Japanese police make first arrest under new anti-piracy legislation
Man taken into custody for alleged sales of copy-protection avoidance device
A 39 year old man has been arrested in Saitama, in Japan's Aichi Prefecture, for the alleged sale of devices intended to circumvent anti-piracy measures.
He is the first person to be charged for the violation of a law which was introduced several years ago, but was only reinforced by the addition of criminal penalties for "the act of providing devices to circumvent technological restriction measures," in December, 2011, reports Wired's Gamelife.
Whilst selling piracy devices has been against the law for some time, the practice carried no real penalty, meaning that devices could be confiscated but nobody charged. As a result, the sale of these "majikon" devices remained commonplace.
The arrest was made public by Nintendo, which suffered greatly at the hands of the R4 card and its variants, which allowed piracy to become rife on the DS family of handhelds. The company is hoping that public knowledge of the penalties now attached to the practice will deter any further sales, telling press that "we hope that these devices will disappear from the marketplace in light of this recent action."