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Save game editors and console modding now illegal in Japan

delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,697
Boston, MA
Japanese legal law explanation:

http://www2.accsjp.or.jp/activities/2018/pr6.php

News article explaining this:

http://psgamenews.net/1218

English info (thus far, from Libretro/RetroArch developer, Brad Parker):

Due to an amendment in December 2018 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act in Japan, certain gaming-related activities and services have now been declared illegal. This includes:

- Distribution of tools and programs for modifying game saves
- Selling product keys and serials online without the software maker's permission
- Game save and console modding services

As such, sales of products such as Pro Action Replay and Cybergadget's "Save editor" have been discontinued.
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I have no idea if there were prior threads about this. If yes, please close this thread. Thanks.

I did search "Japan save" and no threads popped up.
 
Last edited:
dom

dom

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,453
No translation instead of relying on google?
 
Taco_Human

Taco_Human

Member
Jan 6, 2018
4,237
MA
Hmm no translation so no details...you think this means people won't be legally allowed to mod HDMI into older consoles or stuff like that?
 
OP
OP
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,697
Boston, MA
Taco_Human said:
Hmm no translation so no details...you think this means people won't be legally allowed to mod HDMI into older consoles or stuff like that?
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domthybomb said:
No translation instead of relying on google?
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YES, that's the current problem. We don't have a translated article about this right now, because it has just become illegal. I think it has started to enforce the law on January 2, 2019.... I could totally be wrong here.

Otherwise we would be seeing English articles everywhere.

EDIT:

The only known information about this law is:

Due to an amendment in December 2018 of the Unfair Competition Prevention Act in Japan, certain gaming-related activities and services have now been declared illegal. This includes:

- Distribution of tools and programs for modifying game saves
- Selling product keys and serials online without the software maker's permission
- Game save and console modding services

As such, sales of products such as Pro Action Replay and Cybergadget's "Save editor" have been discontinued.
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Click to shrink...

From Libretro/RetroArch developer, Brad Parker.
 
dom

dom

▲ Legend ▲
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
10,453
I wonder if the PS4 save editor team will silently release their decryption method now? Is Save Wizard also affected?
 
Aters

Aters

Banned
Oct 26, 2017
7,948
Console modding is illegal? So people can't mess with what they purchased and is rightfully theirs?
 

Syril

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,895
Reminds me of that time when Konami sued and actually successfully blocked the sale of memory cards that had modified Tokimeki Memorial saves on them on the basis that modifying saves created a derivative work.
 
headspawn

headspawn

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,619
Console Modding Services

I feel like that's a big difference from whats in the title, unless there is some supplemental material that specifies differently. I thought consoles modding services were kind of frowned upon all over the place.
 
signal

signal

Member
Oct 28, 2017
40,199
lol going to check local store to see if they are still selling this then

FubwEcs.jpg
 
Encephalon

Encephalon

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,856
Japan
It's Japan, so expect it to be needlessly draconian as possible. Hopefully this doesn't kill the retro console repair service I found last year.

The modification of old consoles' video output is a particularly stupid casualty.

The thing is, why now? This might have made sense during the PS2 era, but who is modding their consoles to play pirated games in Japan now? Like, why does this exist?
 

MajorBritten

Banned
Nov 2, 2017
1,080
Aters said:
Console modding is illegal? So people can't mess with what they purchased and is rightfully theirs?
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Probably more a case that you cant mod and then sell it as it doesn't meet the original manufacturers guidelines and lack of permission from them. Another reason is people modding their systems to play illegally downloaded roms/Iso. If you think about people/companies buying hardware, taking it apart and modifying it to play illegal games and then selling it on for a profit, it makes sense.

The law itself is rather vague, is modding a 20 year old piece of hardware so that it is usable on modern televisions considered illegal, or replacing a part that has broken that the original manufacturer no longer offers to do? (like replacing a cracked Game boy screen or dead DS battery).
 

Deleted member 2474

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
4,318
The phrasing suggests modding a console or save file yourself isn't illegal, but selling console modding or save file editing as a product/service is.

Still, terrible law regardless.
 
OP
OP
delete12345

delete12345

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 17, 2017
19,697
Boston, MA
signal said:
lol going to check local store to see if they are still selling this then

FubwEcs.jpg
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Per Libretro dev, it should be discontinued within the foreseeable future.
headspawn said:
Console Modding Services

I feel like that's a big difference from whats in the title, unless there is some supplemental material that specifies differently. I thought consoles modding services were kind of frowned upon all over the place.
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Title was copied from the Libretro dev's post title here:

https://www.reddit.com/r/emulation/...game_editors_and_console_modding_now_illegal/

So I don't know what to say.
 
ZeroDotFlow

ZeroDotFlow

Member
Oct 27, 2017
928
God damn what a horrible and stupid law. Made worse by the fact that Japan is very, very strict on people who violate laws even in the tiniest of manners, so this is going to discourage a lot of things.

For example, what about romhacking? Why should it be illegal for me to grab a hex editor or what not to modify my own save? Or what if I want to purchase an HDMI upgrade for my n64? It's so damn vague and wide-reaching that it's going to be use carte blanche by companies to throw people in jail for very innocuous things. And if online cheating is an issue then they should stop storing valuable things locally!
 
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