Washington - A 27-year-old Hawaiian man has been sentenced to four months in prison after pleading guilty to charges he distributed Xbox video game consoles he had modified so they could play pirated games.

The defendant, Don Perreira, modified the Xbox consoles himself and then fronted them to 40-year-old co-defendant John Oroyan, who sold them. Oroyan pleaded guilty to one count of copyright infringement last year and was sentenced to five years probation.

"These sentences send a clear message to game software pirates that intellectual property theft is a serious crime and will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law," said Ric Hirsch, senior vice president of intellectual property enforcement at the ESA, which represents U.S. computer and video game publishers.

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