After many months of rampant DS piracy, ELSPA has finally considered doing something about the infamous R4 and its ability to enable users to essentially rip off Nintendo’s entire library of games. The trade body is mulling over taking those who sell the device to court, following suffering DS game sales which are blamed on the R4 and similar inventions.
“There are various SD cards for the DS that illegally circumvent the copyright protection in place and allows copied games to be played,” explained ELSPA’s IP Crime Unit manager John Hillier. “The supply of these items is an infringement and an offence under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 and the Trade Marks Act 1994. ELSPA’s IP Crime Unit works closely with the enforcement agencies to stop this supply and prevent instances of intellectual property theft.”
Unsurprisingly, it is the so-called “hardcore” games that are mostly affected by R4 chips, which I find particularly ironic — we complain when our favorite games aren’t doing well in the charts, but we sure as sh*t ain’t buying them, are we? I’m usually not bothered by a little piracy, but I’ve said before that something about the R4 really unsettles me. It’s a device that essentially allows you to screw over the whole platform and I’m not sure if I’m a fan of going that far.
All piracy is theft of course, but I don’t think anything highlights that fact more than the R4. Also, before you claim otherwise, you don’t use the R4 to “try” games before you buy them — I’ll believe that the day I wake up with a magical vagina between my legs that squirts out gold and other, hotter vaginas. Also made of gold.
