The R4 has been a pirate's dream for many years, allowing gamers to essentially rip off the DS' entire library and carry it around on one little cart. Sure, many people claim to buy an R4 to "back up" their existing game collection, but we all know what the things are really used for. Well, Nintendo's sick of it, and has rallied fifty-three publishers to try and stop the things being sold.
Capcom recently announced it was backing Nintendo on new legal action, where four known sellers of the R4 Revolution will be tried under the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act. Nintendo pushed to make the sale of R4s illegal back in February, but nobody cared, and sales of the device continued. Now Nintendo's going after the sellers themselves.
We predict yet another mini-victory for publishers in a war that they will never win.
Capcom Co., Ltd. (Capcom) announced that along with Nintendo and other 53 software manufacturers who develop/sell video game software for play on the Nintendo DS (including Nintendo DSLite and Nintendo DSi) filed a lawsuit on October 5 in the Tokyo District Court against four companies, who had been importing/selling the “R4 Revolution for DS” (a typical model of a “game copying device”). The companies filed their action pursuant to the Japanese Unfair Competition Prevention Act (2009 (WA) No. 35335) seeking an injunction to stop the distribution of the game copying devices, as well as seeking damage compensation.
Regarding the Game Copying Devices, the court ruled in favor of the companies to allow full recognition of their claims and to make it illegal to import and sell the Game Copying Devices in this February. However, import and sales of the Game Copying Devices showed no sign of disappearance from the market thereafter. We have been sending a warning to request the discontinuation to vendors who are continuously selling the Game Copying Devices after the court decision in February, or have been sending a warning to pay compensation for damages to vendors who were selling the Game Copying Devices in the past. However, since we observe many cases that the vendors ignore our warning or the vendors do not show any sincere response to our warning, we decided to take legal action at this time.
We are expecting the entire society including users to recognize that our company and other software manufactures have extremely sustained damages from proliferation of illegal instruments, such as the Game Copying Devices, and the computer industries have sustained serious damages because of those vendors, and we expect to influence the society to eliminate such illegal instruments from the market.
Jim Sterling serves as reviews editor for Destructoid.com, head of the Podtoid podcast, and produces a number of news stories, original features, one-of-a-kind videos. With his passionate argumentative style, controversial opinions, harsh delivery, and dedication to brutal honesty Sterling is a name that you can't help but recognize.
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Contest:
11:00 AM on 10.14.2009
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Agreed; it's a losing battle to fight R4 sales.
Still, yes, we all know cracks are mostly used for piracy, and I really hate piracy, so... not sure what else to day. Conflicted.
How can the R4 developers be punished, though? Can you punish manufacturers of aerosol cans or markers for allowing their customers to use them to get high? Steel Brotha is right, it's pointless to go after the hardware. I see the intent, and it's good that they're not letting things slide...but there just seem to be much more effective ways of fighting hardware.
I wonder if the DS2 rumor has anything to do with Nintendo attacking pirates. It's definitely possible.
Nintendo sure are fighting a war that looks like it will ultimately make little difference in the long run. It's like when they try to stop Wii homebrew, which takes them a long time, but only gets bypassed very quickly.
The court already ruled the R4 card illegal, this time around everyone is suing for the companies involved to actually obey the cease and desist sales of the R4 that the court issued. Its not the legality of the card thats an issue this time its the sales/imnport of the device itself.
Why must I actually read the post...
Or GBA emulation. I still say that was a dick move, removing that slot.
What is it with major companies going after the small fries first? Maybe Nintendo read about that news story of kids setting people on fire for video games.
on-topic: I pretty much agree with what Steel Brotha said. gl;hf defeating every pirate on Earth.
I only play a few games on my DS so I have no use for anything like that. In many countries bootleg games are everywhere and very cheap too.
Japan is trying to mimic the Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA) in their own country. The DMCA is one of the worst and most abused laws ever created.
They'll shut down a bunch of places then more will pop up in their place. In the end only the lawyers get rich.
The only reason they're going after the retailers is because it's the easiest target, but if there were really a legitimate target in this whole thing it would be the release groups that dump all these games, these are the guys really doing the damage. However, it's an unstoppable network; Nintendo realizes it's not even worth trying so they go after scapegoats.
WTF!!!! is this a freaking AD? Did some douche bag make an account JUST to place a f'king ad on here? And could it be any longer? Two paragraphs of the same sh't over and over. "aionkinah", Please die.
m3 zero
I use a DSTT for my DS.
I have the Homebrew channel installed on my Wii.
I DON'T pirate games. Games I want to buy I pay for, like everyone else should.
I DO enjoy getting the many free games and apps available from the community.
Homebrew apps add a richness to the console that you wouldn't get otherwise. I know Nintendo can't stop the piracy without stopping the other, more productive types of homebrew, but I resent anyone who assumes that because I own a flash cart that I am up to something nefarious.