Normally, Xbox Live bannings strike down on the villains of the Xbox universe, kicking out users who cheat at games, use modded software, or try to scam other users into giving up important personal data. Unfortunately, sometimes innocent users are assumed guilty, which happened earlier this month. In order to rectify things, Xbox Live head of Policy and Enforcement Stephen Toulouse took to Major Nelson's blog to explain the situation and the solution.

While Toulouse's team often examines the circumstanes personally before banning, a "handful of banned consoles" were mistakenly taken offline as a result of erroneous action taken by software the team sometimes uses. Said users were classified as having used modified consoles before the team discovered the mistake.

With the mistake discovered the the unfortunate users identified, Toulouse and his team will be giving the inconvenienced Live users three months of free Xbox Live Gold service (a $30 value) and 1600 Microsoft Points (a $20 value). If you think you may be among those unfairly banned, don't worry, as the reinstatement and compensation will both happen automatically.