Japanese Publishers Win $1 Million In Flash Cart Lawsuit

[Something Amyss]

Sure, they can be used for anything, but the overwhelming vast majority are used for piracy.

Do we have numbers on this? Because this sounds like the same argument used against VHS players, audio cassette players, CD drives, DVD drives, etc. Do you own a DVD drive?

Just curious on that last point. I'm not trying to be a jerk, but one of the ways Sony attempted to prove how many of us were dirty stinking pirates was that their sales of CD-Rs had outstripped their sale of commercial CDs. Of course, that gets extra silly because in this case, Sony was the one complaining about piracy AND selling those illegal pirate-enabling discs, but the point remains. "the majority is/are used to pirate" is older than I am.

 

[Souplex]

1 Million apiece for each of the 50 developers, or 1 million divvied up between the 50 developers? If the second, how is it divvied?
I'm pretty sure the 3DS has relatively beaten piracy by running the system like a police-state.

 

[Braedan]

Now I ain't condoning piracy (blah blah blah blah), But what exactly is illegal about SELLING R4 cartridges?
Of course piracy should be illegal, but what part of making, selling, or buying these cartridges breaks the law? The possibility of piracy?

I'm not just asking a rhetorical question, I want to know. Does Nintendo have a patent that people are abusing, or are publishers just scared? Why is it illegal?

 

[Strazdas]

Couldn't those cards be used for other things besides playing games like play music, it acts like a hard drive right?

Sure, they can be used for anything, but the overwhelming vast majority are used for piracy.

Arent they called Cards?
you seem to have misspelled it multiple times.

also, CD/DVD/BlueRay/USBdrive/SDCards are all used A LOT for piracy, but you dont see them being banned any time soon. in fact there is a tax on empty media in my country as "compensation for piracy" and supposedly money collected goes to artists (mind you, onyl artists that play on TV or radio, so yeah logic) because even government admits its mostly used for piracy.
still, DVDs are not banned, because thats stupid. and baning such cards is stupid.

 

[Zombie_Moogle]

Couldn't those cards be used for other things besides playing games like play music, it acts like a hard drive right?

Sure, they can be used for anything, but the overwhelming vast majority are used for piracy.

I think his point was that, just because something can be used for illegal activities doesn't mean the thing itself should be illegal

I'm sure the vast majority of robberies involve stolen goods being carried away in a bag, but you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone advocating a legal ban on carrying devices

 

[Slash2x]

What about those of us who used r4 cards to copy our ds games. I cant tell you how many ds games I have broken or how much more simple it is to carry most of your favorites on one cartridge as well as favorite music and etc

This. Also, there is some lovely homebrew games that would not exist otherwise.

I have an R4I card and a card reader. I am also a software engineer. I have a physical game library in the neighborhood of 200 some odd games. I use my R4I card and reader to copy my personal games, then I store the physical games on my shelving. I do not want to carry around 200 games it is not practical. So I have my library on my R4I card. I also dink around with homebrew titles that have openscource code. So for me the R4I has NEVER been about piracy. I do not condone piracy because it keeps people like me from feeding their family.

Sidenote, with the 3DS I have not purchased any physical games I get them all digital from the Nintendo store for this exact same reason. If the DS had this option I would have done so (and no the little crappy casuals do not count I mean REAL DS games)

 

[Siege_TF]

That'll learn them to sell that sort of thing in Japan, they really should have been content with countries like China (and maybe Brazil) who treat IP laws with casual disinterest.

 

[newwiseman]

The R4 is used for more than piracy, they can be used to enable cheats, and play homebrew apps. I just like dumping every game I own on a single 16gb micro sd for traveling convenience. Not to mention the ability to back up saves on single player/save titles.