Meanwhile, In Japan: More Arrests For Cheating At Video Games
from the h4x0r! dept
Some months back, we noted that something odd was happening in Japan: online gaming cheaters were being arrested. Yes, arrested. Not arrested in a virtual sense, not banned from games, arrested as in picked up by police and charged with a crime. This, in case you are undecided on the matter, is insane. Cheating and online gaming have been a virtual arms-race for going on forever and generally it's been on the gaming companies to win that war. If they can use law enforcement as a new ally, the implications could be scary, especially when it's quite easy to levy accusations of cheating and when simply finding ways to exploit an advantage within a game is often times mistaken for cheating as well.
The latest incident is not an example of the latter. A man in his thirties in Japan, named Akihide Yamamoto, was picked up for running a web-store for cheats to exploit a game titled Alliance of Valiant Arms.
According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, Japan’s largest paper, Yamamoto was arrested for suspected violation of Japan’s Unfair Competition Prevention Law. Reports state that Yamamoto, a Himeji City resident, is believed to have apparently sold a hacked character and overpowered weapons to a 40-year-old man in Saitama Prefecture for 20,000 yen or US$168. This isn’t a first for Yamamoto, who has also been arrested for using cheats in another game.Look, on the one hand cheaters are beyond annoying. Add to that the emergence of big-time eSports, the tournaments of which often times include large sums of prize money, and I can see why a gaming ecosystem exploding around online gaming means that cheaters are a bigger problem today than they were ten years ago. That said, c'mon, arresting these people and charging them criminally? For gaming? And, in this case, it's not even the cheater that's being charged, but a person providing the "tools", if you will, for the cheaters. That adds a whole new layer to this, because at what point do we want to chill the tinkering and hacking that goes on with the possibility of criminal charges?
Now, I don't want to sound like I'm making excuses for Yamamoto, who might well be the gaming-world's devil for all I know. But gumming up the legal system with guys who are selling game exploits seems like a massive waste of time and resources.
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Filed Under: arrests, cheating, japan, threats, video games, virtual crime
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The very existence of such a law says all that needs to be said about the state of free enterprise in Japan, doesn't it.
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The game companies have spent time, effort, and money building their respective games and Japanese law allows them to press criminal charges against those who would use their trademarks/copyright for profit.
Not saying it's right, but this is a little different than arresting and charging those who cheat at games. It's arresting and charging those who sell game cheats for profit.
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Car analogy
Someone marketing game cheats for a specific game and using the name of said game in the product description is illegal.
Making custom floor mats for specific make/model of car and using the name of said make/model in the product description is illegal.
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(Original commenter here.)
This analogy doesn't quite work. Car mats do not mess with the instruction set on a server run by the (car) company in question.
A better car analogy would be if a programmer came up with a homebrew version of OnStar and sold an installation service that ran on equipment installed by Cadillac. This in itself is no problem. However, the problem occurs when this new version takes data from Cadillac's servers and provides it to the user -- this may open up a whole can of privacy worms as the unofficial version may grab information that would not normally be given to the user. Moreover, this is a misappropriation of Cadillac's infrastructure and data transmissions for the programmer's profit.
The article did not make it clear if the cheats were for online games or offline. If the game is online then misuse of the game server for commercial profit might be the reason for the criminal charges. If it's offline there seems to be no reason for the arrests, other than possibly trademark or copyright. Since the article is skimpy on the details we can only guess as to which of the reasons it is. If anyone speaks Japanese and wants to trawl some Japanese news we might be able to get a better picture.
Of course, the main point of the original comment was to draw attention to the fact that the title to this blog post is a bit misleading as it's not the cheaters who are being arrested. It is those who are selling the cheats.
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Yes, that's a little misleading, but the difference isn't important in my opinion. Subjecting either group of people to arrest seems ridiculous to me.
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Because it is ridiculous.
It doesn't happen in traditional sports/games - even when big money is involved. Things that happen within the game stay within the game - and the manufacturers of equipment that enables cheating are not prosecuted.
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Tell that to Hypertech, Bully Dog, or Jet.
"Making custom air/fuel maps for specific make/model of car and using the name of said make/model in the product description is illegal."
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Apple
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destroying a potential ally
Wouldn't it be a more permanent fix to use the site to the company's advantage? It's a warehouse for game exploits. They could probably leverage their rights to the game to gain access to said warehouse & patch them.
Merely shutting it down means 2 more will appear from the ashes to replace it. & they'll take time to track down.
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Re: destroying a potential ally
While there is an "unsatisfied market"-argument here, it is a pretty difficult issue since reputation for a cheat-infested game will suffer.
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World Cup
He definitely cheated, has admitted it and big money was involved.
Now sports stars who "throw" matches when bribed by gamblers are rightly imprisoned but cheating witihin the game is always punished within the game (if at all) unless it is actually physically dangerous.
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It's a video game
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Re: It's a video game
The presence of a cheater can and often does totally spoil the game for the other players. Now, if you take the view that "It’s only a game" then you might say it doesn’t matter, but I don't accept that view point. I don't watch the American football, but I'm guessing if I found a way to prevent you from enjoying the superbowl, you wouldn't accept "It’s only a game".
Bottom line? These people 'hurt' others for their own gain. On balance, I think a legal response may actually be justifiable.
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Re: Re: It's a video game
Except there's actually no damage done except for a possible waste of time/causing frustration. If that's the basis to jail people, then we can lock every single telemarketer in the clink, followed by Comcast's customer service department...
Hey, maybe it's not so bad after all.
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I agree that there is a suitable legal solution to this issue. Make access to the game members-only (which commercial games already are, in essence) and require a contract with a "no cheating" clause with stated remedies (which can include expulsion and/or financial payments). Now if someone cheats or facilitates cheating, sue them. Normally you can't sue a third party in a contract dispute, but this changes when said third party knowingly and wilfully facilitates the break of contract.
There's no need for police here and with this approach, I don't have to pay to support your silly games (any more than you have to pay ro support my silly netflix).
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Re: Re: It's a video game
Absolutely. Cheaters are one of the main reasons why I stopped playing MMORPGs. But arreesting them is simply insane. I would love to hear the argument for why it's not.
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Re: Re: Re: It's a video game
Usually they have the most active support staff and it's difficult for a cheater to benefit from an exploit. It doesn't impact anyone else other than those in his group (who chose that).
Cheating is worse competitive games like FPS or RTS where maphacks and lag switches actually harms other players experince.
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Re: Re: Re: Re: It's a video game
Yes, I misspoke. In my (incorrect) mind, these count as MMORPGs.
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If by "we" you mean "Japan", sure.
The cheaters pay money for the cheat, right? The seller is facilitating the fraud and profiting from it. A co-conspirator, in cases where they know their cheat is likely to be used this way.
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This veers off into Japanese legal doctrine, of which I know nothing. But I do know what would make sense to me. The fraud argument seems weak, but in certain cases (such as trying to cheat a contest out of the winnings) it could be supportable. It doesn't seem supportable that sellers of the cheat should be on the hook, though, unless they were actively taking part in the specific case of fraud.
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Re: It's a video game
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Good thing they are scaring them
On the other hand, some games have horrible anti-cheat's built in them. One thing that comes to mind is arma's battleye, which is basically one german guy banning people randomly while BI demands that you accept a license and let him swoop through your entire hd.
The appeal system is a joke as they never give any info on why were people banned, claiming it would help cheatmakers... Yeah right, like they dont know when their cheats are detectable or not...
Ofcourse, cheaters more than often get away and legit players are forced to make a new steam account AND change their hardware to get a new id and only then they can play. Just check the discussions over there, real nightmare.
Seriously, im more afraid of being banned for no reason than meeting the occassional cheater.
also, daily Kotaku crosspost? Whats next? You start quoting foxnews?
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Eh, like most of Gawker's sites, Kotaku has its issues, but they generally do a good job as a starting point. I typically don't take their posts as gospel and click through for other links. Honestly, when the click throughs are all in Japanese, however....
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Maybe they can start arresting people that eat red meat next.
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When cheating can become monetized, whether through ads or selling characters, it resembles a black msrket. Interesting to hear about this in real life, I wouldn't have guessed it would happen this fast!
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Fast? The "black market" for cheats has existed for nearly as long as video games have existed. (Scare quotes because the market is not actually very black).
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Was wondering when this was going to happen...
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Most card counters are asked to leave the casino and may be banned by the casino. Only in rare cases such as collusion and multiple players conspiring do the casinos file a criminal complaint.
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blame it on Japan's (lack of) lawyers
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Whether this is or should be legal, I don't know. I'll let the people who actually understand laws debate that.
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Or play some other game.
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an ex-coach's wife (not in football) once explained to me that if i'm not willing to cheat, i don't really want to win.
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Do it on a computer.
Crime is new and special for anything done on a computer with special new penalties. Hacking and cheating are all the same.
When was the last time police got interested in a $168 fraud? Old things like sales fraud are too dull for words.
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Throw them in jail
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working 24/7 (in chinese prisons)
to create and equip characters to sell in ebay.
and these trrrist hackers are cutting into their business!!!
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Rigged competition in pay to win game
Where I found out the current champion gets free top offs and payed to play, roughly $1500 a month to play. His account is worth approximately $50,000 usd. His boss tops off his account for him, which is probably the publishers of the game. I have all this info screenshotted admission by the gamer who owns the account and payed to play. On top of everything he has earns small commission for each top off that he sells for his boss. His boss then logs on your account to top you off. This makes me sure his boss works or owns the online game. Do I have a lawsuit here? Someone who has spent close to $7,000 usd, and I'd like to get my money back.
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Re: Rigged competition in pay to win game
Ask a lawyer. That is the only way to ever get a meaningful answer to that question.
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