Nintendo DS R4 Card Now Illegal In UK
"A court ruling has made the sale of a key part of Nintendo DS homebrew use illegal in the UK."
Published: 28th July 2010 | Source: MCV UK |
This week seems to be quite active in governmental actions towards electronic device software workarounds. On Monday we reported a US government decision legalizing the "jailbreaking" of iPhones. Today, similar ruling has taken place in the UK regarding Nintendo's DS handheld console, though this time in the other direction.
The London High Court has ruled that the sale/importing of Nintendo DS game copiers, such as the popular R4 card, is now illegal. This comes despite arguments from the defendants, Wai Dat Chan and Playables Limited, that the device allows users to make use of and play "homebrew" applications/games. The reasoning behind the judge's decision is that despite the homebrew use, the device still must first circumvent the console's security features.
"Nintendo promotes and fosters game development and creativity, and strongly supports the game developers who legitimately create new and innovative applications," a statement read. "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."
This ruling comes a week after a similar decision in a Dutch court, which found 11 retailers guilty of illegally importing and selling piracy equipment.
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I know loads of people with R4's
Or for the testing of home-made games for start-up programmers.
That's the excuse everyone uses lol :D
My GF has the DS and we was at first buying lot's of games for it, just ended up paying 18quid for an N5 card and downloaded the games. I was mainly playing homebrew games and apps, GF would only download these small games, she said she didn't wonna get caught (lol'd)
DS is limited so much, it's boring without opening it up!
Gutted, I was getting around to buying one of these to make us get more use out of it!!
Go for the N5, it unlocks a world of fun!
Just type N5 DS into Google.
Not illegal.
What relay is illegal is to reverse engineer the NDS or xbox or what ever. how ever having the ability to skip around a encryption sequence isnt illegal but some how Nintendo managed to confuse the hell out of the courts and get it made illegal.
The r4 may be illegal but that wont last long and to be honest will not stop imports !
Nintendo only got this enforced as they have the new NDS 3d version coming (rrp £199.99 to £249.99) out and they need to lesson the impact of the development costs and make some money back as the new version has cost them a arm and a leg as it will the consumer.
How ever if they will make use of the 3D aspect we will see. I still haven't seen any NDS games make use of the camera function apart from the free 5 min waste of time software that came with it .....
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