According to Ars Technica, opening statements in the first Xbox 360 criminal hacking trial were delayed yesterday after a federal judge lectured prosecutors for a full thirty minutes, saying he had “serious concerns about the government’s case.”

Gutierrez slammed the prosecution over everything from alleged unlawful behavior by government witnesses, to proposed jury instructions harmful to the defense. When the verbal assault finally subsided, federal prosecutors asked for a recess to determine whether they would offer the defendant a deal, dismiss, or move forward with the case that was to become the first jury trial of its type.

The fair-use issue came up as the judge berated prosecutor Allen Chiu’s proposed jury instructions, which included the assertion that the government need not prove that the defendant “willfully” breached the law. The judge noted that the government’s own intellectual property crimes manual concerning the 1998 DMCA says the defendant has to have some knowledge that he was breaking the law.