Nintendo Wins R4 Lawsuit in Australia

[Andy Chalk]

Nintendo Wins R4 Lawsuit in Australia

Nintendo [http://www.nintendo.com] has been awarded almost a half-million dollars in a lawsuit against an Australian online retailer who which selling the R4 mod chip.

RSJ IT Solutions and two "affiliated respondents," Patrick Li and James Li, were ordered by the Australian courts to pay $520,000 AU ($468,000 U.S.) for selling the R4 mod chip through its Gadgetgear.com.au [http://www.gadgetgear.com.au/] website. The company has been ordered to halt all sales of the device in Australia and must also submit to the court a list that identifies all of its R4 chip suppliers.

The R4 chip lets users bypass the copy protection measures built into the Nintendo DS, letting them play illegally downloaded games. While some websites sell R4 chips preloaded with software, ITNews.com.au [http://www.itnews.com.au/News/167490,nintendo-wins-lawsuit-over-r4-mod-chip-piracy.aspx] says Gadgetgear, which appears to be more of a general accessories distributor rather than a mod-focused site, was selling just the chip itself, which could have been a factor in the relatively lenient punishment.

This is the second high-profile court victory for Nintendo in Australia this month; earlier in February, James Burt of Queensland agreed to pay the company Super Mario Bros. Wii [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/98175-Nintendo-Pirate-Settles-Dispute-for-1-5-Million] to the internet a week before it was released.




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[Deofuta]

Hmm good for them I say.

My friend bought one for me in China, it was pretty cool but I respect Nintendo protecting its investments.

 

[Jared]

Aye, gotta give them points for at least defending the property they own.

Alot of money is that!

 

[MurderousToaster]

I have to laugh at this.

A guy uploads Mario to the internet for about a day, gets fined $1,000,000.

A company consistently sells an illegal chip, $500,000.

 

[Cabisco]

I can't blame Nintendo for trying to protect their property, it's nice to see them taking quite a proactive role in stoping people douching.

 

[DarkSaber]

Whu buys the R4 anymore anyway? CycloDS Evolution is where it's at now.

 

[DarkSaber]

I have to laugh at this.

A guy uploads Mario to the internet for about a day, gets fined $1,000,000.

A company consistently sells an illegal chip, $500,000.

Not to mention the Mario guy wasn't even making any money off his activity, whilst the company obviously was.

 

[Simalacrum]

Well I guess Nintendo can never do without enough money...

 

[orangeapples]

I can see why some people would be upset by this, but this wasn't about money, it was about principle. I think more companies should take a stand against piraters. If anything Nintendo should release their own homebrew card that will not interfere with their own copyright rules. Some of those homebrew games are pretty good.

wait, the DSi does that.

 

[mikecoulter]

The all hating Nintendo trip continues.

 

[the_tramp]

I've never really understood this, just a simple google search brings up a multitude of sites that sell these cards, taking one site down will not affect sales as people will now select result #2 rather than #1. That being said, yes piracy is bad rah rah rah. Attack it at the source (those that make it) rather than the intermediaries who sell them on.

 

[BlindMessiah94]

Nintendo is well within their right to do this, but in all honesty maybe if they just made a virtual console for the DS like they have with the Wii, I would pay money for some of the games.

I love the convenience of the R4 because I don't have to swap a million cartridges and I can emulate SNES games (poorly) and NES games (well). It's a handheld system, not a console. People are looking for convenience. I can also use the thing to play mp3's and it is built like a tank, so I don't need to by the piece of glass that is the iPOD.
Besides, I gladly paid money for the games I enjoy on the DS ie - Chrono Trigger, Professor Layton, Mario Kart, etc. But It's still easier to have them all loaded on an SD card so I'm not fiddling with my gloves on on the bus with 18 different cases of DS games.

 

[inpachi]

Thats fine.. I dont own a R4 Anyway.. I have M3 DS Real.. And i am quite happy with it.. And have been for over a year now.. No complaints! Actually i take that back VERY RARELY and i mean rarely its only happened like 1s or 2s since i have owned it.. If i move the DS around to much or something not sure how it happens the DS freezes and i have to insert and take out the card over and over again until it connects again.. its only happened 1s or 2s and im not to worried about it..

 

[Xanthious]

Nintendo is doing this I believe for the publicity rather than to impact piracy. If they are however doing this with any intention of halting pirates one bit they are sadly mistaken. There are hundreds, if not thousands of places to buy these carts online.

However, what Nintendo could do is to take a few cues form the people making these cartridges. First off, how handy is it to have a single cartridge that holds a couple hundred games? If Nintendo could design something like that and make a way to easily port your DS games onto it that would be a huge seller. Who likes toting around a ton of games everywhere you go? It's much easier to have it all on one self contained unit. Secondly, they would also be well served looking into putting out a virtual console like the Wii has for the DS. There are more than a few people that would like to be able to have NES games on their DS.

I really think there is a lot to be gained by competing with the pirates and offering things like mass storage and emulation and possibly even a way of utilizing homebrew games that they could profit from. Obviously the market is there and there is money to be made if they would just put in a little effort. It's been proven time and again combating piracy head on is all but a predetermined losing effort. Pirates will be going nowhere anytime soon and every time some company comes out and introduces some new method to "stop" piracy it's typically cracked and rendered useless before it's released commercially. However, when companies have actually competed with the pirated and offered reasons to buy their products that the pirates can not offer they have more often than not been successful.

 

[Jourdan Cameron]

I have to laugh at this.

A guy uploads Mario to the internet for about a day, gets fined $1,000,000.

A company consistently sells an illegal chip, $500,000.

The R4 isn't illegal, what this article failed to bring out is the fact that it can be used to backup your cartridges and also to put your own stuff on the DS. Is that so bad?
But they, just like a CD burner, can be used for piracy.
So ban CD burners and computers?

 

[Xersues]

I have to laugh at this.

A guy uploads Mario to the internet for about a day, gets fined $1,000,000.

A company consistently sells an illegal chip, $500,000.

The R4 isn't illegal, what this article failed to bring out is the fact that it can be used to backup your cartridges and also to put your own stuff on the DS. Is that so bad?
But they, just like a CD burner, can be used for piracy.
So ban CD burners and computers?

Thank you! Some one with a brain! +1 internets for you on your first post.

I don't see how this chip is doing anything wrong. When you BUY something, you are allowed to trade it, smash it, break it, hack it, replace anything in it, and completely void and support from nintendo.

On the same vein of thought, it's like Subaru or Ford going after people for replacing parts in the car? Screw that. It's hardware. I can do what I want with it.

 

[Jak The Great]

I have to laugh at this.

A guy uploads Mario to the internet for about a day, gets fined $1,000,000.

A company consistently sells an illegal chip, $500,000.

The R4 isn't illegal, what this article failed to bring out is the fact that it can be used to backup your cartridges and also to put your own stuff on the DS. Is that so bad?
But they, just like a CD burner, can be used for piracy.
So ban CD burners and computers?

Thank you! Some one with a brain! +1 internets for you on your first post.

I don't see how this chip is doing anything wrong. When you BUY something, you are allowed to trade it, smash it, break it, hack it, replace anything in it, and completely void and support from nintendo.

On the same vein of thought, it's like Subaru or Ford going after people for replacing parts in the car? Screw that. It's hardware. I can do what I want with it.

except for the little fact that inside the user manual, with the legal print that no one cares about, they state that the product is leased to you.. you do not technically own it. Therefore you can only do what is allowed within the license agreement, which specifically states that you cannot make a copy of the game or hack it. All console hardware and software has that little known clause in it

also if its for personal back up that is within your legal right but let's be honest; who buys one of these things with the intention that they are only going to back up games they already own?

 

[xyrafhoan]

I have to laugh at this.

A guy uploads Mario to the internet for about a day, gets fined $1,000,000.

A company consistently sells an illegal chip, $500,000.

The R4 isn't illegal, what this article failed to bring out is the fact that it can be used to backup your cartridges and also to put your own stuff on the DS. Is that so bad?
But they, just like a CD burner, can be used for piracy.
So ban CD burners and computers?

Thank you! Some one with a brain! +1 internets for you on your first post.

I don't see how this chip is doing anything wrong. When you BUY something, you are allowed to trade it, smash it, break it, hack it, replace anything in it, and completely void and support from nintendo.

On the same vein of thought, it's like Subaru or Ford going after people for replacing parts in the car? Screw that. It's hardware. I can do what I want with it.

The chip isn't illegal until you start adding ROMs onto it, thus Nintendo can't say their property is being stolen by the company. They can, however, acknowledge that it is a means of playing illegally downloaded games and this case is just a stepping stone to finding the manufacturers of R4s and suing the pants off of them. The R4 chip is specifically designed to slot into the DS, so Nintendo can call it unlicenced software. I guess. Who knows how they'll convict the manufacturers, if they manage to find them. The reality is, once you get into China, virtually everything is pirated and there's always someone new to step in to fill a pirating niche. You really can't win against their persistence.

 

[Xersues]

except for the little fact that inside the user manual, with the legal print that no one cares about, they state that the product is leased to you.. you do not technically own it. Therefore you can only do what is allowed within the license agreement, which specifically states that you cannot make a copy of the game or hack it. All console hardware and software has that little known clause in it

also if its for personal back up that is within your legal right but let's be honest; who buys one of these things with the intention that they are only going to back up games they already own?

You'd be right about software. But there is no such "license" for hardware. You don't license physical hardware. That's yours to go nuts with. They're making up laws now. Just because something has the potential to be harmful doesn't mean it gets the right to be taken off the market.

 

[Little Duck]

Nintendo is aparantly designing a new console, funded my the Australian economy.