DS piracy leads to 2.5-year prison sentence (via Joystiq)

Well, Nintendo sure hates piracy, here is some reference threads you may want to read:new dsi 1.4 firmware to block flashcarts
https://www.romulation.org/forum/index.php?topic=20949.0DSi Facebook APP is anti-piracy!
https://www.romulation.org/forum/index.php?topic=20961.0And here is the news:

DS piracy leads to 2.5-year prison sentence
by JC Fletcher { Aug 3rd 2009 at 2:10PM }DS pirates in Japan aren't just at risk of having to forgo Facebook -- there could also be jail time involved. Yoshiaki Asagiri has been found guilty of copyright violations by a Kyoto district court, and sentenced to two and a half years of jail, plus over nine million yen (almost $100,000) in fines.Judge Junichi Tochigi said that "This crime is an insult to the efforts of the rights holders who spent great amounts in the production of the games. It's clear that the rights holders suffered great losses."Asagiri was more than just a casual downloader of DS ROMS. Along with friends, he created a website to distributed copied DS game files. He also participated in other forms of piracy, including selling designer knockoff goods. But even with those extra circumstances, that jail time is enough to send a chill down the spine (and peg leg) of even the most casual downloader.

Original article here:
http://nintendo.joystiq.com/2009/08/03/ds-piracy-leads-to-2-5-year-prison-sentence/Well, in my country, game & movie piracy has been a lifestyle. it's ironic but people won't bother getting an original games/movie DVD/CD, especially games, there's almost no way you will find original game CDs here. I must say original games are way too expensive for lots of people in a developing country like us. That's also the reason why the job as a game designer isn't very popular here.

It's taboo in western countries...but thing is, unlike others, it's lax-I never been caught dumping my own games-free or otherwise...Here's a tip-if your gonna torrent (my guess on how he got caught) then hide your ip or don't torrent-they can track you thru some special tracking torrents...Sure i'll miss out on certain games-but it saved me from a near "tracked" torrent download.

Well, in my country, which is also a developing one. The only shop I know here that sells original CDs is the store called "Datablitz" which can be found in some malls. They would usuallycost about 20 or more dollars. (Expensive in my opinion)The rest of the shops (usually street vendors) sell pirated games about more or less worth a dollar. These shops sometimes get raided by the police but somehow, some of them were able to know the dilemma before the police strike.The only thing I see the police do on tv is confiscate the pirated CDs but I'm not sure about the arresting part and get sent to jail for 2-5 years here.

Sounds like the filliopines...We have that as well in aus...but only in markets...Police come, but rarely-and they mostly come to "clamp" car's wheels XD...lots of stolen goods on sale, the places that get targeted (ie supermarkets) get security teams to do raids...they come in walking around with scan guns XDI love to see it when the vendors are caught out XD

The thing to remember is that this guy was a supplier of roms. Also, he was a naïvely arrogant fool who openly proclaimed his illegal actions to the world...That usually doesn't help, either.

Yes, but this news have chilled up my spine a bit. Just a little bit.Oh, I forgot to mention that some game store sell the roms here, about $0.5 for NDS games and $1 for PSP games. It can't be helped since lots of people here aren't very good with the internet.
*sighs* I don't know what to say anymore...

Replying to #6

Agree,, even sometimes you can get 3 PS2 games for 1$ :P

ID software who made Doom did not make it to make any money.
I wrote a game on unix based on the Lord of the Rings, my game has been ported to many systems. I never made a penny on it, I never thought I would. It was a good game because people liked it not because it made lots of money, most importantly I enjoyed making it. If it where not for the pirate networks my game would never have reached as many people as it did.
If the money plug was pulled on game development then people will still make games, just like musicians still make music now that the music industry is dead.Indie game developers have produced amazing games, without industry support and without DRM. Take 'Sins of a Solar Empire' as an example. 'Sins' would not be as well known as it is without piracy, yes the company involved wanted to make a few quid to pay the employees, and they have done that, people will pay for a good game.As a RomUlation user I have download many games, I pay for a few of them, if it where not for RomUlaton I would not have found some great games that I have since bought.I think it is great that you can get any game you want for free. I think that if you can afford to, and you love a game, you will support those that make that game with your money. I think it is better that you have fun with a game even if you cannot, or will not, pay for that game than never having played that game. Good talent should never be hidden and if that means 3 PS2 games for a dollar so be it.Just like the music industry, games publishers have everything to loose from piracy, but unless you have a closed system like Nintendo do, a more open publisher can reap the rewards of game piracy by understanding that the market demand for illegal downloads equals a viable fanboi community that can be served, fed and exploited, rather than prosecuted.Some games are very desirable as illegal downloads/ illegal copies. These games often differ from what marketing may suggest. It is quite rare(after the initial burst of interest) that any new game will continue to be a big illegal download item. Spore is a great example, loads of people downloaded it for free(many as a protest against its DRM) but spore is now a non-entity on download sites because it's a crap game. Those that could not pay for, or would not pay for, spore realise they have saved a few quid. A few quid that could be well spent on a great game like 'Trine'(the pirates opened my eyes to this game)Your $1 for 3 PS2 games will never find its way to a games developer but, where such figures exist, your purchase or indeed your download may help people who make games understand why people love some games.This is all a little off topic, but to get back to that. If I had a game on a DS and some person made copies and sold them, I would think cool, it is not like I would ever get any more money from Nintendo.
Stuff the money anyway, a good game is like anything else in life, you do it because that is what you do well and enjoy doing, it may not pay the bills, and like many people in ubisoft you may have to take a second job, but unlike ubisoft, it will be your game.3 PS2 games for $1, I wish I had a part to play in one of those games.

man, too longi just read until the second para:P

for once i'm glad i live in malaysia, the pirate heaven.

thats right calvin_0i never heard someone getting arrested by downloading pirated software from torrent
in our country, except for pirated dvd

Pirate heaven eh?I guess it is an accurate description.
I belive pretty much all of the games sold in my area are fakes,and I even bought some before....That was before I found this site,naturally.

I believe a better business model for both music and videogames would be one based on subscription. If you enjoy a record label or videogame publisher you could subscribe and be entitled all the releases from that label/publisher for say 1 year. Of course people will still pirate, but if you look at 3RRR (in Melbourne) you will see people ponying up the cash even though you can listen for free. They get more than 10000 subscribers per year. Also it would publishers/labels less inclined to release dross.

There's no guarantee that every title from any given company will be consistently good, though. People don't want to pay for stuff they don't like.

True, but as we all know some studios/labels are more consistant than others. As I noted previously, maybe studios/publishers would be less inclined to push out inferior product.

But if people "subscribe" or whatever, then the company's source of income is already guaranteed and they'd feel less obligated to develop some quality goods.

Hahah lol than I should be behind the bars for rest o' my life :)

yes, subscriptions would make the situation worse. A solution has already been proposed, but the game publishers were up in arms about it. The European Parliament suggested bringing in a law that would enable consumers to use poor quality as a reason for returning computer games. This means in the event of a game being full of bugs/glitches, the consumer would be entitled to a refund. The fact that the publishers were outraged by this suggestion shows where their true loyalties are, and it's not in producing quality games for consumers' enjoyment.

^ In my opinion, I think what the publisher's are raging about is taking advantage of the suggested law.If it were me, I'd buy the game install it in my PC then reason to the seller that the game isn't of my quality standards and I'll ask for a refund/replace it with another game and continue on with the loop. The law is good but needs refining to avoid having the consumer to control all.

where i live, pirated games are common.