While it's common to hear about the police or Nintendo itself going after hackers selling modified consoles, it's a bit more out of the ordinary for them to target someone hacking game files. In Japan, and as of a fairly recent law passing in 2019, editing video game save files is an illegal act, which is why a 23-year-old was arrested for doing so. The man had been "illegally" modifying his save data in order to obtain rare Shiny Pokemon, and then selling them. He managed to make over 1.15 million yen, or around $10,000 dollars by selling shinies to customers, being finally caught after he sold a Shiny Sobble to someone for $41 dollars. Arrested in Nagoya City, Japan, the suspect admitted his guilt, claiming he had been editing save files and profiting from it since November 2020.

Source: Asahi News - Translation Courtesy of Serebii

 

[MrCokeacola]

What country isn't cucked in current year?

North Korea.

 

[xdarkx]

The guy was making a profit out of other people intellectual property, so it does make sense he would get arrested. If he were to give those shiny Pokemon away for free and still got arrested, then there is a problem.

 

[NoNAND]

What country isn't cucked in current year?

Eastern Europe, arabs, turks, Iranians etc

 

[chrisrlink]

The guy was making a profit out of other people intellectual property, so it does make sense he would get arrested. If he were to give those shiny Pokemon away for free and still got arrested, then there is a problem.

yes but that puts japan in dangerous terirtory.....say if you and I hate each other,in you lived in Japan I give you a hacked mon and tell the japanese authorities you cheated guess who goes to prison for breaking the law....you cause i live in the US and no such law exist here a dick move i know but i can see people actually doing this

 

[xdarkx]

yes but that puts japan in dangerous terirtory.....say if you and I hate each other,in you lived in Japan I give you a hacked mon and tell the japanese authorities you cheated guess who goes to prison for breaking the law....you cause i live in the US and no such law exist here a dick move i know but i can see people actually doing this

I don't know what that has anything to do with this arrest since this is about a guy being arrested for selling shiny Pokemon, and not about a guy receiving a hacked Pokemon.

 

[CMDreamer]

They should check on online auction sites too, there's lot of those.

 

[raxadian]

Well... good thing I don't live in Japan.

 

[chrisrlink]

I don't know what that has anything to do with this arrest since this is about a guy being arrested for selling shiny Pokemon, and not about a guy receiving a hacked Pokemon.

the language of the law afaik is pretty vauge so ttheoreticly it could be covered as an offence

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

They should check on online auction sites too, there's lot of those.

but do the sellers live in Japan is the question

 

[Soulsilve2010]

Nintendo does it again!They have to be the most aggressive company in existence.Wonder how long they had someone stalk THIS guy for.

Edit:It's claimed Nintend ohad nothing to do with the arrest but I don't buy it at all when they will gladly send spies after homebrewers.

 

[chrisrlink]

also found a list of things illegal under that specific law fyi:

Rom Hacks are Illegal
Translation patches are Illegal
Emulators are Illegal
Third-party repair is Illegal
All Hardware Modifications which includes Installing a Capture Card is Illegal
all forms of Data Manipulation which includes Jail Breaking, Cyber Security Breaching. Save editing in Phones Online Games Consoles etc is Illegal
Japan really crossed the line (for me) with third party repair being illegal
I am not going there now

 

[Justinde75]

gotta hide nobody here has seen me okay

 

[Ace001]

Ludicrous but hey the guy was selling it so he got what he deserved.

 

[MochaMilk]

I see a lot of people bashing the law that got that person arrested. But in all honesty, his behavior is one of the reasons games like Pokémon are so broken and unfun to play online. Completely ruins the experience for other players and it's pretty much cheating the flow of how things work in the game. While I definitely think that arresting people for this is a bit of much of a punishment, it's good to have people respect the small things if they want them to respect the bigger things.

 

[xdarkx]

the language of the law afaik is pretty vauge so ttheoreticly it could be covered as an offence

Again I have no clue what you are on about. I'm only talking about just this case. None of the other laws that you are bringing is relevant to this case.

Here's an analogy. Let say you drew something and posted it on Instagram. Some guy saw your drawing and decides to copy the draw. He then sell the drawing as is off eBay without your permission nor pay you any royalty whatsoever. Are you saying it's okay for this guy to be doing this?

 

[grey72]

also found a list of things illegal under that specific law fyi:

Rom Hacks are Illegal
Translation patches are Illegal
Emulators are Illegal
Third-party repair is Illegal
All Hardware Modifications which includes Installing a Capture Card is Illegal
all forms of Data Manipulation which includes Jail Breaking, Cyber Security Breaching. Save editing in Phones Online Games Consoles etc is Illegal
Japan really crossed the line (for me) with third party repair being illegal
I am not going there now

This reads like a list of stuff Nintendo would lobby for

 

[BlazeMasterBM]

Damn... arrested simply for chasing down the bag............

 

[ElYubiYubi]

Maybe not really relatable but thats why the 3DS Capture Company went out of business because modifying a console became ilegal alongside some other laws.

But many countries has stupid laws like in US the Copyright law is a joke like now you can go to jail literally for Twitch and YouTube

 

[raxadian]

This reads like a list of stuff Nintendo would lobby for

They most likely did.

 

[driverdis]

Lots of good reasons to bash Japan’s law here but I see parts of this law existing in the UK and US as part of the DMCA and Europe’s flavor of it once someone actually 21st centurytizes the law so it is current and references today’s devices.

 

[CrossOut]

If he loses this lawsiut all those ones that sell the hacked Pokemon on Ebay could get hit next,in Japan a least. The laws are differnet in other countries so the rest of the world should be fine.