Accused PAX East 'Breach' thief shows up for court

by Alexander Sliwinski on May 19th 2010 10:30AM

Justin May, the 20-year-old man accused of trying to steal Atomic Games' Breach off the PAX East show floor, finally showed up in court today -- after previously skipping bail and eventually agreeing to appear for arraignment. Assistant District Attorney Kate Clayman briefly recited the facts of the case in Boston Municipal Court this morning and the judge released May on his own recognizance. No monetary bail was set.

Suffolk County District Attorney Press Secretary Jake Wark told Joystiq that May will return to court with his defense attorney on June 27 to file a motion to dismiss the case.

According to Atomic Games' complaint filed with Boston police, the company placed the value of Breach "in excess of $6 million." We're currently following up with Atomic Games and the District Attorney's office to find out how events are expected to proceed from here.

Update: Comment from Atomic and the DA's office after the break.

Breach

Suffolk County District Attorney's Office:

Suffolk County District Attorney Press Secretary Jake Wark explained there wasn't a noted plea of "not guilty" in court today because in the state of Massachusetts a "not guilty plea is automatically entered at arraignment." The DA plans to pursue the case at the June 27 hearing. Wark expressed, "The case remains active."

Atomic Games President Peter Tamte released a statement:

"Breach, and our Hydrogen game engine, are the result of millions of dollars of investment and years of hard work. It would have been very harmful if Breach had been posted on the Internet months before its planned release. Thankfully the Boston Police Department and Suffolk County District Attorney quickly realized the seriousness of the crime and plan to prosecute Mr. May."

Tags: atomic-games, breach, court, justin-may, law, Microsoft, pax-east, pax-east-2010, Xbox-360

Reader Comments (36)

A motion to dismiss the case? Hah. Yeah right. I bet this kid is screwed.

You never know, maybe Mc Donalds is looking for shift managers.

I mean, there's no way they're going to dismiss it. Right? The kid tried to walk away with unreleased software worth potentially millions of dollars. If I go snag Windows 8 from Microsoft's offices, you think that'll get dismissed? It's straight up theft, and the kid can't have any excused to get out of it. He's a grown-ass man, who got caught breaking the law.

Nah, they probably won't dismiss it, but seeing how he didn't sucessfully steal the game and its hard to prove what he intended to do with it, they'll prob give him a fine or some days in jail. If said dumbass would have stole it then torrented it on sites then the courts would definatly crush this guy, but he didn't. And when did being 20 years old make you a man? You're barely out of HS, his first 15 years was about school, video games, and boobies. I don't understand how a few years of doing f**k all makes you a "man". Calling this boy a 'man' is an insult to all men.

Pretty sure he means "man" in the legal sense... you know, like they say, "If you're under 18 you won't be doing any time"... well, he was a few years late on that.

Thank you, Xoonaka. Yes, I meant it in the 'Congratulations, now you're old enough to be a felon' kind of way.

"It's straight up theft, and the kid can't have any excused to get out of it."
Well, technically it's not, it's copyright infringement and probably "unlawful access to a computer" as well. Not that it makes it any less bad what he did, but what it was wasn't theft. To be theft it has to be an item as it must constitute a transferral of possession, i.e. the owner no longer has it and the perpetrator now does. Copyright infringement is different since the owner hasn't lost anything but POTENTIAL sales. It just really annoys me when people label piracy as theft/stealing...I'm such a pedant.

i love the internet, eventually someone comes in and posts something that makes sense.

In Massachusetts, it's actually "straight up" larceny.

I don't know this dude, but he's just more of a d-bag with every article.

I've changed his name to "Justin A-hole".

Just an A-hole?

No one uses a middle name in casual conversation, but if you must know his full name is Justin F. A-hole, (D-Bag): House of Representin'.

'the company placed the value of Breach "in excess of $6 million."'

Good luck with that.

Ok, first of all, I was directing that comment at the thief's ability to pay off 6 million dollars. I am not defending the guy, and couldn't careless about his situation, but since you brought it up; he didn't even successfully steal anything. So how did Atomic Games lose anything? I think this guy should get the book thrown at him (hopefully a big heavy one) but not the whole library.

But your comment makes no sense. This is a criminal charge for attempted larceny, not a civil lawsuit for misappropriation or conversion. They are not suing the kid; he has been arrested and charged with a crime.

The value of the product he tried to steal is completely relevant to the criminal charge and the kid's eventual sentence should he be convicted. It is completely irrelevant what the kid can or cannot pay, the Company is not seeking a single penny from this kid. "Ability to pay" makes absolutely no sense in teh context of this article or your initial comment.

Also irrelevant is the comment that Atomic Games didn't lose anything. You cannot attempt to steal something. Attempted larceny is a crime. "But I didn't actually get to steal it because they stopped me," is not a defense. That is a defense to larceny, but not attempted.

Think of it this way, if you try and murder someone by stabbing them, but they live despite the stabbing, then you have not committed murder because the crime of murder requires a death, but you are still going to be charged and put on trial for attempted murder.

The only relevance that "he didn't actually get away with it" has is probably on the sentence he receives because the setencing guidelines for attempted crimes are usually less than those for completed crimes.

Wait guys, wait, hold on....

Nobody cares.

I care

HAHAHA! saying that he didn't successfully steal anything is like me robbing a bank and getting caught before being able to leave. I didn't get anything, but I'm still going to be slapped with 5-20 years in jail depending on the state.

@Radical Dylan
well, to put it simple, it depends on the nature of "item" in question and mainly in how much far you get away with it, as well the the context of the situation and where you did the act
it goes even thiner, but you get my point

Burn him.

HE'S A WITCH!

very small rocks.

His defense will be his addiction to videogames compelled him to steal the code so he could play it early.

He'll say he's receiving treatment for his problem to ensure it doesn't happen again.

Do we know if the police can get a warrant to search his place? or have they already searched it for pirating software?

Oh God, don't give him ideas. He's enough of an ass that he might very well pair with Jack Thompson and Family groups just to save his own hide.

"If it please the court I'd like to show that this young boy was on the verge of homicidal rage induced by this game, and only by 'stealing' the code was he able to avert untold death. He stole the code as a means of saving countless others"

How much you wanna bet he was just a pawn for some shadowy criminal mastermind somewhere? Maybe they were holding his beloved pooch for ransom and he had no choice...

maybe...

Suffolk is a country now?

Wow Texas, you were beat!

What Atomic should do is put his "likeness" or someone who looks a lot like him in the actual game as a NPC but someone you need "take down" if you know what I mean in order to unlock an achievement say the "Take That Achievement!" The character in the game could be dressed just like his photo with the same deer-in-the-headlights look. Something to think about Atomic....

As appealing as shooting this character is, I'm not sure I'd want to give him any more publicity...

Let's hope there's no new MW2 map pack on June 27.

there's a difference between robbery and attempted robbery. If its his first offense his lawyer will plead down multiple charges (ie breaking and entering a system, unlawful possession or whatever, etc etc) to one charge. Again it's not theft, it's copyright infringement. You can't steal software if you're downloading it. I dont know what the laws are like in Boston but in Cali this kid would get a 6 month jail sentence and do 10% of that (approximately 15 days) because the jails are overcrowded and they only give full time to violent crimes.

And that sounds about right and pretty fair. 15 days in jail is no joke and should be enough to straighten out someone who obviously did not intend to harm anyone and probably just wanted to play the game. The game company needs to take a lot of the blame on this issue because you shouldn't leave a 6 million dollar investment in the parking garage at your office when you go home, it's just plain stupid.

I was having this argument elsewhere. There's provisions in the theft law to account for intangible property, and I have a feeling this is a sleeper-landmark case for the value of "stolen" software. Is the fact that it's not compiled the difference, or is it the non-released status, or what? Some compiled software has external resources, so is that a grey area here?

It seems like this trial poses a lot of important questions.

I heard he is actually came back in time to steal the first copy of Breach and destroy it so that Skynet is never created.

The fake Dante's Inferno christian protesters were more entertaining... I'm not amused, Atomic Games.

http://stuff.pyzam.com/funnypics/1/pyzamseriousbag.jpg

Accused PAX East 'Breach' thief shows up for court

Breach

Reader Comments (36)

Posted: May 19th 2010 10:37AM Jerk Face said

Posted: May 19th 2010 10:50AM That Burning Sensation said

Posted: May 19th 2010 10:52AM Jerk Face said

Posted: May 19th 2010 11:14AM That Burning Sensation said

Posted: May 19th 2010 12:09PM Xoonaka said

Posted: May 19th 2010 12:11PM Jerk Face said

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Posted: May 19th 2010 10:49AM That Burning Sensation said

Posted: May 19th 2010 11:09AM That Burning Sensation said

Posted: May 19th 2010 11:32AM dakinle said

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