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stuaxo

"The punishment? A maximum of 5 years jail time or $43,000 in fines (50 million KRW). "

...

"it's good to know that they will have the weapons they need to fight back with the backing of the Korean government. "

Is it only me that thinks this law takes things way too far ?

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> Is it only me that thinks this law takes things way too far ?

No, this law is bat-shit insane.

You don't go to jail for modifying your car, computer or mobile phone so the reach of this law is insanely over the top.

You are however breaking the law for making illegal/unsafe modifications to your car, mobile phone; probably not your computer though.

I think it's fair to make it illegal to utilise modifications during competitive play that involves making money - it's basically a form of fraud to cheat in those circumstances.

However, if you want to mod/hack a game for your own personal enjoyment then that absolutely seems reasonable.

Or perhaps like taking performance-enhancing drugs as an Olympian. But you just get disqualified from the games not thrown in jail.

Arguably though it's sabotaging the experience for other players which can be thought of as damages to the company directly.

There's a number of countries with legislation passed or pending (Germany is one) to criminalize doping. Marion Jones spent time in prison for it here in the US (though her case was linked to check fraud too, and that's likely what made her go to jail instead of getting off with community service)

In that context doping is considered damaging to the country's reputation (to my other point) and should be deemed illegal. Or at least until biological enhancements become widespread and the games become too ordinary. :)

>it's basically a form of fraud to cheat in those circumstances.

Yes, and there are already anti-fraud laws to handle this case. The law sounds more like a PR stunt to promote SK as the "e-sports capital" of the world.

I don't see any reason whatsoever why breaking a private agreement between you and a company should be criminally punishable. There's contract law that handles these kinds of things - and no one needs to go to prison there.

>like a PR stunt to promote SK as the "e-sports capital" of the world.

Sounds more like it will achieve the opposite of positive PR.

Not only that, but this goes directly against cheat developers. Cheat development is pretty interesting stuff from a reverse engineering perspective. Cheat developers also have in the past caught anti-cheat companies doing some very invasive shit, like taking screenshots of your desktop or sending your process list to their servers. And depending on how exactly they legislate that, it may also impact other reverse engineering projects like private servers, malware, security research, etc.

I definitely don't think a blanket ban like this is at all appropriate.

The "state" has no place in regulating competitive video games by use of force. Already in place no doubt was the ability of the state to enforce private party contracts. But, bringing the state into the mix... that's like saying the state, i.e. the citizens, have some standing in every such contract/instance. This is bad,

Civil penalties would be fair. Any criminal penalties, such as jail time, are insane.

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