Recent cases demonstrate that authorities are actively pursuing both distributors and users of cracked software. For instance, in a 2025 case, a court sentenced a group of people involved in selling cracked software to prison terms ranging from 2.5 to 3.5 years and fines between ¥1.5 million (approximately $210,000) and ¥11 million. For a professional engineer or a small business, such a legal judgment would be catastrophic.