoft Confirms 600k-1M Banned Consoles? - 11/12/09
A joint venture of Microsoft and NBC puts these numbers in the mouth of the Redmond company:

Anywhere between an estimated 600,000 and 1 million players who use Microsoft's Xbox Live gaming service will be cut off from the service because they have modified their game consoles or played games that were illegally downloaded from file-sharing sites, according to the company.

A quote made today by Microsoft on venturebeat.com says:

"While we don't comment on specific numbers, Microsoft's commitment to combat piracy and support safer and more secure game play for the more than 20 million members of the Xbox Live community remains a top priority. All consumers should know that piracy is illegal and modifying their Xbox 360 console violates the Xbox Live terms of use, will void their warranty and result in a ban from Xbox Live. We can assure you that if an Xbox Live member follows the Xbox Live terms of use, purchased a retail copy of Modern Warfare 2 and played the game on an unmodified Xbox 360, no action will be taken."

Microsoft never actually confirmed these numbers to anyone, at least not on record.


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Xbox Boss Chris Lewis Defends Anti-Piracy Crackdown

Speaking on Jeff Randall Live, Xbox's chief executive for Europe Chris Lewis explained the thinking behind the policy.

"We are very committed to stamp out piracy. It's an issue not only for Xbox, it's an issue for the industry as a whole, it's an issue for Microsoft generally," he said.
"Clearly it's important for us to be able to stamp down on that to protect the 10 million people that are already on Xbox 360 in Europe for instance. So we take it very seriously."

In an interview with Sky's Anna Jones, Mr Lewis went on to defend the move.
"If it's clear someone is downloading pirated copies or have modified their Xbox in some way that will allow them to download games that they haven't purchased legitimately and yes we lock that account down and we're unapologetic about that," he said.

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Banned Xbox Live Users Class Action Investigation
11/18/09: Abington IP, a law firm specializing in consumer class actions posted this on their website

An investigation is currently being conducted regarding business practices of Microsoft with respect to its recent cancellation of certain modified Xbox consoles for use with Xbox Live.

As has been reported widely in the media, tens of thousands of Xbox owners have had their modified Xbox consoles banned from Microsoft's online gaming service Xbox Live. Although modification of Xbox consoles is against the terms of use for Xbox/Xbox Live, Microsoft "conveniently" timed the Xbox console ban to occur just after the release of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game and less than two months after the release of the very popular Halo 3: ODST game. This "convenient" timing may have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had these Xbox console bans taken place at some time before the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST. Additionally, sales of both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (published by Activision) and Halo 3: ODST (published by Microsoft Game Studios) would likely have been greatly diminished had the Xbox console ban occurred prior to the release of these games.

If you are an Xbox Live subscriber, had your modified Xbox console banned from Xbox Live, were not refunded a prorated sum for the time left on your subscription, and would like to participate in a class action against Microsoft, please submit your information below.

http://www.abingtonlaw.com/Xbox-Live-class-action.html

I do think that people should have their money refunded for there remaining live time, but if you do the math?  I mean, really, it's basically $4.16 a month.  Unless you have more than Six months left, is it REALLY worth it? Also, with any law-suit, there are fees, so you would be lucky to get HALF what you think you should get after the lawyers get their share.

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11/20/09: Abington IP, a law firm; Here's their new txt (spelling corrected):

An investigation is currently being conducted regarding business practices of Microsoft with respect to its recent cancellation of certain modified Xbox consoles for use with Xbox Live.

As has been reported widely in the media, tens of thousands of Xbox owners have had their modified Xbox consoles banned from Microsoft's online gaming service Xbox Live. Although modification of Xbox consoles is against the terms of use for Xbox/Xbox Live, Microsoft "conveniently" timed the Xbox console ban to occur just after the release of the new Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 game and less than two months after the release of the very popular Halo 3: ODST game. This "convenient" timing may have resulted in more Xbox Live subscription revenues for Microsoft than it would have generated had these Xbox console bans taken place at some time before the release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 and Halo 3: ODST. Additionally, sales of both Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 (published by Activision) and Halo 3: ODST (published by Microsoft Game Studios) would likely have been greatly diminished had the Xbox console ban occurred prior to the release of these games.

Additional *reported* problems resulting from the bans include, but are not necessarily limited to:
* Disabling/altering Xbox functionality *NOT* associated with Xbox Live (HDD functionality for example),
* Disabling/altering Xbox functionality *NOT* associated with piracy,
* Obtaining information from Xbox consoles without permission of the owner,
* There are other problems/consequences associated with these bans that have been reported here and elsewhere.

As an aside, PIRACY IS A LEGITIMATE CONCERN for Microsoft and other content producers -- however, (to use a poor analogy) Microsoft has chosen to use one of the most indiscriminate "weapons" in its arsenal in an effort to combat piracy -- as a result, the use of this "weapon" has resulted in a great deal of collateral damage -- many people were affected who had nothing to do with piracy and Xbox console functions that have nothing to do with piracy were also affected or disabled. Details aside, Microsoft's bans could have been more measured.

If you are an Xbox Live subscriber, had your modified Xbox console banned from Xbox Live, were not refunded a prorated sum for the time left on your subscription or have experienced other problems as a result of being banned, and would like to participate in a class action against Microsoft, please submit your information below.

http://www.abingtonlaw.com/Xbox-Live-class-action.htm

The terms of their EULAs for both the console, and Live, are quite specific.  Good luck with this law suit.  Did M$ go too far this time with functionality issues?  Maybe, but sit next to someone, and repetitively slap them in the face very lightly; just enough to BOTHER them. Then, after the repetitive warnings they deliver, lets see how long it takes for them to put you on the floor.

M$ has warned people with the simple console bans for the past seven years.  With Piracy getting worse due to the economy, no one has money.  This was simply one too many of those light seven year slaps to the face, and they took more stern action this time around; they punched back for round eight.  This went on with the ORIGINAL XBOX, and all they did with that console, over its span, was kill live play, and only that.  Apparently, seven years of just LIVE play banning was not enough a deterrent.  So, here is round eight, they decided to get tough.  It's not like this is anything new, this has been going on since the XB1 was hacked, so no one should be surprised at what comes, and what IS to come.