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Japan: Man arrested for hacking and selling Shiny Pokémon in Pokémon Sword & Shield

Serebii

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Oct 24, 2017
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ゲームのポケモン能力、不正に書き換えた疑い 男を逮捕：朝日新聞デジタル (asahi.com)
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According to this article from Asahi, a 23 year old man from Minami-ku, Nagoya violated the law by hacking and altering save data for Pokémon Sword & Shield. He admits the charges.

In April last year, he responded to a request from a 36 year old man in Kyoto to receive a Sobble. The accusation is that he modified details with his PC and sent the Sobble to the man in exchange for 4,400 yen. It is believed that the man has earned 1.15 million yen (approximately $10,000) for doing this service from November.

Currently no details on any fine and/or additional punishments (unless I missed it)

It's worth noting in Japan the editing of save data and distribution of edited data is illegal as of 2019
 
Phellps

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Oct 25, 2017
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Kind of wild that such minor thing is enough to give someone jail time in Japan. I knew they had laws against editing saves, but I figured it would be, like, a fine. Damn.
 
HardRojo

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Oct 25, 2017
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Wait, so if someone edited their Bloodborne save to play at 60 fps in Japan, they could go to jail?
 
RailWays

RailWays

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Oct 25, 2017
15,676
You can be arrested for that?

Dumb as hell. I Pokehex'd the shit out of my gen 5/6/7 mons.
 
OP
OP
Serebii

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HardRojo said:
Wait, so if someone edited their Bloodborne save to play at 60 fps in Japan, they could go to jail?
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In technicality yes, in practice it's most likely only going to be enforced in following scenarios

a) If person edits save and competes in esports with said save
b) Offers a save editing service
c) Distributes software or hardware to allow people to edit saves
 
Fiksi

Fiksi

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Oct 27, 2017
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I guess it doesn't help that he's making money off it? Seems intense though.
 
Pancracio17

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Wait editing save data is illegal in japan? what the fuck? I though the illegal bit would be making money off pokemon IP, not editing saves.
 
AnimaRize

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I've known about this law for a while, hacking is illegal in japan and mods are still considered hacking. Usually it doesn't get jail time just a fine if you are found out but it's a pretty big fine not really a small parking ticket fine, but most of the time they don't actually care enough to enforce it. That said this guy was also using it to make money which is why he got jailed for it
 
ryan13ts

ryan13ts

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Oct 28, 2017
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Good Lord this is so moronic. What a waste of time/resources to chase and arrest someone dealing in 'shinies'.... How evil, he must be stopped! *eye roll*

God, the stupid keeps snowballing the more I think about it.
 
Rosebud

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Passing Assassin said:
You can be arrested for illegally making money on counterfeit goods based on intellectual properties you don't own in most countries of the world yes.

Even though hacking for personal use is seemingly not allowed in Japan (unlike US) I doubt he'd have been arrested if it wasn't for his business.
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I just checked and there's people selling shinies at eBay
 
Kuga

Kuga

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Oct 25, 2017
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Utterly inane law. As far as I'm concerned, editing data / cheating in a single player game is victimless, and, while morally reprehensible, cheating in a multiplayer game should be policed by the developer or entity that provides the online services (e.g., Nintendo in this case). Why in the world should the government be involved?
 
Pancracio17

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Passing Assassin said:
You can be arrested for illegally making money on counterfeit goods based on intellectual properties you don't own in most countries of the world yes.

Even though hacking for personal use is seemingly not allowed in Japan (unlike US) I doubt he'd have been arrested if it wasn't for his business.
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This is true, but the excuse for the arrest is still hacking save data at the end of the day. I dont think thats a valid reason for an arrest at all, even selling them would not be enough imo. Its not like hes eating into Nintendos money too, they dont sell shinies either and you need pokemon and a switch to use the shinies the guy sold.
 
entremet

entremet

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Japan has some intense copyright laws. Isn't game rentals illegal there?
 

Deleted member 2791

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Pancracio17 said:
This is true, but the excuse for the arrest is still hacking save data at the end of the day. I dont think thats a valid reason for an arrest at all, even selling them would not be enough imo. Its not like hes eating into Nintendos money too, they dont sell shinies either and you need pokemon and a switch to use the shinies the guy sold.
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I do think it is reprehensible to charge 4500 yen people (which is what, 40$?) a hacked shiny pokémon. It's exploitation of guillible people, similar to the business of selling aimbots, game hacks etc. Arresting is definitely abusive but considering how aggressive TPC is about that I'm not very surprised.
 
Horohorohoro

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Jan 28, 2019
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I dunno how anyone can defend this. Who cares if it's the law? Even if he was cheating in multiplayer or some shit or selling off perfect IV shinies or something, that still shouldn't be arrestable or even a fine. It's a video game.

Japan has way bigger problems in terms of law (people like Watsuki getting away with a slap on the wrist while people found doing weed lose their job and go to prison)
 
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