In what Nintendo probably considers a major victory over piracy, the High Court in London ruled that the “R4” flash cartridges are a violation of Nintendo’s rights and the DS system, and therefore are now illegal to import, sell, or advertise for them in the UK. Unfortunately, the DS is in the end of its life and so it probably won’t have a massive effect on the sales of software for the system in the future, but anything can help, as there have been millions and millions of software sales lost to the device in the past.
Why was the card outlawed? In an explanation that makes a lot more sense than most people’s arguments of simply “It’s bad to do”, the court ruled that since the card must circumvent Nintendo’s handheld’s security before it is able to be used, then it is a violation of the property that they have made and therefore should not be used.
“Nintendo promotes and fosters game development and creativity, and strongly supports the game developers who legitimately create new and innovative applications. In the UK alone, there have been over 100,000 game copying devices seized since 2009. Nintendo initiates these actions not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of over 1,400 video game development companies that depend on legitimate sales of games for their survival.”
Well, that’s a good enough explanation for me!
