DS Flash Cart Importer Jailed
- Thread starter Logan Westbrook
- Start date
When did it become illegal to buy fucking flash cards?
I'm fully aware that it's illegal to pirate stuff with them but just fucking buying them? If he didn't steal anything from anyone, then the law has got fuck all on him. This is bullshit.
I'm fully aware that it's illegal to pirate stuff with them but just fucking buying them? If he didn't steal anything from anyone, then the law has got fuck all on him. This is bullshit.
Thank you but I just keep losing the R4 that I'm using in a big pile of R4's and I have to sell them to find it-Pod- said:
"Illegally importing flash carts"
"Importing illegal flash carts"
I've seen flash carts on sale from reputable places (or at least, I think I have), so maybe it's the method he was importing them?
"Importing illegal flash carts"
I've seen flash carts on sale from reputable places (or at least, I think I have), so maybe it's the method he was importing them?
Michael Ralinson, Director General of ELSPA, had this to say on the ruling: "Our crime unit is pleased with the outcome of this trial and pleased to see the Court of Appeal's copyright judgment is being robustly enforced. Intellectual property (IP) theft is an important issue for the country's videogames industry - as is protecting it."
Yeah, except Nintendo doesn't own the copyright to any part of the R4 card.
It's like getting arrested for selling blank CDs because you could copy music to them. I really hope there is more to this story because R4 cards should be as legal in and of themselves as the dozens of other perfectly legal devices that "facilitate piracy". I mean an internet connection facilitate piracy.
Here's hoping he was actually convicted for the act of smuggling without consent of government rather than any actual copyright violation.
Yeah, except Nintendo doesn't own the copyright to any part of the R4 card.
It's like getting arrested for selling blank CDs because you could copy music to them. I really hope there is more to this story because R4 cards should be as legal in and of themselves as the dozens of other perfectly legal devices that "facilitate piracy". I mean an internet connection facilitate piracy.
Here's hoping he was actually convicted for the act of smuggling without consent of government rather than any actual copyright violation.
Well said, good sir.slopeslider said:
To wit, I can play EarthBound on my DS. It's not illegal to own a flashcart, and it's not illegal to own a ROM of a game you have physically. But third party software that Nintendo won't make is out there, and the only way to use it is with a flash cart. Banning them is ridiculous.
Agreed, there is definitely more to this than just what was found for the story. One would think the reporter(not you, Logan, ur cool) of the original piece was either an ignorant ass or an ignorant ass who wanted to frame piracy for the act. Another sad case of irresponsible journalism. If anything else comes up, let us know.Treblaine said:
Rather humorous, but gave me flashbacks to the Elian Gonzalez fracas. I lost a lot of respect for my (the U.S.) government that day.The Kangaroo said:
(Citation Needed)Treblaine said:
Especially since this has nothing to do with Nintendo's lawsuit. Specifically because, oh shock and fucking awe, there is no mention of Nintendo here. Plus you again seem to be forgetting there is a wonderful difference between homebrew development and stealing games. Which do you think these were being imported for? Let's be honest, how many of the possible purchasers were going to use them to make their own games? Better yet, does that even matter?
It seems to me that any argument surrounding the legality of the cards themselves are rendered moot by the fact he was arrested for IMPORTING them, which means something in that method was illegal
But oh, don't let me stop you from irrationally blaming companies for this. Mean 'ol Nintendo with all it's money and all that, surely they are keeping the little guy down etc. I notice nobody pitches a fit this big when Sony keeps trying to lock out homebrew development of the PSP. Even Microsoft is getting a free pass these days with taking out hackers and mod chip users on XBL.
My thoughts on the subject are complex.
When it comes to intellectual property theft and such I am more concerned about things like major patent violations over drugs, electronics, and even clothing. Cases where billions of dollars have been spent in research and development only to see a country like China analyze the product and produce a knock off for half the price and kill the market for the people who invented it. This kind of thing is a touchy issue and all over the world court, as well as one of the major issues I can see contributing to a world war.
This leads to all kinds of arguements, even a few on these forums, about the irrelevency of such laws, and how people have a "right" to their knock off viagra or whatever and to not pay Pfizer's prices.
On the other hand when you see something like an R4 cart, a RoM, or whatever and companies cry, you actually see arrests and people treat it like some big deal. To me it seems trivial, and while they ARE right, I can't believe you actually see an arrest over something this comparitively trivial. It's like ignoring a bunch of crack dealers to go after a jaywalker.
The biggest problem I have with the issue itself is that to some extent it involves property rights. See, what a lot of it comes down to is companies wanting to get people to pay continuously for something they already own. As well as to in many cases continue to hold copyrights they do not want to pay to maintain.
Things like R4 carts are used for doing things like playing ROMS. Companies care very little if you had bought the game in question, they think you should have to buy it again for each new platform even if they do nothing to improve it's performance or whatever. To me that's a touchy subject. As are issues like "Abandonware" where a company no longer maintains production or even the rights to a product yet gets all uppity if someone decides to put the game up on a site like "Home Of The Underdogs" or "Abandonia".
In general it seems the major complaint about things like this is that in theory you could pirate a current gen game, and that should make them illegal, despite numerous legal uses. But in the end they are no worse than floppy disks, VHS tapes, or other "last gen" media. I think the development of things like DVDS and other "read only" media has given the industry a power trip and an inherant resentment of any kind of potential power in the hands of consumers.
Generally speaking I only think there should be a problem is if someone is caught accepting money for a current gen/currently retailed game on an R4. That's wrong. But even the practice of copying a current game onto an R4 or even owning a game on nothing else, is absolutly fine. See one of the things *I* personally like about being able to copy media is the abillity to create backup copies in case something happens to your originals. Having suffered home floods, thefts, and other things over the years, I admit it makes me a bit nervous to dish out $40-$60 for a game and not have any way to protect it or back it up. I do not consider digital downloads a fair compromise (unless the games are very cheap that way) because your at the mercy of the service. As someone who started with the C-64 I'm one of those guys who is most comfortable knowing I have a backup copy somewhere in storage if the worst happens.
Oh sure there is plenty of potential for abuse there, and it doubtlessly IS abused, but it's not like the gaming industry is full of angels. After all a big part of THEIR motive isn't just the piracy, but also wanting as much power as possible in their hands to re-sell you the same thing as many times as they can if they can get away with it. There really are no good guys.
At any rate the bottom line though in all of this, is that for all of the arguements back and forth, I think all the energy being put into chasing around "pirates" would be better spent in trying to shut down knock off shops (mostly Asian), through more serious (and vehemently enforced) embargos (preventing trade from leave their borders and so on) if nothing else.
When it comes to intellectual property theft and such I am more concerned about things like major patent violations over drugs, electronics, and even clothing. Cases where billions of dollars have been spent in research and development only to see a country like China analyze the product and produce a knock off for half the price and kill the market for the people who invented it. This kind of thing is a touchy issue and all over the world court, as well as one of the major issues I can see contributing to a world war.
This leads to all kinds of arguements, even a few on these forums, about the irrelevency of such laws, and how people have a "right" to their knock off viagra or whatever and to not pay Pfizer's prices.
On the other hand when you see something like an R4 cart, a RoM, or whatever and companies cry, you actually see arrests and people treat it like some big deal. To me it seems trivial, and while they ARE right, I can't believe you actually see an arrest over something this comparitively trivial. It's like ignoring a bunch of crack dealers to go after a jaywalker.
The biggest problem I have with the issue itself is that to some extent it involves property rights. See, what a lot of it comes down to is companies wanting to get people to pay continuously for something they already own. As well as to in many cases continue to hold copyrights they do not want to pay to maintain.
Things like R4 carts are used for doing things like playing ROMS. Companies care very little if you had bought the game in question, they think you should have to buy it again for each new platform even if they do nothing to improve it's performance or whatever. To me that's a touchy subject. As are issues like "Abandonware" where a company no longer maintains production or even the rights to a product yet gets all uppity if someone decides to put the game up on a site like "Home Of The Underdogs" or "Abandonia".
In general it seems the major complaint about things like this is that in theory you could pirate a current gen game, and that should make them illegal, despite numerous legal uses. But in the end they are no worse than floppy disks, VHS tapes, or other "last gen" media. I think the development of things like DVDS and other "read only" media has given the industry a power trip and an inherant resentment of any kind of potential power in the hands of consumers.
Generally speaking I only think there should be a problem is if someone is caught accepting money for a current gen/currently retailed game on an R4. That's wrong. But even the practice of copying a current game onto an R4 or even owning a game on nothing else, is absolutly fine. See one of the things *I* personally like about being able to copy media is the abillity to create backup copies in case something happens to your originals. Having suffered home floods, thefts, and other things over the years, I admit it makes me a bit nervous to dish out $40-$60 for a game and not have any way to protect it or back it up. I do not consider digital downloads a fair compromise (unless the games are very cheap that way) because your at the mercy of the service. As someone who started with the C-64 I'm one of those guys who is most comfortable knowing I have a backup copy somewhere in storage if the worst happens.
Oh sure there is plenty of potential for abuse there, and it doubtlessly IS abused, but it's not like the gaming industry is full of angels. After all a big part of THEIR motive isn't just the piracy, but also wanting as much power as possible in their hands to re-sell you the same thing as many times as they can if they can get away with it. There really are no good guys.
At any rate the bottom line though in all of this, is that for all of the arguements back and forth, I think all the energy being put into chasing around "pirates" would be better spent in trying to shut down knock off shops (mostly Asian), through more serious (and vehemently enforced) embargos (preventing trade from leave their borders and so on) if nothing else.
There are lots of things which are legal to buy in this country, but are illegal to import in large quantities without the proper authorisation.GamingAwesome1 said:
If the police caught you with 26,000 pouches of tobacco or bottles of vodka in your lock up, you'd no doubt go to jail, unless you could prove you'd paid the thousands of pounds of Custom's Duty & tax on those products, possessed a valid importers license, and were authorised to sell them.
Like someone else pointed out, the crime was smuggling, not possession.
I wouldn't say the Escapist forums are in favor or piracy. Personally, I'm just as against making mod chips and flash carts illegal too. It's like making VCR's illegal because you can pirate movies with them. The only reason the chips and the carts are illegal anywhere, is because it takes a much higher level of expertise to use them, so fewer people are interested. If they were as popular as the VCR, they would be made legal in a hot second.geldonyetich said:
Who says you have to MAKE a homebrew game yourself in order to play it, when the majority of homebrew games are made are released for free on the internet. Then of course there are total conversion mods of games like Quake... you DO have to own the PC version but the modifications to the code to make it work on DS are not in any way illegal to share around. You're just being ignorant if you say otherwise.AceDiamond said:
What about playing music on your DS so you don't have to carry around a music player in addition to your DS so you have it all in one device. I'm not the first person to state this.
I WILL be honest with you and say I have never pirated a game and never intend to, I will only play a game if I have legally bought a copy.
In fact it is within the remit of the fair use clause of the DMCA that i can make a copy of a DS cartridge (that I own) to play on my R4 card. Why? Because I don't want to carry a load of DS cards around and risk losing them and the DS is supposed to be portable, just pop it in your pocket. R4 card lets me load dozens of DS game THAT I ALREADY OWN in one compact device.
It's the same principal as copying a CD to my iPod... EXACTLY the same. Companies will object to that not because they have a LEGAL basis but because they have a FINANCIAL bias.
What appeals to me about the PSP now is how if you buy the games downloaded via PSN you can load several of them at once onto one Pro-Duo memory stick. So several games in one compact device. That is working very well for iPhone/iPod touch.
You have to realise that all R4 card does is make the DS just like a PC in terms of ease of moving around data of films, music and game files.
So if you want to pick a fight with R4 cards you're also going to have to pick a fight with the entire concept of an open PC as well.
And stop being so presumptive that R4 cards are acquired solely or mainly for piracy. If you heard someone was planning to get a gaming PC instead of a PS3 or Xbox would you accuse them of "Ohh, you're only doing that because it's easy to Pirate PC games, gnaaah!"