So some of you out there in the past day or two may have came home from work or school, turned on your precious Xbox 360 only to find a screen telling you that you have been banned from Xbox Live. You know exactly why you were banned as well! You dirty pirate!

Microsoft announced that they had just recently banned a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs. Here's what a Microsoft spokesperson had to say about it.

We have taken action against a small percentage of consoles that have been modified to play pirated game discs, 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.

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.

No word on the exact time the latest ban wave took place but according to the official Xbox Live forums and the tears of many pirates asking why their consoles are now banned, it looks to of taken place within the course of this last week.

To all you would be pirates out there, don't do it! It is not worth it and it takes money away from the hard working designers who make these games for us all to play.