Microsoft is cleaning house once again by banning from Xbox Live those users who have modified their 360 consoles to play pirated games. According to Major Nelson the banning has been carried out to "keep game play safe and secure" for the 14 million community members, noting that any modification to an Xbox 360 is also a violation of the Xbox Live terms of use.

This comes just days after the release of Gears of War 2, which many gamers illegally downloaded and played on modded consoles before the game was available at retail. Fallout 3 and Call of Duty: World at War are also prime examples of recent big titles that hit the torrent sites way before their actual release dates.

But as usual with this sort of things, you have to wonder whether any "false positives" may have slipped through the cracks, especially since a number of users on the official Xbox forum are already complaining that their accounts have been banned without just cause - which, if true, could be a big nuisance for paying Xbox Live subscribers.