ZanQuance wrote:And they plan to enforce this law on the million of consumers that have modded consoles how?
this law ain't gonna last long...
It's true that this law isn't likely to be used in connection with many private users, as it will be too much trouble for the companies to pursue people who modify just their own machines. But the law can and will be used to penalise companies who earn money by modifying consoles, and even for Nintendo/Sony/Microsoft to get those console-modding small companies (who are often made up entirely of one person or at most less than half a dozen people, and who have no real money to waste on court cases) forced to close down (modern day business-related court cases are very often won by the side that can afford to string out the court-case the longest).
And this is just one more assault on the publics' rights. If you buy something, then you should be free to do with it what you like, providing of course you don't hurt anyone by doing so. And modding a console, so that you can provide a quieter fan, or play different-region games, or load your own games from a hard drive, or to edit your save-games to give yourself more (virtual) health or ammunition should NOT be in any way illegal. But it is illegal now (albeit just in Japan, for the moment at least) and when a company gets the laws changed to benefit itself over the customers, then the people who own/run the company do tend to go for further changes to the laws to benefit that company. The next step might well be to try to make it illegal to sell used or replacement parts for consoles, so instead you'll have to pay the higher prices of the official manufacturers costs if you want to replace the optical drive or the power supply in your PS4, Swtich, or Xbox One.
And in ten years time, it might be illegal for anyone but the company who made the console to open up that console, meaning that any company other than Nintendo, who offer a console repairing service, will by law be unable to fix a Nintendo-made console.
Result, the little companies who repair or upgrade consoles lose a lot of revenue and maybe have to close down, and the public lose even more of their rights. Still, Nintendo, Sony, and Microsoft get even more profit, from the repairs they're now paid to do, to add to their bloated bank accounts, the lawyers get even more money, and the big companies get even closer to dominating the legal and financial structures that run the world.
And yes, piracy is a real problem, but making it illegal to edit or copy your save games, or to add a new fan to replace your older and noisier fan, or even to modify the console to play from hard drive only the games that you legally own, will not reduce piracy at all. Console modding, of all kinds, has all sorts of uses and benefits that don't involve piracy, and it's neither right nor fair to remove the user's rights to do what they like with their own hardware