from BBC news website

Authorities in Japan have arrested a suspected video games pirate in the first case of its kind, according to Nintendo.

An amendment to the Unfair Competition Prevention Act, introduced in December, made it a crime to sell devices that circumvent security controls.

The games company said the case involved the sale of kit designed to work with its DS handheld console.

It said it hoped the case would discourage other illegal vendors.

Nintendo says police in the central Aichi region made the arrest.

The case involves the sale of Majikon - adapters which accept memory cards containing software.

When plugged into a console's cartridge slot the machine activates a special interface which then allows the user to select which program to run off a SD memory card.

I'm glad they did that. R4 cards and the like are just annoying and pointless. The emulators used on the wii or 3DS for their VC services are one thing but either way, pirating to not spend money is bad.

If you want to play it, buy it. Same for any media. Because of how easy piracy and emulation is some people think its just all right if they do it. The ease by which you or many people come by it does not justify the practice.

How is backing up your media bad? You have consumer rights, dude.

Said rights do not mean it's not advised/legal/safe.

The discussion at hand is about a gentleman in Tokyo who's been arrested under the new laws for selling flashcarts, not about the 'personal backup copy' gray area. Thank you for letting us know about this landmark case, Reala, hopefully Nintendo will be able to get pirates where it hurts — through their enablers.