Reverse engineering of Japanese music video games has been a huge issue. I was grown up from the environment where the only way to enjoy those games was an ille

Reverse engineering of Japanese music video games has been a huge issue. I was grown up from the environment where the only way to enjoy those games was an illegal means for a long time, and even at that time the contention was evident. In fact the article missed important details like that Konami moved to online authentication as a direct response to a massive content leak in 2012 among others, and that Programmed World (or later, Programmed Sun) was commonly used by gamers from Japan and other Asian countries where those games are legally available---even after the invitation-only policy and geofencing to prevent them. Made essential due to the COVID-19, the end game for those arcade game publishers seems to be the de-arcade-ization; Konami has been particularly active at mobile and PC ports of their arcade games and that greatly reduced the needs for legally questionable practices.