A Japanese gentleman by the name of Tadaaki Abe was recently arrested for the crime of selling a modded PS3 console. The 44-year-old was apprehended in Kagawa, Japan for this apparently punishable offense.
The initial NHK report was translated by Kotaku East—a branch of the website that provides a “slice of Asian internet culture”—and revealed that Abe-san stands accused of jailbreaking PS3 hardware so that inserted game discs could be copied to a drive and thereafter still played without the physical media being present. These modded PS3s essentially allowed a path for easy piracy of software by using physical discs to rip the games.
What makes this a more significant case, however, is the fact that he then proceeded to sell the jailbroken PlayStations. The illicit product sale that ultimately led to his arrest saw 15,555 yen, which is equivalent to $145, exchange hands between Abe and an unnamed 40-something man from Tokyo.
As noted by Kotaku, the initial mod and following transaction placed the seller in direct violation of two Japanese laws. Having broken both the general trademark and Unfair Competition Prevention Law, both intended to protect the rights of legitimate product sellers, police elected to search Abe’s property having tracked him down via an online auction. There the authorities found forty additional PS3s which they’ve seized in order to check for signs of tampering.
Abe is a part-time worker and claims that his questionable side activities were only intended to increase his low income. Whether that’ll be considered a valid defense remains to be seen.
With all the exciting recent PS5 news, perhaps some folks can relate. Starting to budget your finances now in preparation for the Holiday 2020 arrival of next-generation hardware comes recommended, though obviously through purely legal means. A potential PSVR2 is also seemingly on the horizon, judging by a Sony patent that was recently made public; the wireless headset paired with new motion controllers could set users back a pretty penny.
