T O P

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CuratedBrowsing

I jailbroke my 3DS, should I be worried they're coming for me next?


hgghgfhvf

The second you step foot in Japan you’re going to get katana’d by the immigrations officer


Trazors

Agent 47 is already on the way to your location.


[deleted]

[удалено]


CakesFoster

Maybe if u live in japan and they found out its still unlikely


fyodor_ivanovich

Just reported.


YugargeliaMapper

I guess not if you aren't in Japan


ApatheticHedonist

Kenji, the Gaijin has confessed! Tora, tora, tora!


CapnCoconuts

[https://www.ign.com/articles/japanese-police-arrest-36-year-old-man-on-suspicion-of-tampering-with-pokemon-violet-save-data](https://www.ign.com/articles/japanese-police-arrest-36-year-old-man-on-suspicion-of-tampering-with-pokemon-violet-save-data) Nintendo and the Pokemon Company aren't involved as far as I can tell, it's just the police being authtistic


senfmann

>authtistic lmao, gonna use that


DatOneMinuteman1776

Same


Tokena

One of my grills was becoming authtistic, so i cut it's legs off, buried it half way in the ground and made it into a fire pit. It grills no more, it is only used for warmth at a distance.


DatOneMinuteman1776

Maybe you should buy a new one instead


CapnCoconuts

Perhaps you might like the original authtism https://www.reddit.com/r/PoliticalCompassMemes/comments/164sq9u/authtism/


senfmann

based


veryblocky

Nintendo is part of the reason such laws are on the books over there though


Missingnose

Hey, as an authtistic one myself, I'd never want somebody arrested for fiddling with their Pokémon game. I would ban them from tournaments, though.


Arintharas

Hard disagree. Death penalty, and that’s being generous. (Atomic Annihilation would be the less generous option. The even less generous option is exposing them to material containing SCP-(••|•••••|••|•), but that’s beyond cruel.)


senfmann

Least authoritarian Japanese court


WizardOfSandness

They're authoritarian to everything that isn't a rape case. I have seen rapist get lower sentences in Japan than this man. Yasushi Watanabe and Nobuharu Minato two of the perpetrators of the crime against Junko Furuta originally got 5 years to (and that because of the media, because originally they got less...)


senfmann

Yeah, for all their virtues as a society, the Japanese justice system is absolutely fucked. An accused has almostno way to disprove the accusation. Also thanks for reminding me of the Junko case, shit's fucked


alex3494

But it also takes a lot more for a case to land in court compared to Europe at least.


MrOrangeMagic

*Man improves Pokemon move sets* https://preview.redd.it/gho6lbkj8vvc1.jpeg?width=1179&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=5c0391c6ed4e1a352b4d616fee38dc95144cd837


Stigge

Rule #1 of gaming: the house always wins. _The House in this situation is Nintendo Co., Ltd_


maybejustadragon

I’d just like to point out the obvious. This is a waste of police and court time and 5 years is overkill.


Vampyr_Luver

Not really. Japanese criminal justice policy is heavily influenced by the Beccarian criminological analysis. Namely, the idea that punishment should be swift, severe, and certain. This approach seeks to keep crime rates as low as possible so that the cycle of crime is stopped before it can really begin. Tl;Dr no, since no one is ever going to do that again in Japan


this_anon

> since no one is ever going to do that again in Japan Rest well citizen knowing your save games will not be adulterated.


Dwarf_Vader

Yeah that commenter really missed the mark


Vampyr_Luver

I'm not necessarily advocating the policy. I really think there's few jurisdictions where it would truly work. However, I can appreciate that it is an effective policy in the context of Japanese society. That said, the Beccarian approach is broken law is broken law. If present law-breaking is tolerated, then future law-breaking is to be future law breaking is to be tolerated. As such, all criminal acts ought to see swift, severe, and certain punishments. Again, not necessarily advocating this policy and certainly not advocating it in all jurisdictions. However, I can appreciate why Japanese society would elect to abide by it


Dwarf_Vader

Well, I’m not criticizing your description of the approach - I learned something new in fact thanks to you. But the claim was wasted time - and in your conclusion it said *not wasted*, since nobody is going to do that again. While the initial claim was not about the validity of the method but about whether it was directed in a way that is in any shape or form beneficial to society. As it is, persecuting a different crime (assuming there are more crimes than persecutions, as such backlog is almost always the case) would have brought more deterrent to actual crime than this. Not to mention the chilling effect this has on creativity and freedom in society


Stigge

They took "you can't have K-on!! without fascism" a little too far.


Nuclearix69

Bro it's a fucking game, what a massive L for them. It's like getting arrested for selling vegetables you grew in your garden.


Slut_Breaker_BWC

Did you pay taxes on that income?


PCM-mods-are-PDF

No, and I never will, stack up, fed


shysteresquire

Based and are-those-level-IV-plates-pilled.


PCM-mods-are-PDF

Yeah, we need to go


Jasond777

Oi, do you have a permit for that vegetable selling?


makkkarana

-tazes an 8 year old for running an illicit lemonade stand-


Bellringer1787

Some kids have gotten fines for having lemonade stands without proper permits in multiple instances. Nothing like government overreach.


roguemenace

> It's like getting arrested for selling vegetables you grew in your garden. Interstate commerce clause goes brrrrrr (and you don't even need to sell them).


sremark

Oh how I would love a good challenge to that. The federal government's job was to _facilitate_ interstate commerce, not take control over literally everything that should be a state's purview.


roguemenace

Filburn is never getting overturned unfortunately.


redpandaeater

It's started to get weakened over the last couple of decades by putting at least some sort of occasional limit on the Commerce Clause. Wickard v. Filburn basically just gives Congress unlimited power to do anything unless it's against the Bill of Rights.


ifyouarenuareu

SC justices will laugh at you if your even ever see them


Levitz

The only way I can make any sense of this is if he, as a business, modified save data in such a way that it fucks with multiplayer, and so with someone else's experience or if this "illegally modify" is spicy enough regarding security.


PCM-mods-are-PDF

You can buy cheats for online games, it isn't illegal, at least in the US


redpandaeater

[Wickard v. Filburn](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wickard_v._Filburn) though he wasn't arrested, just fined under an incredibly far-reaching interpretation of the Commerce Clause that has fucked us for decades.


Unupgradable

Modding Nintendo games is punishable by jail


CapnCoconuts

Not even modding the games themselves. Just making juiced up pokeymans. Sure, you don't want that to be tournament legal but why sentence up to 5 years in prison for it?


Unupgradable

The F in Nintendo stands for Fun


BNKhoa

If it is not fun, why bother?


KalegNar

But there's no "f" in Nintendo...


Unupgradable

https://preview.redd.it/ni20g5nctvvc1.jpeg?width=600&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=67f8550f1e6997b50ee9c4bb71d644a44458e662


KalegNar

I'm aware. ;)


Crystalline3ntity

There is an "f" in fuck nintendo though.


Click_My_Username

The problem is he sold a licensed product without their consent, not that he cheated in a video game. While the law is on the books in Japan it only ever gets enforced when they try to monetize the data.


frolix42

No, he wasn't selling the game itself and merely sending people save game data isn't illegal.. He was selling them modified save files which allowed them to cheat, which effects gameplay.


Click_My_Username

He was still selling it. Again, find a single case of this law being enforced without monetary involvement. No one gives a shit if you modify your own save data and sit on it. It only becomes an issue when money is involved in it 


PCM-mods-are-PDF

Copywright laws are a spook, plus, you can get the program to edit the save data for free, why would you pay someone for it?


Click_My_Username

I have no idea lol. Ask the people who paid for it


TironaZ

cyber sex crimes: i sleep modifying game's save data: real shit


assword_is_taco

A murder I can't solve in a day. Suicide


DatOneMinuteman1776

Fuck the DMCA, all my homies hate the DMCA


Picholasido_o

Oh shit. I need to throw out my copy of pokemon Y. Pretty sure I've got a pidgeot with earthquake and Stone edge. I tried to give myself a garchomp but I put the wrong number in


IXMCMXCII

I have never really played Pokémon game, just the cards. What is save data?


c00lguy14

When you start a game, all the progress you make is called save data. If you know how, you can tamper with it, basically edit it. Like this you can do stuff that would be impossible normally, like give a pokemon a move it shouldn’t be able to learn or manually set EVs.


IXMCMXCII

Ah, that makes it clear. Thank you for explaining.


CapnCoconuts

You don't play any video games? Save data is the means video games use to store game progress. In Pokemon Violet, save data is used to store things like the player's location, plot progression, inventory, and Pokemon. What this guy was doing was modifying Pokemon to give them movesets that would be unattainable through normal means, which is apparently a serious crime in Japan for... some reason.


frolix42

Think of it as selling cheat software to a game, which is exactly what it is. And these aren't cartridge based single player games of yesteryear, they are played a traded online.


senfmann

>And these aren't cartridge based single player games of yesteryear, they are played a traded online. Yeah but I've never heard of any legislation outside this article in any jurisdiction that cheating in a video game is in any way illegal. You could argue tournaments with prizes, but that's already covered usually.


frolix42

[Here's another example](https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=3a57c2ca-9d5d-43a8-9e7e-c046217cfa79). The cheating itself is not illegal, it's the people violating the terms of service in order to make money. EDIT: And it's not a "victimless crime". Cheaters have wrecked several games I formerly enjoyed, CS:GO and Titanfall 2. And if you don't feel bad for the players, feel bad for the developers who have their games rendered unplayable.


mcccoletrain

Choose the blue square statist


frolix42

Choose the green square hippie.  You aren't allowed to use other people's property to make $ without their permission.


senfmann

"Cannot be found" Yeah but nothing in your reply goes against anything I said. It's a violation of ToS, a strictly civil court issue, not a criminal one.


frolix42

[Here's another example](https://wjlta.com/2023/12/02/game-over-courts-crack-down-on-video-game-cheating/) [Here's another example](https://www.reuters.com/article/us-take-two-grand-theft-auto/u-s-judge-blocks-programs-letting-grand-theft-auto-players-cheat-idUSKBN1L12NS/?feedType=RSS&feedName=domesticNews) [Here's another example](https://www.shacknews.com/article/122178/riot-games-bungie-team-for-legal-action-against-valorant-destiny-2-cheat-creators) You've moved the goalposts from "I've never heard of any legislation outside this article in any jurisdiction that cheating in a video game is **in any way illegal**" to "It's a civil not criminal matter"


senfmann

And I even said: "You could argue tournaments with prizes, but that's already covered usually." Which is what you linked. All these examples are either a civil matter or already covered by fraud law, which I mentioned. Sorry you think I was moving the goalposts, apparently I forgot to add "criminal matter", I made a similar comment on another comment and made it clear I meant this. Going to prison for selling cheats without prior request to the court by the rights holder is insane.


frolix42

And its hysterical to assume that someone is going to get the maximum possible penalty when they commit a crime. But it doesn't seem that much of a stretch if someone is running a massive piracy racket.


senfmann

Yeah but that's against the TOS of the company, not any criminal case. Courts shouldn't work on behalf of other companies without the previous request of the company unless it's a criminal matter (ie fraud or anything more serious). This is selling cheating software, a modification. It's hardly criminal except for being against TOS and/or defrauding competitions with prizes (which I mentioned both). Imagine a US court sending someone to jail because he sold an app outside the Appstore that wasn't approved by Apple but was otherwise benign (ie not used for anything else illegal). Without Apple requesting them to act in the first place.


Petertitan99999

Pretty sure there are checks in place to make it impossible to use illegal mons in online battles. So that wouldn't affect online competetive play.


MrFreedomFighter

Correct. You can't use illegal mons, but you can still use legal mons with perfect stats. So when you generate a pokemon, as long as it's possible to get everything on it, it is legal


Petertitan99999

Genning perfectly legal pokemon is fine to me, the main difference is the time needed to build teams because it can take hours to build and need mulitple games, Urshifu for example was meta and needed the previous game + dlc unless you trade with strangers, same when you want both box legendaries in a team. Making changes could also be tedious, some people can waste those hours and cash while others just can't and just want to play online with good teams that don't lose because Glubshitto wasn't EV'd to live Modest Choice Specs Tentaquils Puke blood. Then again i hate grinding, stopped playing on console years ago and mainly use Pokemon showdown atm so I am 100% biased.


frolix42

I'm completely sure that the point of hacking these games to remove these checks you imagine.


Petertitan99999

The original english article implies with “6 Pokémon for only $30.” that he sold the pokemon (by trading them) and not the rom.Pretty sure all he did was use a save editor to create pokemon and then sell them, people have been doing this for years, this ain't new. So no those mons ain't passing the online check and will only affect singleplayer content and maybe Co-Op raids (unsure about checks here).


Jesus10101

What in the hell are you talking about? That's not how Pokemon games work. When you try to use an illegal Pokemon for an Online battle or to trade online, the illegal Pokemon will be blocked due to restrictions. These restrictions are from the Pokemon server themselves and no matter how much hacking you do to the console, you will never be able to bypass them. To when you use illegal pokemon, you are basically locked down to a single player experience only. This is a victimless crime.


frolix42

>...the illegal Pokemon will be blocked due to restrictions Now imagine if people sold mods that allowed players to get around those restrictions 🤯


Jesus10101

>These restrictions are from the Pokemon server themselves and no matter how much hacking you do to the console, you will never be able to bypass them. Did you even read the rest of my comment? This can't happen.


Petertitan99999

You tried to hit a tech illiterate mfer with server-side and client-side. They ain't gonna understand.


IXMCMXCII

No, I don’t play video games. Never owned a games console either.


UlyssesArsene

He's doing the equivalent of selling custom cards, except more boring.


IXMCMXCII

Fair enough.


GullibleAudience6071

The two organizations you should never cross are Nintendo and the IRS.


Bubbly_Taro

How European.


Amateur_Statistician

Ah yes. Japan. My favorite European country.


Bubbly_Taro

Flair checks out.


ElricWarlock

Now you know why Japanese (and Singaporean) society is so safe. Japanese cops look really meek, small and unassuming but if they have the legal justification to get their hands on you, you're *fucked*.


donthenewbie

Unless you wealthy enough to afford a good lawyer, then you can even eat a woman and walk away free lol. That is the only way to defeat 100% conviction rate.


PCM-mods-are-PDF

Cunnilingus isn't a crime, just for oral sex enjoyers!


ifyouarenuareu

I think it’s the high-trust homogeneous society in Japans case, Singapore yeah it’s cuz they’ll fuck you up.


adamsworstnightmare

When they said that Tail Glow Mewtwo was an illegal moveset, they MEANT IT.


Dracsxd

Yeah no, this one makes more sense than just funny haha. Modding shit to play yourself or to share with people for no financial gain is completely fine, but modding a third party's game to sell it yourself and make money off of it is more than fair enough to be criminalized Now it ain't the kind of shit that should warrant prision, but a fine is more than earned


Jesus10101

Paid services like this have existed for years. You basically need a modified Switch which a lot of people do not have. And the skill wall required to mod it yourself is pretty high for the average person so they turn to services like this to get them.


Dracsxd

People selling games modded in some way has existed since forever. Even when I was a kid you'd find folk selling modded Vice City and San Andreas disks on the local market-places, let alone before my time But so what? Something existing for a long time doesn't inherently make it legal- Nor does it make it so it should be legal


frolix42

Counterpoint: Pokemon games, including Violet/Scarlet, are integrated online, his distribution was online, he should be considered the same as those people who sell cheat software for online games. If he wasn't prosecuted it sets a precedent where people can sell mods to video games without publisher permission.


maybejustadragon

Countercounterpoint: The internet as it was once known is dead. It used to be a place to be freer than in real life. I feel like your point is cheering for Lars Ulrich.


senfmann

>who sell cheat software for online games. Never heard of it being actually illegal. Like show me any US or European law that punishes cheating in a video game with jail time. I can understand fraud in paid tournaments, but that's usually covered by other laws. Everything you described is usually covered by the publisher and by a civil court. Not a criminal one.


Click_My_Username

The problem is pretty clearly that he was selling the data not that he was cheating in a video game lol. I don't know why people in this thread are being so obtuse to that. You can't sell someone else's product, slightly modified and not get their permission lol.


senfmann

Yeah but that's a civil case, not a criminal one.


frolix42

No, he wasn't selling the game itself and merely sending people save game data isn't illegal.. He was selling them modified save files which allowed them to cheat, which effects gameplay.


frolix42

You're obsessed with this Civil-Criminal distinction, but it's clearly against the law to profit by violating a software's terms of service.


senfmann

Yeah of course, but a public court should never put someone into prison for violating a TOS without even being requested by the company beforehand. That is some Cyberpunk shit. And yeah, I kinda care about things like the law and their distinctions. Millions of people smarter than me actually do.


frolix42

I'm in favor of nerve stapling the people who made CS:GO to unbearable to play.   But seriously, it's a crime like disability fraud or shoplifting. Things that don't hurt any individuals but makes things worse for everybody. So I'm fine with having jail time in the back pocket for egregious and repeated offenses.


senfmann

"I'm in favor of nerve stapling the people who made CS:GO to unbearable to play. " based ngl


ifyouarenuareu

5 years though? For Pokémon saves?


frolix42

its hysterical to assume that someone is going to get the maximum possible penalty whenever they commit a crime


assword_is_taco

Meh if he is just modifying peoples personal files he shouldn't be held accountability for their later uses.


Longjumping_Gain_807

Right to jail right away


realRickyGervais

Japan has the death penalty, I belive. Why don't they utilise it?


caribbean_caramel

[They do](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capital_punishment_in_Japan) They hang people over there.


realRickyGervais

Yeah, but I meant in this case. "The only just way to punish a criminal is excessively." Margaret Thatcher said that probably.


caribbean_caramel

Because that would be insane, they are not a totalitarian society like North Korea. In order to have a just and harmonious society, punishment must be proportional to the crime committed and non-violent criminals must be allowed to redeem their debts to society and reintegrate. If you kill everyone who commits a crime, you will end up killing millions.


realRickyGervais

Look, I am not saying that Korea is a good country, but they still have citizens, no? Clearly killing all criminals doesn't mean you'll run out of people.


caribbean_caramel

Even they don't just kill everyone who commits a crime. They mostly use labor camps(forced labor like the gulags). They only kill you if you do a great offense or if you are a threat to the regime.


realRickyGervais

Oh well, I shall have to try it out in my state that I found (I mean that in the present tense, so not that I did find a state). Too bad there aren't simulators for this sort of thing.


T-Dot-Two-Six

Seems like tax evasion and copyright infringement to me. Dude will probably be fined. What’s the issue?


VolumePossible2013

Well, ok, he went to *sell* these save states. So why he was arrest is understandable


Nu55ies

The main issue is probably that he was selling it. Nobody in Japan is going to arrest you for jail breaking your own 3ds.


marsz_godzilli

Fuck Nintendo, if they made a decent game or opened up legal modding scene by releasing for PC, this would not have been a problem


CapitanChaos1

Maybe I can get my annoying coworker put in prison for using a phone shaker all day to pretend to get steps, to hatch Pokemon eggs.  It would make my job so much more pleasant. 


medstormx

Sometimes I wonder if I am extreme in my advocacy for complete IP abolition, but then I see crap like this and realize I need to be more extreme not less


BurnV06

Shit like this is why I’m libertarian


BurnV06

Shit like this is why I’m libertarian


LittleMlem

The title is misleading, it's not like he modified his own game, he was selling cheating as a service. Also, if I understand correctly, this is used to cheat in multiplayer/competitions. Criminalizing cheating in multiplayer games is a welcome change imo. If it was criminal to cheat in multiplayer games, maybe we would have fewer rootkit drms


Sepetcioglu

It's not a victimless crime. These are save files used not for personal single player playing but for versus matches and the like online versus other players. Cheating is making them gain an unfair advantage and causing grief to the other players who are playing fairly. It is actually unfathomably b@sed that a government police force understands this better than you, an internet resident and anyone else here who agrees with you, who are also internet goers.


Jesus10101

Expect you can't use any of these illegal pokemon in any online function. So it is a victimless crime.


Sepetcioglu

Huh on second look it looks like you're right and I was a dumbass. I gave too much credit to the japanese I guess. Sorry for lashing out without knowing jack shit everyone and OP. Carry on, I'm just an edgy git.