Importing is 100% legal, right?

[Dart]

Just making sure.

[Drexel923]

:hmm:

Not buying or selling here...moving to Video Gaming.

-_-

[Dart]

Oops. Sorry about that.

Anyway, answer the question.

[Rikimaru]

http://www.owned-pictures.com/owned-pictures/busted.jpg

[Gapporin]

Since nobody else will answer your question, yes, importing is 100% legal (as long as you are buying the original games, of course).

[MegaDrive20XX]

http://www.owned-pictures.com/owned-pictures/busted.jpg

LOL

"Officer I swear! I was chasing Cookie Monster and Scooby Doo too! Can't you let me off on a warning?"

[Videogamerdaryll]

http://www.owned-pictures.com/owned-pictures/busted.jpg

LOL

"Officer I swear! I was chasing Cookie Monster and Scooby Doo too! Can't you let me off on a warning?"


LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL LOL

[The_EniGma]

Yes and no...

Its sorta illegal becasue your not supposed to have the game yet although no one really cares...

[Dart]

Yes and no...

Its sorta illegal becasue your not supposed to have the game yet although no one really cares...
What do you mean its sorta illegal?

I feel kinda dumb asking this, but none of you have ever had any problem buying Japanese exclusives from, say, an online import store, right?

[jezt]

as long as its not cocaine, its legal.

[davidbrit2]

A lot of times, copyright laws can affect the legality of importing certain goods. Some games say things like "For sale in use in Japan only blah blah blah", and that's what it's referring to. However, I've been ordering imports - preordering even - for quite some time now, and there's never been any real problem. It seems to be mostly considered a "grey market" area.

[Aussie2B]

Yeah, that's why Japan Amazon can't sell games to anyone outside of Japan, but nobody's gonna care if Joe Shmoe has a collection of imported games.

[slownerveaction]

I'm no lawyer, but this is how I understand it:

It's 100% legal to own, buy, or sell Japanese import games in America, Europe, or pretty much anywhere else. There are many completely legit companies (like National Console Support) that make their money almost exclusively through the sale of import games. Even some of the big retailers (like EB) have experimented in selling import games in the past (more on this later).

BUT to play an import game, you most likely have to modify your console. Some modifications might fall into a legal "gray" area. In particular, mod chips (which usually also allow the playing the CD-Rs and bootlegs) are dicey.

The major publishers highly discourage importing, for multiple reasons (mostly because the publishing rights might lie with different companies depending on the region). The publishers will put pressure on major retailers who deal in imports (which is probably why Amazon Japan won't ship games to America).

In other words, don't worry about it. But if you're going to stick a mod chip in a PS2, don't send it off to Sony for repairs or anything, ya know?

[Lord Contaminous]

Most of these big wigs want to make importing illegal.

Oh well, we're still gonna keep doing it. That is the penalty for their executive decisions on not releasing great games.

[kevincure]

It is 100% legal to import games, at least in the US. They can write "For sale only in Japan" but it doesn't have any real legal meaning. Often, they write this because they have a licensing agreement for, say, the Japanese market, but not the US. For instance, Midway might publish a given game in the US and Capcom might publish the same game in Japan.

In fact, the whole "grey market" when applied to importation from another market is bullshit in almost all cases. It's tough to think of products where importation is flat-out banned. That's why the companies use non-legal methods to stop importing (and allow them to continue price discrimation by market) - for instance, PAL/NTSC TV standards, not putting English language on Japanese discs, region coding on DVDs, etc..

[Tron 2.0]

It's legal to me i'll be damn if some....game compeny.Tells me what i can and can not play,domestic wise.

Btw wich seems to be SCEA policey these days :angry:

[Ed Oscuro]

It's tough to think of products where importation is flat-out banned.
Outside of drugs, certain chemical substances, animals/plants, and folk medicines...what IS banned (for reasons of copyright of course)? Arcade machines always throw that disclaimer at you, but it's mostly there to keep distributors in line and make sure games don't appear in the wrong markets (as if they really did enough localization in the "world" or "Asia" machines), I'd suppose.

[sharp]

I completly agree importing is legal, but modification can be a grey-area. I still don't get the point from the current region-protection. I liked the system Sega used for the Saturn, which you could build in a country-switch without being able to play cd-r's. But I have to be happy to be European, so I can at leat play an original domestic version of Metal Slug 3 on my PS2.

Personal I use quite a lot of import-games, just because they won't release it over here. But hey even some great USA-games were not released in Europe, still don't get why Capcom didn't bring use the Mega Man Collection which the USA got for PS2 and GC.

[MattyXB]

In germany there were some problems in the past. (Not sure if this is over yet).
But Nintendo and Sony have not allowed to Sale Import games here in germany in the past (as the N64 and PSX was sold). You can still own them, but not sell in Stores as Seller. In one Store that I know the police came and grab all the Import games that the store must closed.

They think, that they don't sell the PAL Games, when all have buy the NTSC games already. But most great games never released here.

And Sony forbid the Chip in the PSX and PS2, which can play Import Games, because they mean you can play illegal copies from the games too. So they don't like Import Games here. But not sure if they are still forbidden.

[Moon Patrol]

As far as my understanding goes about adding a chip to a game console to defeat region lock's and copy protection, its completely legal. You purchased their hardware, and now with fair use laws, you can do what you want with it. If you want to break it into 1000 pieces, throw it on a piece of cardboard, you can, you want to drop some little microcontroller in that reads off the region codes and changes them to one that works on your system, so be it.

[vulcanjedi]

Hey

It's all about the licensing fees. It is not legal for almost all retail outlets to sell any imports. Used and collectible have different designations. Otherwise you would never be able to sell a "not for resale" game.

:)

VJ

[MattyXB]

As far as my understanding goes about adding a chip to a game console to defeat region lock's and copy protection, its completely legal. You purchased their hardware, and now with fair use laws, you can do what you want with it. If you want to break it into 1000 pieces, throw it on a piece of cardboard, you can, you want to drop some little microcontroller in that reads off the region codes and changes them to one that works on your system, so be it.
Maybe in USA. But I think in germany its forbidden.
Or Sony don't like it.

When you post something about chipping (adding a chip to a game console) in the board from Sony. They deleted the post and write that this is illegal. Too when you only write that you use it to play Import games. For Sony Germany its illegal.
You have buy there console, but its forbidden to open it and change something inside like chips.

[GaijinPunch]

MOst companies won't go after import shops, but technically the copyright holder (usually who licensed the software [manufacturer of the hardware almost always] has the say in where something can be sold. Don't you remember the stink Sega made about import DC games sold on Ebay?

It's technically a gray area, but nobody really gives a shit. AFAIK, besides region-locking, the no DC imports on Ebay was the only time I saw heard of a big company doing something against imports.

[Gemini-Phoenix]

Saying that, when I went to purcahse my Red PS2 directly from the Sony (America) website, they refunded my money saying that they were unable to ship outside of America.

I got around it by getting a friend in America to purcahse it for me, and get it sent to them, and then sending it to me...


Many games / systems / peripherals for a specific territory also usually have on them somewhere "Not for sale outside of North America / Canada" - Same goes for Japanese games and most PAL ones too...

If it were legal 100%, then why do we have to pay whenever we import something (Granted - It's not all of the time, but most of the time we do)


I also know that it's shops can't exactly sell import stuff - GameStation used to do it, but then they got told they couldn't - So I believe import specialist shops are now fewer (Those that do exist have to pay duty no doubt on all their products)

However, rules are somewhat different if you have an online shop...

[robotriot]

From what I know, Sony at least in Germany encourages people to buy JAP/US consoles (probably games too) when you're visiting the country, thus importing it yourself. It seems they don't want others to import though and make a profit along with it.

[Ed Oscuro]

I just booted up Kyokyoku Sentai Dadandarn ( LOL ) on ye olde MAME32 last night and noticed that the warning screen mentions public performance is forbidden by law - which, of course, would mean that private performance or use isn't :)