A Japanese lawyer’s discussion of whether having a save deleted by a friend can be grounds for legal action is currently doing the rounds online.
Legal website bengo4 recently imagined a horrifying scenario in which a potential plaintiff lends a Dragon Quest XI cartridge to a “friend” who then deletes the save data.
This writer asked whether it would be possible to either demand compensation, or compel the deleting party to play the game up to the same level as the deleted save and then hand over the new save data.
Lawyer Takeshi Onizawa gave his answer, which will surely be disappointing to anyone who happens to be in this distressing situation:
There is no legal basis for a compensation claim
Because the game itself is still playable, it is impossible to demand that the lendee cover the cost of replacing it. It may be possible to demand compensation, at market price, for the save data itself if the actual monetary value of the data can be determined; however, since it is rare to sell save data, it will probably be deemed to have no value.
When lending games, one must take self-defence measures, such as creating backups when possible.
If backups truly are the only defensive measure, owners of the Nintendo Switch may wish to avoid lending their consoles to anyone – everyone had better get to devising a backup routine.
Responses to the discussion from across the internet were varied, but all seemed to acknowledge the difficulties that can be caused by deleted data:
“Can’t you demand compensation for the time you spent making the save? Oh wait, if the data is gone, you can’t prove how much time you spent!”
“It’s bad enough if a friend does this, but what if a spouse did it? I wonder if it would lead to divorce?”
“I just won’t lend my games to anyone!”
“I don’t have any friends to lend games to anyway!”
I remember a time if save file was deleted by a friend, you didn’t try to sue him. No no no! You beat the s♥♥t out of him so he knows not to do it again.
And then he sued you (in current crazy times, at least).
Pretty much and if the game save was that important he should have backed it up.
It seems you can’t easily do a backup on a switch so maybe he shoudl not have loaned it out in the first place and maybe he should be suing Nintendo for selling such a crippled product.
Switch saves are on console or SD card, not the cartridge.
fun fact, his DQ Game might have been a digital download sherlock…
local nerd gets TRIGGERED over video games
This is in japan, they are too beta to try that.
Oh yeah? Why aren’t you alfa enough to just stole the goods from the store killing everybody inside instead of purchasing them like a beta, huh? Same logic.
So the argument is that, because people rarely sell save data, it has zero value and therefore no compensation can be demanded…
People rarely sell their l♥♥i daughters/sisters either. So they have no value and I can take them, no problem?
The argument is that there is no monetary value to the save data. Unless you can legally sell the data in a market, how can you claim the monetary value of it? Heck, most EULA for the games explicitly prohibit selling the data, in which case it cannot have a monetary value (and black markets don’t count in court).
People aren’t property, so that comparison is wrong on so many levels.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster human life has it’s price. 200k$-20M$ in civilized countries.
Sorry, but for conservatists children ARE property and they can be BAPTIZED without their will (any religion – Jewish can say no when 12yo, but what will happen only God knows). Families also banish their children for LGBT or sometimes for wrong outlooks, political views – they cannot inherit etc. Human life has a price in every land – if you will be prisoned and you will later prove you were 100% innocent, there you will get some money, but IT DEPENDS of how much nazi state is your country. For example in Italy you will get a fortune for anything, but in Slavonic (also Christian) land, you will get something like 300$ for one month. The price of human freedom is a sum of average life lenght in months times this money 200 000$ cheap-20 000 000$ fair. If someone is rich, then can buy other’s freedom – this are the painful facts. This is an example how much is worth life of a human being https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhopal_disaster .
Buddy, just… no.
They don’t have a market price but they do have a “human value” price that you must compensate if you damage them.
So, if I just use them a bit and return them “undamaged” (i.e. like the game in the article, they can still be used), that’s fine?
that’s the dumbest sounding argument ever.
LEGALLY they have no value, meaning you can’t officially put a price tag on them. Just because there’s no price tag on someone’s daughter doesn’t mean they’re as dumb as you to give them for free to someone they don’t know with some compensation back.
*without
isnt deleting something that isnt yours considered vandalism? Or defacing property?
Possibly. From a criminal standpoint, good luck even trying to find a prosecutor trying to pursue this case. From a civil case perspective, again the issue is showing the fair market value of the data. The time you put into it may mean something to you, but that doesn’t mean you can (legally) sell it for a high price (if any at all).
I think it’s an easy mistake for anyone to make. You’re playing a game for a while, you go to a save point and save in the first slot without thinking,
But may I ask, why didn’t he have more than one save? Anyone with a brain knows you need a few saves incase one is corrupted.
-Having a ‘friend’ that deletes saves for shits and giggles and to get a rise out of you, like a drooling autistic /v/ reprobate
If you’re that stupid to cater to a guy like that, its your own damn fault.