A 20-year-old university student was arrested Monday on suspicion of pirating computer game software and selling it on Internet auction sites, police officials said.
The Metropolitan Police Department confiscated about 600 pirated software CD-Rs and an unspecified number of personal computers used for making the illegal copies as they searched the home of the suspect, Akihiro Tsubakitani, in Toshima Ward, Tokyo.
Police alleged that Tsubakitani sold six CD-Rs containing illegal copies of products made by a Tokyo-based game software maker and two other firms, worth a total of 52,800 yen at list price, to a 28-year-old company worker from the neighboring city of Ichikawa and another man for 5,200 yen from February to April.
Police quoted Tsubakitani as saying that he made the illegal copies because it was easier than working part-time jobs. Investigators suspect that since last June, Tsubakitani sold about 2,600 illegal copies of adult-oriented computer game software to around 360 people, earning 2.1 million yen.