While details are scarce, we can imagine a lot of popular carts (like the R4), if not all carts, will be affected. Should Nintendo and friends win the suit, selling and importing such carts will be illegal, meaning that people would have to resort to the black market to get their hands on one.
We understand why Nintendo and other companies would want to fight the good fight against piracy, but we can't help but fret over the impact on our precious homebrew hobby. At any rate, we'll give you more information as this case unfolds.
[Via Joystiq; Thanks, Kimiko!]
_cg_oct22_kjgfdhd_thumbnail.jpg "Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars")
Reader Comments (Page 2 of 3)
7-29-2008 @ 4:38PM
Char6296 said...
Ohhh, I forgot about those times I spent poring over the box when I was bored. I feel such a n00b.
7-29-2008 @ 6:04PM
Kimiko said...
Bad Char. Bad. You should pay for your games.
There. Do you feel chastised now?
7-29-2008 @ 3:54PM
chibi_wings said...
I actually don't own a flashcard, but I still feel sympathy for those who do and use it for homebrew only, and not piracy. Sadly the majority of people who have a flashcard, most likely happen to have some illegal games on it too.
With that said, I am not against Nintendo trying to stop the sale of flashcards. Sure, a lot of you are thinking "o greedy company, it just wants more money", and I agree that they do just want to make money, but big companies also employ a lot of people and those employees also deserve our sympathy. So what I just want to say is good for Nintendo for trying to stop piracy. If they actually do is a whole other matter....
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7-30-2008 @ 10:02PM
Christopher said...
Well, yes. By simply bypassing any sort of copy protection, it suddenly becomes piracy because of the DMCA. So I own retail copies of everything on my M3 Real, yet because I bypassed copy protection, it's still considered piracy. Ain't that just screwed up, huh?
7-29-2008 @ 7:36PM
maryland157 said...
Do I see Datel on this list at all noooooo.... also Nintendo please stop being so sue happy, there are some people who use these devices for legal purposes *hint**Hint*like me.
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7-30-2008 @ 1:08AM
leonus11 said...
all you guys are complaining about nintendo sueing the sellers of the devices and saying that you use it for homebrew and not piracy but what you don't understand is that nintendo has no way of telling if you got illegal games on it (unless the come personally and check it out). i understand that alot of you guys don't play pirated games using the flash cards but the flash card itself can still be used for piracy and that poses a threat to the big N.
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7-30-2008 @ 8:42AM
Jamar said...
Wasn't that argument used against videotape at one point?
7-30-2008 @ 8:43AM
Jamar said...
How well did that work?
7-30-2008 @ 10:06PM
Christopher said...
That is a stupid argument. How many PC's are there in the world yet EVERY SINGLE one of them can be used for piracy. Do you know how many illegal copies of WINDOWS there are in use? Nobody does, but it would likely solve the global economy issues many times over for every country in the world. Yet you don't see Microsoft suing manufacturers of DVD burners or software companies like Nero or Roxio for enabling piracy.
7-31-2008 @ 11:03AM
leonus11 said...
@Christopher
ask yourself this. is it the dvd burners that allow for pirated games to be played? or is it the mod chips and flash cards? of course the answer is the flash cards and mod chips! DUH!! dvd burners alone can't enable pirated games to be played! next time think about what your typing before you write buddy.
7-31-2008 @ 11:11AM
leonus11 said...
@ jamar
ok think of it like this. if you were selling your OWN MODEL of a car (and owned a dealership) and somebody, somewhere, started selling a certain device or tool that allowed ANYONE to easily steal your car right from your dealership , what would you do? i know i would sue them! and don't start asking stupid questions like "well how would they get in to my dealership" cuz its happened dozens of times to other dealerships.
7-30-2008 @ 2:58AM
mr.crash said...
And they'll just move the production to somewhere that doesn't give a toss, or somewhere it's legal (such as Australia, where Sony tried to yell at people providing mods for ps2's back in the day. Same deal).
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7-30-2008 @ 3:04AM
BlackDS said...
Nintendo ... Please sue Datel next. Action Replay NEEDS to DIE.
All the cheaters are ruining the Nintendo Wifi games IMO.
I hate cheaters.
Peace.
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7-30-2008 @ 3:39AM
obaketenshi said...
What I'd like to know is if we as homebrewers (and the pirates too) are even statistically a significant number of DS users in the US and Europe. My guess would be "no". Even though homebrew is pretty easy to use, the "average" user would not have any idea where to even get a flashcard, or know all the cool things that you can use one for.
In the US and Europe its hard to get a decent card for homebrew in a brick and mortar store (Games and Music FTL). However, I know in Korea/China/Japan, its much easier to obtain these cards, and in Korea at least its surpassed legit DS game sales.
This isn't the next Napster like they're trying to make it out to be, but its going to affect this niche market anyways. For those that use homebrew a lot like myself, its a worrying situation.
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7-30-2008 @ 4:40PM
chibi_wings said...
actually the article states that this only applies to Japan right now, cause Nintendo is suing five Japanese firms ^^
7-30-2008 @ 3:49AM
Adam York said...
It's a bit like banning empty coke cans because you can smoke crack in them... how about they crack down on the people distributing pirated games instead of threatening companies than enable users to create and use homebrew software?
I really think the big N is shooting itself in the foot, whilst forcing the practice of piracy even further underground.
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7-30-2008 @ 8:32AM
Nightwish said...
Here's a hint... If I couldn't pirate on the DS and on the Wii I wouldn't have bought them. So Nintendo actually made money on my pirating. Should they sue themselves? (tongue in cheek).
Laws dictating morals... yeah, that'll work.
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7-30-2008 @ 10:07PM
Christopher said...
That's a bad argument because these companies make money more on the software and very little on the hardware because of R&D costs.
7-30-2008 @ 6:59PM
Danny said...
How about they just slash DS game prices? Here in the UK shops, every DS game sells for 29.99. Always 29.99. Doesn't matter if it's Zelda or Bunniz. And yet a I can get amazing Playstation and PC games in the same shops for half that price. Cut out the price fixing and give people less incentive to pirate.
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7-30-2008 @ 7:52PM
Texas said...
If flash carts are outlawed, only outlaws will have flash carts.
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