Nintendo and others file suit against flash cart sellers

by Candace Savino { Jul 29th 2008 at 1:30PM }

Nintendo is finally taking aggressive action against piracy, as the company is suing five Japanese firms over flash cart equipment. The Big N is just one of many plaintiffs in the case, though, with fifty-three others joining in to aid the fight -- just a few companies that you may have heard of, like, oh, Square Enix, Sega, Level-5, Hudson, Pokemon, Capcom, Namco Bandai, SNK Playmore, Koei, and so forth.

While details are scarce, we can imagine a lot of popular carts (like the R4), if not all carts, will be affected. Should Nintendo and friends win the suit, selling and importing such carts will be illegal, meaning that people would have to resort to the black market to get their hands on one.

We understand why Nintendo and other companies would want to fight the good fight against piracy, but we can't help but fret over the impact on our precious homebrew hobby. At any rate, we'll give you more information as this case unfolds.

[Via Joystiq; Thanks, Kimiko!]

Tags: capcom, flash-card, flash-cart, hudson, koei, level-5, majicon, namco-bandai, piracy, pirate, pokemon, r4, sega, snk-playmore, square-enix

Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)

Roto13 @ Jul 29th 2008 1:40PM

Pokemon is a company?

I can't say I blame them. If it was just homebrew that'd be one thing, but how many people with these cards don't use them for piracy? (And before four or five of you pipe in with "ME! ME! ME!" remember that that means absolutely nothing.)

Christopher @ Jul 30th 2008 9:48PM

Everything I play on my M3 Real, I own a retail copy of.

1p5v @ Jul 29th 2008 1:51PM

Nintendo is the new RIAA.

Christopher @ Jul 30th 2008 9:51PM

Not yet. Let's see if they start tracking torrents and suing grandmas claiming they downloaded the new GTA DS game from their Apple computer. (remember that claim?)

If they do that, THEN they'll have reached the low of the RIAA.

mr.crash @ Jul 30th 2008 2:58AM

And they'll just move the production to somewhere that doesn't give a toss, or somewhere it's legal (such as Australia, where Sony tried to yell at people providing mods for ps2's back in the day. Same deal).

Taedirk @ Jul 29th 2008 2:06PM

I'm a bit surprised that *everyone else* is surprised that this is only occurring in Japan. When I first read about it, I took a second to think. One of the major European (or was it just England) groups is harping on R4s already, and I'm positive there's a clause in the DMCA that says even thinking about something like a flash cart is grounds for one of Creedy's black bags. At least I've already picked up a CycloDS before they become verboten.

Christopher @ Jul 30th 2008 9:54PM

What I find funny is that they have some of the biggest black market rings right on their own doorsteps and their worrying about imports into Europe and the US. WTF?

If you ask me, that's a big FU toward anybody that's not in Asia. How can you focus on piracy abroad but not on your own turf? Again, WTF?

deadlylife @ Jul 29th 2008 2:32PM

I know that homebrew and owning a flashcart is 100% legal if you don't pirate, but, will this mean that owning one in the US could become illegal? I would hate to give up my precious homebrew just because some people pirate.

rikki @ Jul 29th 2008 3:46PM

No. Modchips, flashcarts and the like can't really be made illegal.

However, USING any of these articles for even just homebrew may already be illegal in the US (not in the UK, and definitely not in Australia!) because of the Draconian -- err, I mean Digital Millennium Copyright Act. Quote from The Register about the Lik-Sang modchip fiasco which pretty much sums it up:

"Under the DMCA, if Sony or Microsoft uses a "technological measure" to protect a copyrighted work, it is illegal to attempt to circumvent the measure -- even if the purpose of the circumvention is not to infringe the copyright."

Fscked up? Yes. But there you go. :(

deadlylife @ Jul 30th 2008 2:01AM

Um... they didn't prevent us from doing it, they just didn't allow us to, there's fine line there, am I still safe with homebrew?

ChangeOfFate @ Jul 29th 2008 2:43PM

Nintendo, you'll have to pry my CycloDS away from my cold, dead hands.

ChangeOfFate @ Jul 29th 2008 2:48PM

Apparently CycloDS website has reached it's bandwidth limit for now. Possibly due to the recent news?

Any comments on this DSFanboy? :)

Turbo @ Jul 29th 2008 2:55PM

This is good. And bad. All the pirates are getting what they deserve, but all the homebrew is being destroyed, as the makers will stop making homebrew... mabye. What if Nintendo made their own flashcards, that could only use homebrew and not emulators?

wpboyce @ Jul 29th 2008 3:07PM

they would just find away around it

Char6296 @ Jul 29th 2008 3:42PM

Hang on, I thought they were. DSVision, I think it's called... but that's in Japan only, so none over here.

Jamar @ Jul 30th 2008 8:40AM

That, and the DSVision only has paid content.

Christopher @ Jul 30th 2008 9:57PM

Yeah, don't you find it utterly IRONIC that this is happening shortly after their launch of DSVISION? Hmm...

ChangeOfFate @ Jul 29th 2008 3:17PM

Go to teamcyclops.com and see if you get the huge ACCOUNT SUSPENDED banner.

What's going on here???

Taedirk @ Jul 29th 2008 3:46PM

Bandwidth exceeded, due to awesome. See numerous Firmware releases in the month of July.

Char6296 @ Jul 29th 2008 3:40PM

Methinks that by Pok�mon, they mean Game Freak.

Anyway, I'm at fault here, I do pirate games. Not all... but most of my games. (One of them's a backup. ;D) I admit that I'm wrong, insert expletives about me (I'm a girl, if that helps your swearing spree) here. But I do like homebrew, so I hope that homebrew doesn't stop. I like my World of Sand and Colors! very much. And Moonshell and DSOrganise.

But hey, at least I'm not in the black market. Yet.

Chrono @ Jul 29th 2008 4:36PM

There is a company dedicated to marketing Pokemon stuff. It's called the Pokemon Company (does what it says on the tin).

Char6296 @ Jul 29th 2008 4:38PM

Ohhh, I forgot about those times I spent poring over the box when I was bored. I feel such a n00b.

Kimiko @ Jul 29th 2008 6:04PM

Bad Char. Bad. You should pay for your games.
There. Do you feel chastised now?

chibi_wings @ Jul 29th 2008 3:54PM

I actually don't own a flashcard, but I still feel sympathy for those who do and use it for homebrew only, and not piracy. Sadly the majority of people who have a flashcard, most likely happen to have some illegal games on it too.

With that said, I am not against Nintendo trying to stop the sale of flashcards. Sure, a lot of you are thinking "o greedy company, it just wants more money", and I agree that they do just want to make money, but big companies also employ a lot of people and those employees also deserve our sympathy. So what I just want to say is good for Nintendo for trying to stop piracy. If they actually do is a whole other matter....

Christopher @ Jul 30th 2008 10:02PM

Well, yes. By simply bypassing any sort of copy protection, it suddenly becomes piracy because of the DMCA. So I own retail copies of everything on my M3 Real, yet because I bypassed copy protection, it's still considered piracy. Ain't that just screwed up, huh?

maryland157 @ Jul 29th 2008 7:36PM

Do I see Datel on this list at all noooooo.... also Nintendo please stop being so sue happy, there are some people who use these devices for legal purposes *hint**Hint*like me.

leonus11 @ Jul 30th 2008 1:08AM

all you guys are complaining about nintendo sueing the sellers of the devices and saying that you use it for homebrew and not piracy but what you don't understand is that nintendo has no way of telling if you got illegal games on it (unless the come personally and check it out). i understand that alot of you guys don't play pirated games using the flash cards but the flash card itself can still be used for piracy and that poses a threat to the big N.

Jamar @ Jul 30th 2008 8:42AM

Wasn't that argument used against videotape at one point?

Jamar @ Jul 30th 2008 8:43AM

How well did that work?

Christopher @ Jul 30th 2008 10:06PM

That is a stupid argument. How many PC's are there in the world yet EVERY SINGLE one of them can be used for piracy. Do you know how many illegal copies of WINDOWS there are in use? Nobody does, but it would likely solve the global economy issues many times over for every country in the world. Yet you don't see Microsoft suing manufacturers of DVD burners or software companies like Nero or Roxio for enabling piracy.

leonus11 @ Jul 31st 2008 11:03AM

@Christopher

ask yourself this. is it the dvd burners that allow for pirated games to be played? or is it the mod chips and flash cards? of course the answer is the flash cards and mod chips! DUH!! dvd burners alone can't enable pirated games to be played! next time think about what your typing before you write buddy.

leonus11 @ Jul 31st 2008 11:11AM

@ jamar

ok think of it like this. if you were selling your OWN MODEL of a car (and owned a dealership) and somebody, somewhere, started selling a certain device or tool that allowed ANYONE to easily steal your car right from your dealership , what would you do? i know i would sue them! and don't start asking stupid questions like "well how would they get in to my dealership" cuz its happened dozens of times to other dealerships.

BlackDS @ Jul 30th 2008 3:04AM

Nintendo ... Please sue Datel next. Action Replay NEEDS to DIE.

All the cheaters are ruining the Nintendo Wifi games IMO.

I hate cheaters.

Peace.

obaketenshi @ Jul 30th 2008 3:39AM

What I'd like to know is if we as homebrewers (and the pirates too) are even statistically a significant number of DS users in the US and Europe. My guess would be "no". Even though homebrew is pretty easy to use, the "average" user would not have any idea where to even get a flashcard, or know all the cool things that you can use one for.

In the US and Europe its hard to get a decent card for homebrew in a brick and mortar store (Games and Music FTL). However, I know in Korea/China/Japan, its much easier to obtain these cards, and in Korea at least its surpassed legit DS game sales.

This isn't the next Napster like they're trying to make it out to be, but its going to affect this niche market anyways. For those that use homebrew a lot like myself, its a worrying situation.

chibi_wings @ Jul 30th 2008 4:40PM

actually the article states that this only applies to Japan right now, cause Nintendo is suing five Japanese firms ^^

Adam York @ Jul 30th 2008 3:49AM

It's a bit like banning empty coke cans because you can smoke crack in them... how about they crack down on the people distributing pirated games instead of threatening companies than enable users to create and use homebrew software?

I really think the big N is shooting itself in the foot, whilst forcing the practice of piracy even further underground.

Nightwish @ Jul 30th 2008 8:32AM

Here's a hint... If I couldn't pirate on the DS and on the Wii I wouldn't have bought them. So Nintendo actually made money on my pirating. Should they sue themselves? (tongue in cheek).
Laws dictating morals... yeah, that'll work.

Christopher @ Jul 30th 2008 10:07PM

That's a bad argument because these companies make money more on the software and very little on the hardware because of R&D costs.

Danny @ Jul 30th 2008 6:59PM

How about they just slash DS game prices? Here in the UK shops, every DS game sells for 29.99. Always 29.99. Doesn't matter if it's Zelda or Bunniz. And yet a I can get amazing Playstation and PC games in the same shops for half that price. Cut out the price fixing and give people less incentive to pirate.