I agree with you that this is in essence a pure criminal matter, however that doesn't mean that MS should not do anything to help prevent these crimes from being committed.
Blocking Serial or Mac address (whichever is used when authenticating) would NOT "brick" the unit, it would only make it usable offline. In fact this would likely make it easier to track those committing these crimes. If a blocked box was picked up on Ebay, you go through Ebay's fraud devision, same as any other conterfit item. I believe ebay already files criminal charges against those with fraudulent auctions. MS could also add some means of unblocking these boxes with detailed info on the owner (ie only done at game stores, etc), and move that box to a watch list. Any more activity? You know right away who's responsible for the box.
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@Matt
I agree with you that this is in essence a pure criminal matter, however that doesn't mean that MS should not do anything to help prevent these crimes from being committed.
Blocking Serial or Mac address (whichever is used when authenticating) would NOT "brick" the unit, it would only make it usable offline. In fact this would likely make it easier to track those committing these crimes. If a blocked box was picked up on Ebay, you go through Ebay's fraud devision, same as any other conterfit item. I believe ebay already files criminal charges against those with fraudulent auctions. MS could also add some means of unblocking these boxes with detailed info on the owner (ie only done at game stores, etc), and move that box to a watch list. Any more activity? You know right away who's responsible for the box.