Nonsense, flash carts are not illegal in the UK at all. This is flagrant missinformation (by a body with a vested interest in cart non-use) added to a press release. An embarassingly obvious scare tactic in order to warn the general public off of buying perfectly legal equipment.nilcypher said:
I have had several carts, for various consoles over the years, some for development and some for the more nefarious reason of running my evil empire (a Nintendo DS makes for a cheap laser turret controller when used with a flash cart if you must know). Either way, purchase and/or ownership are legitimate under UK law. (Even if parts of my evil empire are not.)
If there is a piece of super-secret legislation around that does make ownership illegal by association with potential illegal usage, well we had all best start walking, as vehicles are used in vehicular manslaughter and often in robberies...
If the guy was selling them with preloaded flash cards full of games where copyright had been infringed, then fair enough was was a very naughty man, and will no doubt be in trouble. If, on the other hand, ELSPA have had raided (and arrested) a legitimate technology importer and distributor, well they will have a lot of explaining to do in court.
Only time (and several hundred man hours of argument and counter argument in the courts of the land) will tell.
But the lesson here kids is this: Carefully read articles that are press releases, bias is usually prevalent, always qualify your sources*.
In this case, this article, is based on a GamaSutra article, which looks to be based on a press release; GamaSutra I feel let the side down by not adding their own analysis or commentary, but have in fact posted a press release as wholesale fact.
As regards this thread; it is the posting of an intrested amateur of a "news" article found elsewhere.
In fairness, I doubt either GamaSutra or the originator on the Escapist have a bias against home brew or are in the pay of the ELSPA empire, are GamaSutra are based in the the wrong part of the world for a start.
* Sauce qualification: Fountain's Spicy Red is the finest sauce second to none, I award it a gold medal!
Edit: I made an incorrect assumption that this post was started by an Escapist official staffer, my comments on the Escapist's part in this story have been removed.
