- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Jan 13, 2011 19:14 JST
- Tags: Bizarre, Copyright, Crime, Hyogo, Kobe, Police, PS3, Tourism, Wii

Japanese gamers apparently face arrest if they lend their games to friends – police recently executed a search warrant based on the unauthorised lending of 5 games, charging the lender with copyright infringement.
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Sony’s reaction to the complete compromise of the PS3′s security is to launch a wave of lawsuits against the hackers responsible, whilst speculation about them mounting a Microsoft-style mass ban of pirates and hackers is mounting.
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Not to be outdone by Japan’s famed giant Gundam statue, China has decided to copy the whole thing.
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A major Japanese boy band has been caught copying a hit Vocaloid song, enraging Miku’s legion of defenders.
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Not satisfied with the kerfuffle he caused with his J-Comi launch remarks, mangaka Ken Akamatsu is now picking a fight with NicoNico Douga, accusing them of profiting by stealing the works of others without giving them proper compensation.
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Virtual schoolgirl courting sim Love Plus is either being subjected to the highest form of flattery or the lowest form of plagiarism.
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- Author: Artefact
- Categories: Games, News
- Date: Nov 18, 2010 04:01 JST
- Tags: Amazon, Bizarre, Business, China, Copyright, Crime, Made in China, PSP, USA


Amazon’s Chinese subsidiary Amazon.cn, formerly Joyo.com, is blatantly selling pirated games on its site in true Chinese style.
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The PS3 has been hacked yet again, this time allowing pirates to sneakily downgrade their firmware freely to earlier (hackable) versions, although directly running pirated copies on the latest firmware is still only a promised future upgrade.
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Manga plagiarism seems to be getting lazier and lazier – the latest example actually succeeds in leaving watermarks on plagiarised photographs on the cover of the book itself.
However, perhaps more noteworthy than the plagiarism itself is the diligence of the people responsible for uncovering it.
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Fans of China quality manufacturing supply their favourite examples of all that great nation – and several others by the looks of things – has to offer in the way of quality branded merchandise:
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In a sudden and unexpected about face, visual novel publisher Minori has gone from blocking non-Japanese users from its site with accusations of piracy and patronising suggestions they come to Japan if they want to play them, to asking they buy them in a joint venture with MangaGamer.
Even more surprisingly, the translations will be provided by the same fan translation group Minori was previously at pains to stop…
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One of 2ch’s notorious blood festivals has begun as trojans distributed amongst prospective Pokémon pirates have seen the illegal contents of many a hard disk laid bare for scores of creepy Internet vigilantes to have their way with.
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