Video games pirate arrested in Japan

Japan is a country where piracy is frowned upon, and authorities in the Land of the Rising Sun has clamped down hard in recent years, especially where video game piracy is concerned. In fact, they have recently arrested a suspected video games pirate, which would make it the first case of its kind – at least, that is what Nintendo says. In an amendment to the Unfair Competition Prevention Act that was introduced in December last year, you are a criminal if you are involved in selling devices which circumvent security controls, and this particular arrest involved selling a kit that was meant to make downloadable ROMs on the Nintendo DS playable – hence not having to purchase the original game itself. Japanese authorities have hope that this would serve as a warning to the others who are doing the same, that they would turn away from their illegal rice bowl. The homebrew community might not be too happy with this, as devices like the R4 that can run DS ROMs, are also useful for testing out homebrew programs.