Topic: Game Console Modding Illegal in Japan

[Shiroi Koumori]

https://kotaku.com/game-modding-illegal-in-japan-punishable-by-prison-and-1831525943

Copy-pasted this from the Kotaku site (for lazy people)

It is illegal to mod game save data and game consoles in Japan. Both are punishable by up to five years in prison and fines up to 5 million yen ($46,000).

According to the official site for Japan’s Association of Copyright for Computer Software, modding game save data and consoles violate the country’s Unfair Competition Prevention Law. This is the Japanese government is expanding regulations to protect game console content and includes adding new data and disturbing the services companies offer.

This was first published by Japanese game sites like Hachima Kikou after peripheral maker Cyber Gadget stopped selling its Save Editor data tool, allowing players to use cheats and patch codes.

Cyber Gadget has since stopped selling the Save Editor on its Japanese site.

The Association of Copyright for Computer Software also mentions that unofficial software codes and keys are also illegal. Specifically, mentioned is offering these on online auctions and making them available for download.

Finally, modding game consoles, as well as games, are included the third provision mentioned by the association.

All were recently included under amendments to Unfair Competition Prevention Law.

[X]

The law's kinda doubled-edged. I can see it for MMO's as everybody should have a fair shake at those games. But if you own a console and a particular game, Then you aren't hurting anyone. You own the console therefore it's yours to do with as you please. You own a copy of a game therefore it's yours to do with as you please. So long as you aren't giving yourself an advantage over others via online two-player and/or MMO gaming then I personally don't see the issue.

[Jazz Paladin Productions]

Except owning a console or game is technically not ownership in the traditional sense that most people understand it as--it is more rather a license to use the product in a very specific way, and not in other ways that allow for reverse engineering, etc...

Still hasn't stopped all the fake NES and SNES classics from being sold everywhere from Ebay to retail kiosks in malls, though, for all the good laws seem to be doing...

[LuxKiller65]

So you can't change thermal paste or add a water cooling system to your PS4 if you want to? I don't understand.

You're obviously a very dangerous criminal if you do that, and you're totally disrupting Sony's business and five years are barely enough. Now's a good time to go rape and kill people, you'll be out of jail faster than if you modify a save file.

[Inccubus]

Except owning a console or game is technically not ownership in the traditional sense that most people understand it as--it is more rather a license to use the product in a very specific way, and not in other ways that allow for reverse engineering, etc...

Still hasn't stopped all the fake NES and SNES classics from being sold everywhere from Ebay to retail kiosks in malls, though, for all the good laws seem to be doing...

I which country does buying hardware not constitute ownership?
Certainly not in the United States. Here ownership means ownership and in legal way is buying a game console anything like purchasing a license.
The day game companies start licensing out their hardware is the day I stop giving them money of any sort.
I can do whatever I please with the things I buy as long as I do it privately.
The notion that you might not actual own what you purchase is a dangerous one in general because it give manufacturers too much power over the consumer.
At what point are corporations not allowed to say they own the products you bought from them?
That would never fly in the US. Primarily because part of our patent and copyright laws includes measures to prevent such actions because they stifle innovation.

Take the clone NES consoles that have come out.
Those are all legal because the patents on the hardware used in the NES all ran out.
Now that doesn't mean you can recreate the original NES hardware exactly as it was, but you can make a similar machine that has the same hardware specs with no issues.

Not sure if that's the same case yet for the SNES, but eventually it will be.