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SALE OF PIRATED GAMES CDS CONSTITUTES USE OF A FALSE INSTRUMENT
In the past, the courts usually took the view that the manufacture or sale of optical media con-taining pirated games software involves only the issue of infringement of trademarks or copyright. But in a 2001 criminal appeals judgment, the Supreme Court, referring to a 1960 Supreme Court judgment, stated that sound, images or symbols sufficient to evidence certain represen-tation, recorded by audio or video recording or electromagnetic means and replayable or dis-playable by mechanical means or computer processing, should be regarded as a document within the meaning of Article 220 Paragraph 2 of the Penal Code.
As far as forgery of a quasi-document within the meaning of said Article 220 Paragraph 2 is concerned, because processing by machine or computer is necessary to express the content of such a document, it goes without saying that when a person causes a forged private quasi-document to be read by a machine or computer, this is use of the document, and amounts to use of a forged private quasi-document within the meaning of the Code.
If a quasi-document is delivered to another in the course of sale, and both the vendor and the pur-chaser are aware that the quasi-document is forged, and are also aware that it can be used by means of machine or computer processing, be-cause the purchaser is in a position to use the quasi-document at any time, it should be deemed that at the time of delivery, the act of selling the forged quasi-document is not different from use of the document.
This is just the same as when a person reproduces and sells for profits the published work of an-other (including the imprint page on which the publishing company details the author, publisher, printer, etc.): when he delivers such a forged work, the act of delivery itself constitutes use of a forged document; it is not necessary that fur-ther presentation be made concerning the content of the forged work, for such actions to amount to use of the document.