First Person Arrested for Selling DS Homebrew Adapters

[Karloff]

First Person Arrested for Selling DS Homebrew Adapters

Nintendo hopes prosecution will discourage piracy.

Police in the central Aichi region of Japan arrested a suspect accused of selling Majikon, adapters intended to circumvent handheld device security protocols. Though trade in Majikon, sometimes called R4 cartridges, has been outlawed since 2009, it took a 2012 amendment to the Unfair Competition Act to give the law teeth. This, claims Nintendo, is the very first time anyone has faced criminal sanction for selling Majikon adapters, and it hopes that the example will discourage others.

The adapter was designed to allow users to play their own software on Nintendo's DS device. Nintendo argues that these adapters are notoriously used to play pirated games, downloaded from the internet. Majikon manufacturers claim that they're just helping people play home-made software on their handhelds. The storage units have been banned elsewhere, but, in Japan, trade in the popular plug-and-play homebrew devices has gone unchecked.

No doubt Nintendo is pleased at this latest milestone, but fans of user-made content may not be so happy. Until now, Majikon has been a very popular add-on; if more arrests follow, that popularity's bound to dip, threatening the homebrew community.

Sources: Eurogamer [http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-18273735]

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[RaikuFA]

Part of the solution is to FREAKING RELEASE THEIR GAMES!!!

Don't do a limited run then no more. and don't keep your games in just Japan.

 

[Orange12345]

Bad move nintendo, the more you push the more people push back.

 

[ZeZZZZevy]

Because the intimidation tactic works out so well every other time it's used...

 

[newwiseman]

My DS was my first portable video/music player thanks to an R4. Nintendo is just jealous they didn't think of other media options on their devices first.

 

[RaNDM G]

Sucks this had to happen in Japan. The prosecution will win without question.

 

[Epona]

Just more evidence that corporations own the justice system. This kind of thing usually just pisses consumers off though.

 

[JediMB]

Copypaste from my Facebook comment:

As much as people like to claim that these devices are for homebrew games, everyone I know who owns one uses it for piracy.

Well, except for my brother. He used it to read eBooks, back when tablet computers hadn't gained popularity yet.

We live in a world where a man can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars/euros on entertainment equipment, but still refuse to actually pay for software.

CAPTCHA: make my day

 

[Voltano]

I wonder, could people in Japan still buy these products overseas, or from a merchant that is not in Japan? Even if a law is passed it would be hard to stop people getting these devices if people could just import them.

Honestly I think Nintendo is making the wrong move here with using intimidation tactics or the law to restrict their customers (they *have* to buy a Nintendo DS anyways for these things--so they are legit customers). If they're so worried about losing profit from R4 devices, then why not build a business plan that might incorporate features like an R4 into the target device?

 

[Doom972]

We live in a world where a man can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars/euros on entertainment equipment, but still refuse to actually pay for software.

That might be the problem right there - they come up every few years with a new, expensive system and new expensive games. That's why I don't bother with consoles in general.
I think that some people feel that because they bought a device for a very limited purpose, it's justified to pirate the games because otherwise they just got a very expensive paperweight.

Why design a new system for your game when there are already popular existing ones?
If they made games for existing popular devices like PCs, smartphones and tablets instead of the new and gimmicky Wii and 3DS, they could have saved themselves a lot of time and money. Sega already learned that lesson with the Dreamcast.

 

[Yopaz]

We live in a world where a man can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars/euros on entertainment equipment, but still refuse to actually pay for software.

That might be the problem right there - they come up every few years with a new, expensive system and new expensive games. That's why I don't bother with consoles in general.
I think that some people feel that because they bought a device for a very limited purpose, it's justified to pirate the games because otherwise they just got a very expensive paperweight.

Why design a new system for your game when there are already popular existing ones?
If they made games for existing popular devices like PCs, smartphones and tablets instead of the new and gimmicky Wii and 3DS, they could have saved themselves a lot of time and money. Sega already learned that lesson with the Dreamcast.

The same thing could be said for everything. Why come up with democracy when we already have a dictator? Why come up with fuel efficient cars when we already have some sort of motorized vehicle. Why have an endosymbiosis with an alpha proteo bacteria in order to get a mitochondria when we were doing just fine without it?

If you're saying we don't need to make up new technological advances you have complete lack of understanding both of how technology and the market works. People will tell you all the time that they wont buy this or that game because the graphics look dated. The GameCube is old enough for people to complain. Hell, the PS3 and Xbox 360 are old enough for that. Except for making new systems what solution do you suppose there is in order to improve on those things?

 

[JediMB]

We live in a world where a man can spend thousands upon thousands of dollars/euros on entertainment equipment, but still refuse to actually pay for software.

That might be the problem right there - they come up every few years with a new, expensive system and new expensive games. That's why I don't bother with consoles in general.
I think that some people feel that because they bought a device for a very limited purpose, it's justified to pirate the games because otherwise they just got a very expensive paperweight.

Why design a new system for your game when there are already popular existing ones?
If they made games for existing popular devices like PCs, smartphones and tablets instead of the new and gimmicky Wii and 3DS, they could have saved themselves a lot of time and money. Sega already learned that lesson with the Dreamcast.

It's not just games, though. And as far as games go, not just consoles.

I saw it clearly in my father's habits when I was younger, and I see it with various acquaintances today. They'll spend money on multiple big-screen TVs, computers, consoles... and some of them own boats and motorcycles... but they wouldn't want to pay for Windows 7 or a game for their Wii.

EDIT: And how Nintendo have handled their consoles is vastly different from the clusterfuck of very expensive consoles and add-ons that lead to Sega's fall. Not to mention moronic business decisions like discontinuing the Mega Drive (or Genesis) to make room for the Saturn, when the former was actually making them a lot of money.

The Dreamcast was a good console, and it did well... but Sega had already doomed themselves by wasting all their money on the Sega/Mega CD, 32X, Saturn, and various handhelds and hybrid consoles.

EDIT AGAIN: That said, I do wish Nintendo or Sony would have the courage to make their handheld a proper hybrid between a smartphone and a gaming system. The Sony Ericsson Xperia Play was a halfhearted attempt at best, and went absolutely nowhere.

Not that I think it would be an easy thing to create, by any means. Once past the difficulties of creating hardware that can compete both as a smartphone and a gaming device, you'll find your traditional games being in direct competition with the monstrosities of the App Store and Google Play... where consumers aren't entirely likely to be able to distinguish a 49 cent Breakout clone from a brand new Pikmin adventure.

 

[s_h_a_d_o]

In my view, the sale of the device itself is not illegal - the onus for illegality lies with the person who puts it to such use.

 

[night_chrono]

Keep in mind, in the USA you are allowed a "back up" copy of your software. Back in my younger days before I was faced with the burden of living expenses I MADE my own back up (ROM file) of every DS game I owned, and put them on my R4.

Why? The convenience of having all my games at once. If I could of just digitally downloaded them strait to my DS I would of never needed the R4.

What I did is COMPLETELY LEGAL under US law. Plus I got more use out of the PDA homebrew then any game I owned.


Plus everyone here needs to stop talking about piracy in absolute terms. The laws very country by country. So unless everyone posting a comment here is from Japan, and is discussing the merits of the Japanese law, we are straying off topic.

 

[BrotherRool]

Just more evidence that corporations own the justice system.

Or this could just mean that people can no longer pirate shit on the DS as easily.

The "we just want to use it for homebrew" is complete and total bullshit. I know a number of people who own both DS's as well as one of those "homebrew" card things, including my younger brother. And guess what, NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM doesn't also use them to play pirated DS games.

Yes, those things can be used for homebrew. But that isn't what the majority of users use them for.

The internet can be used to transfer pirated material and child pron! We must now destroy the internet!

I am sorry but just because something CAN be used for something bad doesn't make the technology itself inherently bad.

That is the total bullshit, and I just loooove the Nintendo fanbois/apologist

I'm afraid this is pretty poor internet forum logic There's a lot of hyperbole CAPITAL LETTERS, flaming and rage, but it doesn't contain much of value.

You might have a point, I'm instinctively anti-homebrew because I know a few homebrew pirates but I'm not grounded in that position yet, if you want to talk about it more and maybe provide some arguments I'd be interested in hearing them.

Less interested in hearing about child pron and bullshit Nintendo fanbois AND CAPS FOR POINTYNESS

 

[surg3n]

I setup a ton of these, back when the DS was the top dog console for kids. I mean, I know that it's piracy, but piracy is surely only harmful when it impacts on product sales. Lots of my nephews friends have these cards, full of games, because personally I don't think young families, single parents etc should have to spend a weeks food budget on a mindless game.

Just my opinion - I don't pirate anything these days, I spend a lot of money on gaming, but I can afford it, unlike the folk I setup R4's for. When I was a youngster, most of my games were pirated, because we couldn't afford to buy them... publishers need to stop seeing piracy as being denied a sale, maybe they should see it as aquiring a future customer. Maybe the pricing on videogames is still fucked, and console manufacturers and publishers need to grow up and realise that they don't run their industry.

The flip side is that these cards let people play whatever game they want, even games that aren't available in their country, or just aren't available by any other means. The DS is like, the biggest selling handheld ever, in modern times at least - I wonder how much of that is down to the R4 cards... I know for a fact that I 'encouraged' at least half a dozen people to get a DS, for the sole reason of getting an R4 and enough games to keep their kid amused forever.