# Japan's Unfair Competition Law Amended. Save Editing now illegal.



## SkittleDash (Jan 3, 2019)

Some of you may have heard of the "Unfair Competition Prevention Act" in Japan. If you haven't, I think you should read up on it and those who live in Japan may have to read the new lines on this law.

Japan has now made it illegal to save edit any game. No matter how little the edit may be, you could face 5 years in prison or fined _¥_5,000,000. That's roughly $46,360. Maybe both if you're caught and found guilty.

This law applies to everything. Be that the Switch, PS1 or your PC games. So be careful what you do with your games, Japan. It may just come back and bite you for just changing that one byte in your save.

What do you guys think of this? Was it wise of them to implement such law? Or will this go down in smoke? Who knows!

*SOURCE*


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## KiiWii (Jan 3, 2019)

That’s insane.

If it’s purely a crime for using online, it makes a little more sense but it’s a bit freaking harsh!

Offline for personal use should be allowed regardless... crazy.


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## gamesquest1 (Jan 3, 2019)

wow, this world never seems to struggle to find new sharks to jump, i could kinda understand online games where the editing gives people a competitive advantage, but even then, that is not something the government needs to get involved in, let the companies ban people for sure

have to wonder how specific it is, does it only count if you edit the save itself, whereas editing the game to produce the output you require then the game deals with saving those changes, technically you didn't edit the save, does it extend to using glitches to produce arbitrary results, either way it seems like something governments should stay the hell out of

as much as i dislike online cheaters unless they are doing some monetary damage such as causing servers to crash or making saves that corrupt other people progress i wouldn't want anyone to be facing a criminal case over, most of the time its just stupid kids who get a kick out of being trolls, kick them, ban them, deletes their progress etc i think that's a just enough punishment


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## SkittleDash (Jan 3, 2019)

KiiWii said:


> That’s insane.
> 
> If it’s purely a crime for using online, it makes a little more sense but it’s a bit freaking harsh!
> 
> Offline for personal use should be allowed regardless... crazy.



Yep... I find it stupid too. Though I don't know how they'd enforce this.


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## Clydefrosch (Jan 3, 2019)

Obviously it can only be applied to online things because no one can monitor your saves otherwise


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## linuxares (Jan 3, 2019)

I get the online parts, but even singleplayer? That's just harsh.


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## DinohScene (Jan 3, 2019)

Cheaters do not belong on online games, I agree with that but this is a bit to harsh..


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## gamesquest1 (Jan 3, 2019)

tbh i think its most likely just to shut down save modding services/companies like datel etc and game modding sites, depending on how strictly they enforce these rules it could essentially cripple pretty much any/all game mod sites

i mean even things like skyrim mods effectively result in "edited saves" this is why it really should be down to the companies to enforce if they decide they want to


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## Sakitoshi (Jan 3, 2019)

I think that is kinda harsh, but if you want people to stop doing things there is no better way.
It doesn't specify if this applies to competitive games only or not, but seems like it (hence the "unfair competition" name of the law).
One of the worst things in the competitive world is that save editing, while discouraged, is completely possible. Thanks to the hacking tools you can create a perfect team of pokemons and go to a competition without anyone noticing.


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## radicalwookie (Jan 3, 2019)

Changing a byte in a save game gets you arrested but being a racist or sexist is something that you see on daily basis and its accepted as a normal thing. Never change Japan.


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## andyhappypants (Jan 3, 2019)

Dont worry folks, Japanese people will be extinct in a few generations if they dont sort their shit out and start breeding!! 

Clearly prioritys are all out of whack. Lets continue whaling but make save editing illegal.... Idiotic at best!


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## NFates (Jan 3, 2019)

So what if I wanna get a Charizard on my Emerald save. That's illegal? 

Shouldn't be enforced on single-player / games without a competitive scene (like older Pokemon games).


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## TheMCNerd2017 (Jan 3, 2019)

Wow, this is very harsh. This should only extend to any online competitive games, not singleplayer games that have no online functionality at all. That's like saying it's highly illegal to give yourself infinite continues in an old Sega Genesis game.


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## Beerus (Jan 3, 2019)

NFates said:


> So what if I wanna get a Charizard on my Emerald save. That's illegal?
> 
> Shouldn't be enforced on single-player / games without a competitive scene (like older Pokemon games).


you could aways trade fire red with emerald or you could do a pomeg glitch


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## KingVamp (Jan 3, 2019)

I agree that this shouldn't be a law, let alone this harsh.


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## The Catboy (Jan 3, 2019)

This shouldn't be a law and it's just needlessly harsh. Cheaters should be punished, but that's what bans are for and there's no reason to make an entire law to punish cheaters. I can see where something like someone editing money into their online game should be handled with the law, that's actually fraud and a crime. But punishing people with legal action for cheating is just harsh, plus punishing them for cheating offline? How are they going to enforce such a ruling? I feel like enforcing such a law would require actually violating someone's privacy to do so.


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## NFates (Jan 3, 2019)

Beerus said:


> you could aways trade fire red with emerald or you could do a pomeg glitch


Both are possible but the point stands. It's easier to PkHex that Charizard in there, and no one is affected negatively.


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## MikaDubbz (Jan 3, 2019)

That is crazy.  Like I can understand it for multiplayer games, especially online ones with heavy competition scenes.  But why in the world would they care if I edited my save file for say an old single player game like Link's Awakening on my Gameboy Color?  I have to imagine they wouldn't be going after such people, but the wording of the law would definitely apply to them.  As such, they really need someone that knows what they're talking about writing up such laws, make the purpose of the law apply specifically for what they're after.


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## Hanafuda (Jan 3, 2019)

Good to see they're focusing on the important stuff.


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## Deleted_413010 (Jan 3, 2019)

SkittleDash said:


> Yep... I find it stupid too. Though I don't know how they'd enforce this.



They may force game companies to install tracking software to see if they're save editing or not


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## SkittleDash (Jan 3, 2019)

TheTechWiz25 said:


> They may force game companies to install tracking software to see if they're save editing or not



Won't be much use if they use the software offline only. And I mean offline. No internet.


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## osm70 (Jan 3, 2019)

The law said:
			
		

> ■法改正でなにが違法になったのか
> What makes illegal by legal revision
> 
> 以下の行為はすべて不正競争行為となり違法となります
> ...



Source:
http://www.sega-16.com/forum/showthread.php?34002-Japan-Bans-Console-Modding-Save-Editing


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## dimmidice (Jan 3, 2019)

This has to be a mistranslation. Those punishments are absurd.


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## Deleted_413010 (Jan 3, 2019)

dimmidice said:


> This has to be a mistranslation. Those punishments are absurd.



Maybe...maybe not. Let's hope for the best.


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## pasc (Jan 3, 2019)

*Checks Calendar, not April yet...*

Wat.

I mean... in competetive/online player scene, ok, but completly  ?

What about gameshark/action replay devices ?


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## dimmidice (Jan 3, 2019)

pasc said:


> *Checks Calendar, not April yet...*
> 
> Wat.
> 
> ...


Even online cheaters dont deserve 5 years in prison. It's just lunacy. I feel like this is aimed at companies offering products like that instead of the customers. At least i hope so. Still insane though.


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## the_randomizer (Jan 3, 2019)

Lol good  luck enforcing that.


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## pasc (Jan 3, 2019)

dimmidice said:


> Even online cheaters dont deserve 5 years in prison. It's just lunacy. I feel like this is aimed at companies offering products like that instead of the customers. At least i hope so. Still insane though.


I didn't agree to that kind of severe punishment... I meant in a minor way. Temp Ban or something.


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## Deleted_413010 (Jan 3, 2019)

Japan's starting to sound like a dictatorship with this new law.


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## MasterJ360 (Jan 3, 2019)

Oh boy incoming Verlisify and his supporters he would love this for sure. If its just save editing theres still a loop hole they can capture pkmn ingame with a cheat activated.
As long the pokemon still retains a legitimate status


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## chrisrlink (Jan 3, 2019)

if the US did the same shit  i would band together with thousands of nerds and overthrow the damn administration (you don't think Trump or congress would be stupid enough to impose such a law....welp i changed my mind on visiting Japan just now,on another note 5 years in prison for this shit? they'll overcrowd the prisons with cheaters even if they did nothing else wrong also who wants to bet Nintendo is behind this?

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

@the techwhiz which is why I'm axeing my plans to visit


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## MasterJ360 (Jan 3, 2019)

chrisrlink said:


> if the US did the same shit  i would band together with thousands of nerds and overthrow the damn administration (you don't think Trump or congress would be stupid enough to impose such a law....welp i changed my mind on visiting Japan just now,on another note 5 years in prison for this shit? they'll overcrowd the prisons with cheaters even if they did nothing else wrong also who wants to bet Nintendo is behind this?


Ikr dropping the soap just b/c we edited our save file just sounds way too unreal


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## Deleted User (Jan 3, 2019)

Pointless, people gonna do it anyway. People have been modding saves since the early days.

Actually, what if they intended to target game modding, but accidentally made it apply to only saves XD


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## chrisrlink (Jan 3, 2019)

trust me if i do go not bringing my switch or 2DS thats for damn sure


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## Viri (Jan 3, 2019)

I doubt they'll arrest any average players, probably just ban you online. I'm pretty sure this is mainly to scare and prevent any companies that sell save editing. Japan tends to be bias towards gaming publishers/devs, that's why game rentals are illegal there.


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## KingMuk (Jan 4, 2019)

The dumbest shit that the Jap's can do.
Overkill and beyond harsh.


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## PrincessLillie (Jan 4, 2019)

According to /r/KotakuInAction, this all seems to be the cause of an error in translation and interpretation. There is no evidence that this is illegal.
https://www.reddit.com/r/KotakuInAction/comments/ac63rm/ethics_there_is_no_evidence_that_save_game/


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## chrisrlink (Jan 4, 2019)

damn and i just blasted on facebook bout this shit i feel like a total dumbass


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## kuwanger (Jan 4, 2019)

I'm very curious how it's actually worded as a lot of games will import and export out updated versions of save game data which could be classified as "remodeling" of that data.  Honestly, any game that saves is save editing.  Speaking beyond that, there's in-game actions (save game glitches) that could qualify--there's a whole category of TASing devoted to it.  Finally, moving towards just editing in general:  all hexeditors could be said to apply since it covers the tools to make alterations and that's been often the key tool used by people, even if it's just to region change a save.

So, my long winded way of saying, this is absolutely absurd.


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## tianchris (Jan 4, 2019)

Well let's hope that it's just an error in translation. But if it's not an error guess in the future we'll start to see microtransaction in single player games. Want to get perfect pokemon please insert your credit card information to buy premium package. Tired of pidgey keep escape from ultra ball please buy this master ball package. Perhaps they would made a pokemon game where you have to spend stamina every steps you take and sell stamina package or even pokemon gacha. Well there's a lot of money to be made in microtransaction  that's for sure.


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## Emenaria (Jan 4, 2019)

SkittleDash said:


> Japan has now made it illegal to save edit any game. No matter how little the edit may be, you could face 5 years in prison or fined _¥_5,000,000. That's roughly $46,360. Maybe both if you're caught and found guilty.


This news is twisted. It's not like you can get caught for modifying your own save files/consoles.
These are what's been made illegal.
- 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.
Sources: https://www.reddit.com/r/Games/comments/abqpqo/save_game_editors_and_console_modding_services/
http://www2.accsjp.or.jp/activities/2018/pr6.php


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## KingVamp (Jan 4, 2019)

Well, that still doesn't sound good overall.


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## Bladexdsl (Jan 4, 2019)

only in japan...


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## DKB (Jan 4, 2019)

damn japan just got nae'd nae'd


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## Burai-ha (Jan 4, 2019)

So a mistranslation is now enough to turn a democratic country into a dictatorship. Wow.


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## kuwanger (Jan 4, 2019)

It sounds less like a mistranslation to me and more like there's wording that's meant to be specific but is still incredibly vague:  "the act of illegally obtaining specialized data provided by a partner who manages it in tandem with an ID or password has been newly positioned as an unfair business practice".  From the wording, it'd apply as much to Facebook tracking users based on embedded Google IDs or the reverse.  Really, the second an ID or password is involved, it sounds like any third party access not authorized would be illegal.  Of course, this is going off yet another person's translation and legalize is like its own separate language.  The notion that Japan wouldn't mean the worse interpretation because it's absurd ignores that even the US has pushed absurdly broad laws (DMCA) and then de facto not enforced it everywhere.  Yet, even today we're having the problem that a coffee maker are trying to ban 3rd party refillable cups using the DMCA.


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## Jokey_Carrot (Jan 4, 2019)

just because you paid for it doesn't mean it's yours, said absolutely no one


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## LightyKD (Jan 5, 2019)

The whole, not being able to sell game keys is bull shit. Not many places will just give you a refund for a game key. I swear, the people of Japan are smoking something.


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## Pauljames80 (Jan 7, 2019)

They introduced the law to make it illegal to make money from editing saves or modifing game console hardware. The rules of the law are it's illegal to distribute save editors. Illegal to sell modified game hardware and illegal to charge a saving editing service. The law doesn't stop you editing your own saves or modifing your own console. You can still post how to edit a save but can't make save editor to send to others but can provide instructions for them to make their own editor or tell how to decrypt and encypt saves.


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## LuxerWap (Jan 8, 2019)

I want them to enforce this rule. Nice job, Japan! You're starting to settle this out for the better!


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## deinonychus71 (Jan 8, 2019)

Nope, it's not April 1st. Damn.


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## AlphaBravo (Jan 8, 2019)

Wouldnt surprise me if its true as the japanese are often quite complicit towards authority and would see it as dishonorable to question these kind of laws. It could happen in the west to but no chance that you would face these kind of repercussions.


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## Redhorse (Jan 11, 2019)

don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet or not, but I wonder if any of this is in response to things like Frogminer or games that save edits might apply to etc... now I realize they're (frog miner)not the same but, maybe they're 'closing a door _*before *the cow leaves_' regarding the switch


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## zoogie (Jan 11, 2019)

Redhorse said:


> don't know if anyone's mentioned this yet or not, but I wonder if any of this is in response to things like Frogminer or games that save edits might apply to etc... now I realize they're (frog miner)not the same but, maybe they're 'closing a door _*before *the cow leaves_' regarding the switch


Yah, its all Frogminer's fault.


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## the_randomizer (Jan 11, 2019)

Lol good luck enforcing it, that'll be the day


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## zacchi4k (Jan 11, 2019)

Now *this *is a stupid law
I can list so many legitimate reasons one would want to manually edit a save file


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## Superman321 (Jan 12, 2019)

I think that this is stupid. I can understand they dont want that you cheat online but why?


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## Deleted User (Jan 17, 2019)

Emenaria said:


> This news is twisted. It's not like you can get caught for modifying your own save files/consoles.
> These are what's been made illegal.
> - Distribution of tools and programs for modifying game saves
> - Selling product keys and serials online without the software maker's permission
> ...


It's still harsh but at least the end user who wants to optimise their Pokemon without hours of breeding and EV training can legally do so.

I think that in the country where Nintendo and Sony work fucking miracles for the economy they have gained a bit too much political power.


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## chrisrlink (Jan 17, 2019)

ugh the day game companies own a freaking government will be the day everything goes to hell


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## Captain_N (Jan 21, 2019)

Im gonna head to japan and edit some empire earth singleplayer saves and say "and what" I changed 1 bit on a 20 year old game that yall never even heard of...... They really cant police this you know. Really they should have passed "editing your saves on 3ds and nintendo switch gives us the right to brick your console." that would have made more sense...


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## Zaphod77 (Mar 7, 2021)

The point of this law is to stop people from making hacked pokemon. 

Seriously, Someone got arrested for selling their services turning pokemon shiny for sword and shield.

If you accept any money for hacking a save, it's illegal in japan. 

If you make a program that can make pokemon shiny, you better not let anyone else have it if you are in Japan.  You will get arrested.

It's also against save game exploits for hacking consoles with. If you have an exploited save, you aren't allowed to distribute it to anyone else, because it's a modified save.

You can't distribute a program to modify someone else's save to put in a homebrew exploit either.  

Powersaves are still not illegal, but only if they were not modified. Any save with an exploit in it is modified.  Cheat codes from cheat devices don't usually directly modify the save, so it's okay to save a cheat, because the save isn't what's modified.  But no oot3thax powersaves allowed in Japan. No hexing items and stats into your powersave.

Yes, this law would have blocked distribution of ps2 independence (though sony simply didn't care until hdloader.elf showed up, since until then, you couldn't pirate with the exploit.)


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## ShadowOne333 (Mar 7, 2021)

And this, guys and gals, is yet one more reason why I will never set a foot in Japan, ever lol


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## Jokey_Carrot (Mar 7, 2021)

Imagine getting ass fucked in jail because you used action replay codes on mariokart ds.


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## RichardTheKing (Mar 8, 2021)

What the absolute hell kinda law is this? Yet another way I'm lucky to be a "Westerner"...


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