The big picture: What do you do with aging hardware like the PS3? Well, in the United States, you either collect it, make it better, or sell it. However, if you live in Japan, you better be careful about how you handle your older game systems.

A man in Kagawa, Japan, has been arrested for modding a PlayStation 3 and then selling it. Japanese news outlet NHK notes, 44-year-old Tadaaki Abe was arrested and charged with jailbreaking his PS3 and selling it to someone in Tokyo.

Abe modded the PlayStation so that discs could be copied and then played without having to re-insert them --- in other words, installing them to the hard drive. According to Japanese trademark law, this is illegal. It also violates the country's Unfair Competition Prevention Act (UCPA). The UCPA protects a company's right to sell its products.

The PS3 in question is a Yakuza 3 special edition released only in Japan. The deck has a beautiful white finish with two dragons etched into it. Police tracked down the man after he sold the console for 15,555 yen ($145) on an internet auction site last July. Unmodded units of the Yakuza box sell on eBay for around $250 or more.

Abe, who only works part-time, told police he sold modded PS3s for extra income. Authorities seized 40 PlayStation 3 consoles in Abe's home and are currently investigating to see if any of them are modded.

Image credit: ksb5ch