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Bowl0l

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,608
Let's guess which company lobbied for this since OP specified that the law targeted console.
Sony, Microsoft or Nintendo.
 

Deleted member 18347

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,572
What about those chalice dungeon codes shared for Bloodborne featuring cut content by way of save modding? Is that included?
 
Oct 30, 2017
8,967
Keep in mind that we're talking about the same country that lets pedophiles convicted of possessing child pornography off the hook with a four digit fine.
 

entremet

You wouldn't toast a NES cartridge
Member
Oct 26, 2017
59,897
Japan has some crazy copyright laws. You can't even rent games lol.
 

Laser Man

Member
Oct 26, 2017
2,683
Messed up shit, I want to know who exactly is behind this so I can avoid buying anything from them in the future!
 

mute

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Oct 25, 2017
25,062
The people signing off on these laws have no idea what any of this means or how it works.
 

MysticGon

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 31, 2017
7,285
This seems like either a good-natured attempt to ban hacking and piracy through fear to preserve a uniform gameplay experience for everyone.

Or it could just be the obvious. Protecting profits.
 

zaien

Member
Nov 4, 2017
56
Absolutely ridiculous. Hope their law enforcement don't even bother enforcing such a stupid law.
 
Oct 26, 2017
5,121
"So, what are you in here for?"

"First degree murder"

"Money laundering"

"I hacked my Pokemon Sun/Moon save so I could get a shiny Solgaleo with perfect IVs"
 

Deleted member 23381

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 28, 2017
5,029
l m a o Japan.

Though i could see this passing in the UK or USA too.

Lobbyists and those who listen to them are scum.
 

BobZhn

Member
Nov 17, 2017
191
SE Asia
That's a bit harsh. But depends how tight they wanna enforce it.

Assuming Sony could be also involved in lobbying. Them be bitter after somebody modded their GT5/6 save data, forcing them to go online save in GTS. Thanks Sony ! /s
 

unicornKnight

â–˛ Legend â–˛
Member
Oct 27, 2017
13,155
Athens, Greece
so if you open up a save file in notepad and edit it on your laptop and a cop sees it they arrest you? I don't think anyone is going to bother enforcing this.
I suppose the idea is to prevent people accessing stuff they should normally pay for. But this show the ridiculous stage of the industry. Everything can be sold now. Fast xp, in game money, in game resources... What's next? Selling you the ability to bypass hard bosses?
 

Discoalucard

Member
Oct 28, 2017
240
NJ
There's a lot of history behind this ruling and it goes back to two major cases from the mid-90s.

One of them involved the PlayStation version of Tokimeki Memorial. Getting the main girl in that game was extremely difficult so some company sold memory cards with hacked save data that gave you maximum statistics so it was much easier to get the best ending. Konami sued them and won. There was also another case where a strategy guide for a PC Romance of the Three Kingdom games included a disk with a program that let you hack your own save data. This, however, was ruled to be legal. There were some inconsistencies, but the gist seemed to be that game save data was copyrighted so it couldn't be sold separately, but actually hacking your own save data was OK enough, at least at the time. But probably it's more likely because the console business (and Konami) was much larger than the PC business and Koei. So like the rest of this thread suggests, it's a very pro-corporate ruling.

Anyway, remember when Nintendo sued Galoob over the Game Genie, and the US courts ruled in Galoob's favor? Imagine a world where the courts ruled in Nintendo's favor instead, so that basically set the landscape for cheat devices and modding in Japan.
 

Deleted member 8468

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
9,109
This is bizarre, how would one get caught? Posting the data itself online? Does this only apply if you are selling it?
 

GMM

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,480
Absolutely insane and silly, modifying save data and the applications that does that are usually not very unique in their core functionality to do so, cheat engine is literally just a hex editor with some extra features on top.

If a multiplayer/service game is affected by local data instead of secure service transactions then someone fucked up royally developing it anyway. The only case where this could be applicable is in singleplayer games rotten with micro transactions that aims to prevent player progression in order to upsell you items.

Absolutely disgusting to try to pin it on the customers instead of rethinking how you approach the integrity and security of your product, no excuses for sentencing people jail time for wanting to have fun with a $60 game.
 

Daedardus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
924
Pretty sure the up to five years only becomes max when you distribute a huge software platform to modify data that harms a companies IP in a big way, and repeating to do so after getting warnings and making huge revenue out of your tool. They won't jail everyone for five years who uses a save game editor to give them 100 cheesewheels lol.
 

Daedardus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
924
Reading the source of the source of the actual source, seems like what this law also does is prevent the illegal creation of mass software keys that are not obtained through purchase from a publisher or distributor. It also mentions this in the official document (Google Translate):

Regarding the statutory penalty for criminal punishment for fraudulent acts pertaining to technical restriction measures, â‘  within the Unfair Competition Prevention Act
From the perspective of equilibrium, that is, penalties will be introduced for the first time this time, in violation of trade secrets
The circumstances in which penalties that can be seen are to be heavily exercised are not particularly appreciated, ② the technical restriction means invalidating device
Etc. were added to import / export prohibited items by border measures due to the revision of the Customs Law ("customs duty rate

So it seems like this is only when you modify data to sell it overseas bypassing importing/exporting restriction, that's what I take from the whole document anyway.
 

Deleted member 11413

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
22,961
Yeah this is insane. 5 years in prison for modifying a product you paid for...so much for consumer rights.
 

ASaiyan

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,228
Same country that made it illegal to rent video games. The industry lobby is bizarrely strong there.