Suspended Prison sentence for Switch modder: Another victory for Nintendo

[NotGodlike]

So... They can now decide over what you do with your property after you have, you know, brought it? After it's yours? The WHOLE POINT of ownership is that the party that sold it to you doesn't have a say on whatever you do with it. It's out of their jurisdiction.

Ubisoft seems to get away just fine with The Crew

 

[ShinnAsukaYESTaylorSwiftNO]

So... They can now decide over what you do with your property after you have, you know, brought it? After it's yours? The WHOLE POINT of ownership is that the party that sold it to you doesn't have a say on whatever you do with it. It's out of their jurisdiction.

And the sickest thing is that the law is siding with them instead of laughing them out of the room and fineing them for wasting everyone's time.

What a bright future we are heading towards.

This is literally a major component of the World Economic Forum's dastardly plan - the "Great Reset".
"You'll own nothing and be happy."

 

[Baloo]

Lot of hot takes in this thread. There is a key distinction between owning hardware and software, modifying that software legally (and illegally) under copyright law, the DMCA, and fair use doctrines, what copyright exactly applies to in the US, what countries have signed onto copyright conventions respecting the US (or Japan's laws) and many other nuances.

The key thing is that copyright under the US constitution's regime provides the copyright holder the ability to reproduce work you own the copyright in yourself and prevent others from recreating those same works. That includes software in its executable form, artwork, sprites, and even individual code portions since US Supreme Court has never definitively stated whether computer code is copyrightable. But it extends to save files, digital games, physical games, etc.

With respect to the gentleman jailed in Japan, he apparently bought Switches and then loaded them with pirated software. Just in the same way buying a book doesn't allow you to operate a printing press and make copies, buying a video game doesn't allow you to modify its contents and spread it all over the internet or to reload it onto compatible modified hardware that you bought.

Once you get into selling others copyrighted content, all bets are off. Just because you buy a video game does not give you the right to edit it and sell it in a derivative form, such as romhacks. Derivative works that use copyrighted material are not even covered themselves by copyright. See Micro Star v. FormGen Inc. 154 F.3d 1107 (9th Cir. 1998)


Modifying hardware and software is a different story, and sometimes this is permissible even from a commerciality pespective. But you cant transfer others copyrighted material, even for free. If anyone is interested in these issues, they should read these cases:

Midway Manufacturing Co. v. Artic International, Inc., 704 F.2d 1009 (7th Cir. 1983) (Video games are covered by copyright, distributed arcade ROM speedup hacks of Pac-Man and Galaxian violated copyright law)
Galoob v. Nintendo, 9th Circuit 1992 (Game Genie editing NES cartridges found legal under fair use)
Sega Enterprises Ltd. v. Accolade, Inc., 977 F.2d 1510 (9th Cir. 1992) (Unlicensed software written for Sega Genesis that reverse engineered and bypassed TMSS lockout system found legal under fair use)
Sony Computer Entertainment v. Connectix Corporation, 203 F.3d 596 (2000) (Using copyrighted Playstation BIOS found legal under fair use)

The nuances are key in copyright and fair use law, and there is a lot of litigation under the road as to why a majority of game sales from the major companies have switched to digital, and why the physical cartridges have become very difficult to dump or otherwise alter as opposed to the NES, SNES, and Genesis days. I may be able to reverse engineer a console so that it can run my unlicensed code, and then design a piece of physical hardware to modify that code to change features of the game, but I can't repackage someone else's material and redistribute it without their permission.

At the end of the day, the video game companies are not just protecting their sales, they are protecting their artistic and play choices in a sense. If I'm a game developer and I want Mario to have 5 lives and him to be voiced by someone other than Charles Martinet, I'm not going to just allow someone to modify the code and replace the voice in Super Mario Wonder with soundbites from Charles Martinet in New Super Mario Bros U Deluxe and repackage it and sell it to others.

 

[nobitakun]

No one cares about that in Turkey, I'm pretty sure there are many countries where its not a problem selling a modded console with pirated games in it.

Well, not caring does not mean it is not illegal. Also, China does that everyday with Aliexpress and nobody cares, and I've never seen it having any issue with Nintendo.

The key word here is "sell". You can do all of those things, even more, as long as you don't sell anything. You could even buy a switch, modify it and give it to a friend or a nephew as a present and Nintendo couldn't do anything AT ALL.

 

[Strategist's iconStrategist]

The key word here is "sell". You can do all of those things, even more, as long as you don't sell anything. You could even buy a switch, modify it and give it to a friend or a nephew as a present and Nintendo couldn't do anything AT ALL.

It sounds like the guy was making a business out of selling modded consoles, which is even more of a no-no. If it was a one off sale, it probably would've gone under the radar.

 

[Egg (McMuffin) Man]

This case has nothing to do with Nintendo and everything to do with Japanese law. It would be no different if he was selling hacked PS5's.

 

[beefbowl]

The key word here is "sell". You can do all of those things, even more, as long as you don't sell anything.

There are literally businesses here that only sell modded consoles with pirated games.

 

[nobitakun]

There are literally businesses here that only sell modded consoles with pirated games.

Yeah, that's how the world is. As well as there are narcos selling tons of drugs to thousands of people from different countries. Existing does not mean is legal ;)

 

[Krazy Kat]

Suspended Prison sentence for Switch modder – what sounds like a headline from a thriller has now unfortunately become bitter reality. In Japan, a 58-year-old man has now been convicted for selling hacked Nintendo Switch consoles. While many believe that piracy is a relic of the 2000s, this ruling shows that Nintendo remains uncompromising – worldwide.

Article: https://metro.co.uk/2025/04/14/nint...ended-prison-sentence-a-first-japan-22908026/

nintendo didn't have domain in russia and china my friend, that is why we known retro device such as retroid, anbernic, trimui, gpd & aya neo that can play almost of all retro console from nes to nintendo switch

Post automatically merged: Thursday at 7:06 AM

There are literally businesses here that only sell modded consoles with pirated games.

to think to sell it in japan which are the nintendo home country the person doing it must be nuts

 

[Ikagura]

I think that this crossed the line.

The punishment may have been a bit too harsh for what it is but you know what they say: "make it exemplary to prevent any further attempts".

 

[nobitakun]

nintendo didn't have domain in russia and china my friend, that is why we known retro device such as retroid, anbernic, trimui, gpd & aya neo that can play almost of all retro console from nes to nintendo switch

Post automatically merged: Thursday at 7:06 AM

to think to sell it in japan which are the nintendo home country the person doing it must be nuts

But it is curious that in Japan, you have tons of people selling those Anbernic, GPD and other consoles for emulation without any issues. You can check on Mercari or if you're here, you can go to any Book Off to see.

Those consoles are completely legal, there is no issue, but don't load them with roms before selling lol.

 

[Ikagura]

Those consoles are completely legal, there is no issue, but don't load them with roms before selling lol.

This is the thing, emulators are (in majority) legal.

It's the whole "selling roms in a package" that would get stopped.

 

[Krazy Kat]

This is the thing, emulators are (in majority) legal.

It's the whole "selling roms in a package" that would get stopped.

that is depend on the country bro, i've bought trimui smart pro and retroid pocket 5 it comes up with a full rom and bios.

 

[Ikagura]

that is depend on the country bro, i've bought trimui smart pro and retroid pocket 5 it comes up with a full rom and bios.

Please, no need to call me bro.

Of course some countries are less enforcing but the rules of the country where the licenses are being made may take over.

I still think that selling modding on consoles is not the brightest idea.