Criminal anti-circumvention law nets first arrest in Japan

Peter Leung, Hong Kong


Japanese authorities have made the first arrest under the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, according to Nintendo

The revision to the Act, which prohibits circumventing technical measures to prevent piracy, added criminal penalties for providing means to circumvent anti-piracy technologies.

The criminal provision came into force on December 1 2011.

The arrested party was selling majikon, devices which allow users to use unauthorised software on video game systems, said Nintendo. Though the devices can be used to play homemade software, they also allow gamers to use pirated copies of games.

Selling majikon had been illegal before the new criminal provisions, said...



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