Console game makers fight 'magicom' piracy craze
BY SAKI MIZOROKI AND TAKASHI KAMIGURI THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2010/04/20
Computer game manufacturers are losing trillions of yen to a new breed of software pirate armed with specially designed hardware.
So-called magic computers, often abbreviated to "magicom," allow users to run illicit software downloaded from the Internet on game consoles such as the Nintendo DS, the Nintendo Wii and Sony Computer Entertainment Inc.'s PlayStations.
The magicom devices, which are spreading rapidly overseas, typically comprise of a cartridge about the same size as an authentic game disk and a separate memory card used to store downloaded software. Alternatively, some pirates modify the game consoles themselves.
The objective is to make hardware capable of circumventing the anti-piracy systems of the game makers.
Nintendo Co. said magicom hardware was largely to blame for a nearly 50-percent drop in sales in Europe in recent months.
Globally, the company estimates that annual losses are in the region of trillions of yen.
The widespread use of magicom hardware, particularly in Europe and the United States, suggests that many users do not feel that their actions are illegal or wrong.
"If I were to buy the software through the regular channels, it would cost so much," said a 32-year-old Japanese student in Los Angeles.
She purchased a magicom which included about a dozen software titles for the DS console last summer for $80 (7,500 yen) from a friend.
"Everybody is using it (magicom), and I don't feel like I am doing something particularly wrong," she said.
In June 2009, Nintendo monitored 10 websites based overseas that allowed people to illicitly download game software, and found that software had been pirated a total 238 million times.
Multiplied by the average unit price for software, the figure translates into 1 trillion yen ($10.7 billion) in lost sales.
Recently, magicom kits have been developed not only for the portable Nintendo DS system but also for larger game consoles such as the Nintendo Wii and Sony's PlayStation.
Japanese authorities have recently been cracking down on websites that distribute the pirated software, but the sheer number of sites involved makes the piracy difficult to eradicate.
Meanwhile, the scourge has spread to Europe.
According to a U.S. study last December, Italy leads Europe in the number of illegal downloads, followed by Spain and France.
Nintendo said it saw sales of its DS software plummet in Europe and some other markets by 45 percent in April-December 2009, compared to the previous year.
The drop was significantly steeper than an 11 percent fall in the United States and a 7 percent drop in Japan during the same period.
The issue is being discussed at the highest levels of Nintendo's management.
Satoru Iwata, president of Nintendo, said at the announcement of the company's financial results in January that he hoped to "enhance the ability to combat piracy in Europe through both legal and technological means."
Iwata said that the company's efforts would focus mainly on developing game consoles that would not play the illegally downloaded software.
But such countermeasures are not always effective. Both Nintendo and Sony Computer Entertainment provide owners of their consoles with updates to console programs via the Internet which stop the use of illegally downloaded software.
However, users can intentionally avoid the anti-piracy measures by not hooking up to the Internet.
The government, meanwhile, is moving to tighten anti-piracy laws.
In January, revisions to the Copyright Law came into force prohibiting the downloading of pirated software and content such as music and videos from the Internet even for private use.
At present, it is difficult to prosecute offenders, but the industry ministry is mulling Copyright Law revisions that would make the assembly and distribution of devices which allow the playing of copied software a crime.
The ministry is looking into ways to punish such offenders.
"Pirated software negates all of the effort made by the creators. We hope to create rules that will protect the property value of games both inside Japan and overseas," a ministry official said.
