First-ever Switch modding case in Japan ends with fine and suspended jail time

[midian182]

What just happened? A man who became the first person ever arrested in Japan for selling modded Nintendo Switch consoles has been fined and given a suspended prison sentence. 58-year-old Fumihiro Otobe was arrested in January and has just been found guilty by the Kochi District Court.

While people have been arrested in other parts of the world for selling modified Nintendo Switch consoles, it had never happened in Japan before Otobe's apprehension at the start of this year.

Otobe, a transportation worker from Ryugasaki City, was initially arrested on suspicion of soldering hardware modifications onto circuit boards in used Switch consoles, thereby allowing them to run pirated games.

Otobe sold the handheld hybrids online for about 28,000 yen (approximately $195). Each Switch had 27 pirated games pre-installed.

Otobe admitted what he had done when he was first charged. He said, "I was curious if people would think I was great for selling modified machines." Police found four modified Switch units in Otobe's possession, so he would have likely been found guilty even without the confession.

NTV News (via Automaton) reports that in a hearing held on April 14, Otobe was found guilty of infringing on Nintendo's trademark rights and other violations. He was sentenced to two years in prison, though Otobe will no doubt be grateful that this custodial sentence has been suspended for three years. However, he still has to pay a fine of 500,000 yen, which is about $3,500.

Otobe certainly got off lightly compared to the unfortunately named Gary Bowser. The Canadian national, a key member of the Team Xecuter group that created tools like modchips and jailbreaks for circumventing Nintendo's security measures, was arrested in 2020 in the Dominican Republic on 11 felony counts of piracy.

A Team-Xecuter rCM Loader for the Nintendo Switch

In 2021, Bowser was sentenced to 40 months in prison and ordered to pay Nintendo $14.5 million – over 400,000% more than Otobe. Bowser was released from prison in April 2023 after serving 14 months. He had paid Nintendo $25 per month using money from his prison job while incarcerated, so the $14.5 million he owed the company had been reduced by $175.

Permalink to story:

First-ever Switch modding case in Japan ends with fine and suspended jail time

 

[GABulldog]

If my math is correct it would take him paying $25 a month about 48,333 years to pay that off. Hopefully Nintendo is still in business and he lives that long

 

[yRaz]

I really hate Nintendo as a company. However, he likely could have gotten around it of he didn't sell the consoles with the games installed. I really hate Nintendo as a company

 

[Eflow]

Pedantry time.

When calculating "less than" percentages, the amount won't ever exceed 100% for positive numbers.

The formula should look like 1 - (3,500 / 14,500,000) = 99.98%

In other words, if you invested $14.5M in the stock market, and your investment is now only worth $3,500, you lost 99.98% of your investment.

 

[Baldrickalpha1]

Pedantry time.

When calculating "less than" percentages, the amount won't ever exceed 100% for positive numbers.

The formula should look like 1 - (3,500 / 14,500,000) = 99.98%

In other words, if you invested $14.5M in the stock market, and your investment is now only worth $3,500, you lost 99.98% of your investment.

Saved me the trouble.
Lazy journalism plain and simple

 

[Theinsanegamer]

Pedantry time.

When calculating "less than" percentages, the amount won't ever exceed 100% for positive numbers.

The formula should look like 1 - (3,500 / 14,500,000) = 99.98%

In other words, if you invested $14.5M in the stock market, and your investment is now only worth $3,500, you lost 99.98% of your investment.

Or it should just be a fraction, that's usually the format you use to represent one thing is a small portion of the other.

Saying "less than 1/4000th" is a lot easier then figuring a 400,000% number.

 

[NumberNine]

Thankfully every time I see hype for the Switch 2, I remember it's made by Nintendo.

I'm going to save so much money this gen.