Man arrested in Japan for modding and reselling PS3

[Cal Jeffrey]

The big picture: What do you do with aging hardware like the PS3? Well, in the United States, you either collect it, make it better, or sell it. However, if you live in Japan, you better be careful about how you handle your older game systems.

A man in Kagawa, Japan, has been arrested for modding a PlayStation 3 and then selling it. Japanese news outlet NHK notes, 44-year-old Tadaaki Abe was arrested and charged with jailbreaking his PS3 and selling it to someone in Tokyo.

Abe modded the PlayStation so that discs could be copied and then played without having to re-insert them — in other words, installing them to the hard drive. According to Japanese trademark law, this is illegal. It also violates the country’s Unfair Competition Prevention Act (UCPA). The UCPA protects a company’s right to sell its products.

The PS3 in question is a Yakuza 3 special edition released only in Japan. The deck has a beautiful white finish with two dragons etched into it. Police tracked down the man after he sold the console for 15,555 yen ($145) on an internet auction site last July. Unmodded units of the Yakuza box sell on eBay for around $250 or more.

Abe, who only works part-time, told police he sold modded PS3s for extra income. Authorities seized 40 PlayStation 3 consoles in Abe’s home and are currently investigating to see if any of them are modded.

Image credit: ksb5ch

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/82291-man-arrested-japan-modding-reselling-ps3.html

 

[Squid Surprise]

This is a slightly misleading headline... he didn't just mod and resell ONE PS3 as the title implies... he was doing this as a lucrative side-business selling many of these. The headline should read "Man arrested in Japan for modding and reselling PS3s"

That final "S" is key...

 

[Uncle Al]

In any case, they should have bought the rights from him and put it into Retro ..... this old boy has some good ideas!

 

[Squid Surprise]

In any case, they should have bought the rights from him and put it into Retro ..... this old boy has some good ideas!

All he did was jailbreak them.... not even his idea...

 

[Cycloid Torus]

8-10 year old tech. Systems no longer made. Total threat to Sony income miniscule.

ad absurbidem mediocritus (for or to the end of the absurd to be performed by little minds)

Why does Sony want this?

 

[Evernessince]

8-10 year old tech. Systems no longer made. Total threat to Sony income miniscule.

ad absurbidem mediocritus (for or to the end of the absurd to be performed by little minds)

Why does Sony want this?

It's not just Sony that does this, it's pretty common for Japanese companies. Just look at Nintendo as well.

 

[cliffordcooley]

Is this another story of the pot calling the kettle black?

 

[Carlos GarPov]

This is a slightly misleading headline... he didn't just mod and resell ONE PS3 as the title implies... he was doing this as a lucrative side-business selling many of these. The headline should read "Man arrested in Japan for modding and reselling PS3s"

That final "S" is key...

Exactly

 

[Carlos GarPov]

8-10 year old tech. Systems no longer made. Total threat to Sony income miniscule.

ad absurbidem mediocritus (for or to the end of the absurd to be performed by little minds)

Why does Sony want this?

Still lucrative

 

[Boilerhog146]

My PS3 blue ray drive died while the unit was like new.just out of warranty, but hardly used,can't touch my pc.I still have it and use it with a bigger HD (it was an original 40gig fat model)they would not repair it but wanted me to ship it for a refurb, that was my last sony product ever, now a dead company around here,by by Sony.wish I could get it jail broken, another guy to be put on sony payroll like GeoHot, shakes head. they should have just given him a job.

 

[Suisam]

There are rapists. murderers. thieves and the like.....and yet they concentrated on some low level guy selling ancient hardware to get by....

You should be by law, able to make backups of your game disks. You are allowed one copy here In Australia but this doesn't stop tech companies from blocking you from doing that. Its a joke really.

 

[Cal Jeffrey]

This is a slightly misleading headline... he didn't just mod and resell ONE PS3 as the title implies... he was doing this as a lucrative side-business selling many of these. The headline should read "Man arrested in Japan for modding and reselling PS3s"

That final "S" is key...

Well, the fact is that he was only charged with one count at the time of publishing. The police were investigating whether any of his other 40 PS3's had been modded. Even having admitted to doing it as a side business, he was still only charged with modding and selling the one PS3.I have to stand by the headline.