Ordinary punters who download bootleg copies of video games have been labelled terrorists by the leader of a prominent games industry copyright-protection body.
The harsh verdict comes from Yutaka Kubota, who is president of Japan's Association of Copyright for Computer Software, a trade body with close links to Nintendo.
Information terrorism
Speaking to Famitsu magazine, Kubota took particular issue with gamers who downloaded Nintendo DS titles to play on their own flash ROM cartridges.
"This is an issue that affects our national interests and, personally, I see it as a form of information terrorism that is crushing Japan's industry" he told the magazine.
120 million downloads
Nintendo says gamers have downloaded around 120 million bootleg - and, therefore, free - copies of its software to the end of 2007. Technically, there's nothing illegal about the activity in Japan, but that could change.
If currently pending legislation to criminalise downloading copied games passes in Japan its subsequent enforcement should provide pointers to how other countries might tackle the problem in future.
Your comments (2) Click to add a new comment
thegilb
May 25th
2. Dark ages: "Witch! Burn the witch!!"
Modern day: "Terrorist! Arrest the terrorist!!"
Hm. Now all we need is scientific proof that terrorists all have third nipples (or some other disfiguring abormality) and we can begin the process of purging the population of this filth!
"Submerge the terrorist in water, if he floats, shoot him in the head, if he drowns, then he is not guilty!"
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tholmewood
May 23rd
1. So DS pirates are ideologically driven. They seek to break the will of Japan’s populace. Another right wing nut-job methinks, liberally throwing around terms that carry cultural currency in order to enforce some form of policy. Nintendo are a great software developer—when they actually make games (Nintendo releases come around like comets)—but the DS/Wii shelves are filled with third party **** that has atrocious production values. Hoards of software companies spending all their money on marketing and advertising and employing a small team of 8 chimpanzees to code 4 mini-games—it’s like the Atari 2600 days all over again (ET anybody). With this situation I’m not surprised that piracy is rife as I would hate to pay £20+ for some of the **** these guys produce. These companies are guilty of fraud and terrorism (hehe, I can get all hyperbolic too) as they are responsible for destroying Nintendo’s solid reputation.
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