The ACCS (Association of Copyright for Computer Software) revealed today that for the first time this year it has had an individual arrested for distributing illegal game ROM data on the Internet in Japan.
The 31-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was arrested for making up to 179 titles of video game ROM data accessible to the public from an online storage service between late 2001 to early 2003 using multiple free accounts provided by a major communication company named NTT. The suspect was arrested by the Kyoto prefecture police and taken to court last month, where he was charged 300,000 yen for his act.
The ACCS mainly consists of members who are related to the video game industry. The executive director of the committee is Kenzo Tsujimoto, the president of Capcom and head of the CESA group, which also organizes the Tokyo Game Show. The ACCS has been active in protecting the interests of the gaming industry since 2000, attempting to prohibit the resale of used games, as well as dealing with other issues.