[FlamingCobra]

Joystiq: Japan Prohibits Import of R4 Cartridges

oh lawd

[Alex Heartnet]

Riight, because legislation can keep up with crafty software pirates?   

This sounds more then a little like jailbreaking smartphones, a practice that was eventually declared legal.

[Nuke]

if you cant import the device, you can always import the parts to build one.

[Alex Heartnet]

These sort of laws can turn around and bite legit businesses and consumers at a later date.  The wording of the law might be creatively misused by lawyers, or there might be a new use for an old technology, or other somesuch.  Over-regulation can be harmful to a country's economy.

[Spoon]

Bought one years ago. But after long faithful service it wouldn't start up properly anymore. So I had to get a new one, alas in the mean time it had apparantly become illegal to sell these things in the netherlands. But the webshop I bought it from back in the day found a way around it. You just needed to buy it from their sister company in spain. (They'd even give you a 10% discount code if you did) The only downside being that it took a day longer to get delivered.

So I'm guessing its this kind of business that Japan wants to prevent with this. They'd probably had loads of R4 import from china or something

[Nuke]

id hate to start seeing a trend in illegal technology in the us. they start doing that and im going to have to join the secdeeists.