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Nintendo Loses Flash Card Battle in France
on 04.12.2009 at 20:44
Posted by Adam Riley (jesusraz) 
Comments: 20 
Reads: 27733
Tags:
R4, Flash Card, Piracy, DS, Nintendo, High Court, France
Posted by Adam Riley (jesusraz) Comments: 20 Reads: 27733 Tags:
R4, Flash Card, Piracy, DS, Nintendo, High Court, France Related Stories
Whilst Nintendo is striving to prevent any forms of piracy on its systems, its cause just took a hefty knock. Piracy, via the likes of the R4 Flash Card for the Nintendo DS, has become even more of an issue for Nintendo in recent years, with numerous developers pointing to the ease of pirating DS software as the reason behind flagging sales lately. Responding to this, Nintendo has attempted to alleviate the problem by cracking down on devices such as the R4 in the hope of putting a stop to the illegal shenanigans that can take place using them. However, since the Flash Cards can also be used for legal purposes, such as video and music playback, as well as homebrew development, a ruling at the high court in Paris, France has gone against the Kyoto Company. Sadly, for Nintendo, the fact that these devices add functionality means they themselves are not illegal and thus the law cannot ban them completely.
Do you feel the ruling is just and fair, or should the R4 et al be banned completely?
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OBJ5CTION!!!!
5070
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701
L42 Wizzrobe
Ok, making a device to promote piracy is legal as long as they add something \"legal and good\" to it? That is wrong in sooo many ways and goes against several precedents on the International level, but hey, France and Spain say no, so what can they do?
( Edited 04.12.2009 16:46 by EdEN )
( Edited 04.12.2009 16:46 by EdEN )
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3146
L81 Chun-Li
EdEN said:
So making a device to promote piracy is legal as long as they add something "legal and good" to it? That is wrong in sooo many ways and goes against several precedents on the International level, but hey, France and Spain say no, so what can they do?
So making a device to promote piracy is legal as long as they add something "legal and good" to it? That is wrong in sooo many ways and goes against several precedents on the International level, but hey, France and Spain say no, so what can they do?
It's perfectly fine. You cannot ban devices just because they might also be used for piracy. Otherwise, VHS would have never arrived (it was actually attempted to put a stop to it), DVD, hard drives, the processor, the internet in general...
Not to mention lack of decent evidence to indicate piracy genuinely hurts sales, especially to any major industry destroying degree.
L1 New Born
Which developers point to piracy as the biggest problem for selling which games exactly?
L1 New Born
I'm a massive fan of homebrew (PuzzleManik and ComicBook DS especialy), but am proud to say Ive never used a ds game rom on my homebrew card.
I'm quite surprised there's no way to block pirated roms yet allow homebrew. Cant they just block of a region of ram? (So homebrewers get almost, but not quite all the system spec, but licensed developers can access the lot.And because their roms reference the portion of the memory homebrew cant access, they wont run?)
While I'm positive theres no way to 100% block piracy, at least using a method like this would mean they could legally prevent devices that bi-pass it, as there would be no legitimate reason for using them.
(unluck normal homebrew devices).
I'm quite surprised there's no way to block pirated roms yet allow homebrew. Cant they just block of a region of ram? (So homebrewers get almost, but not quite all the system spec, but licensed developers can access the lot.And because their roms reference the portion of the memory homebrew cant access, they wont run?)
While I'm positive theres no way to 100% block piracy, at least using a method like this would mean they could legally prevent devices that bi-pass it, as there would be no legitimate reason for using them.
(unluck normal homebrew devices).
650
L41 Zola
Well, considering that these devices are still legal, and they are the only way to get pirated games to play on the DS, I don't think that Nintendo can do anything to stop people from playing pirated games. They could go after the distribution of the roms, but that never works.
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Online!Josef said:
Which developers point to piracy as the biggest problem for selling which games exactly?
Which developers point to piracy as the biggest problem for selling which games exactly?
I've heard many developers complain about it, same as PC devs bemoaning low sales on that platform for the same reason.
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L1 New Born
And at the same time Nifflas made good money while putting his games up for free on his website.
I want specifics though, there's probably good reasons why the 'games' of these 'developers' didn't meet their expectations besides piracy.
I want specifics though, there's probably good reasons why the 'games' of these 'developers' didn't meet their expectations besides piracy.
(◡‿◡✿) sonicisfast@live.co.uk (◡‿◡✿)
22099Moderator
Y'know, Nintendo could easily solve these problems by adding the functionality of things a Flash Card can do to the console itself.
What use is Homebrew if all it does for the system is piracy?
If the Wii was region free, DVD compatible and allowed button mapping for VC games for example. I would have no need for Homebrew.
For Flash Cards to not "add functionality", the DS should be doing all these things as standard. There's no excuse really, if Homebrewers can do for free what Nintendo still haven't done.
One day I will be a real life anime.
What use is Homebrew if all it does for the system is piracy?
If the Wii was region free, DVD compatible and allowed button mapping for VC games for example. I would have no need for Homebrew.
For Flash Cards to not "add functionality", the DS should be doing all these things as standard. There's no excuse really, if Homebrewers can do for free what Nintendo still haven't done.
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2019
L72 Samus
^ I agree, plus Nintendo's technology is so primitive it makes it even easier to pirate games.
Xenobladed
2723
L77 K.K. Slider
Actualy, the anti-piracy messures on the DS are pretty darn advance.
The crackers are just advanced-er
As normal in this sort of thing, the encryption wasn't broken so much as just got-around.
The crackers are just advanced-er
As normal in this sort of thing, the encryption wasn't broken so much as just got-around.
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701L42 Wizzrobe
Can't really compare a VHS player, of which there are many manufacturers, to a videogame console with a single propietary format from one company.
Let's not fool ourselves, R4 cards are used most of the time to play pirated games.
Let's not fool ourselves, R4 cards are used most of the time to play pirated games.
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My mum has an R4 cart, she uses it to play professor layton. I want one now, for homebrew and stuff though.
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EdEN said:
Can\'t really compare a VHS player, of which there are many manufacturers, to a videogame console with a single propietary format from one company.
Let\'s not fool ourselves, R4 cards are used most of the time to play pirated games.
Can\'t really compare a VHS player, of which there are many manufacturers, to a videogame console with a single propietary format from one company.
Let\'s not fool ourselves, R4 cards are used most of the time to play pirated games.
It\'s perfectly comparable. VHS is a single standard. No different than how DVD and Blu-ray have many manufacturers, yet have use the same DRM system.
It was also widely used for \"piracy\". Programmes could be recorded to be played at a later date, and in some cases, sold. You could record each episode of a show and never have to buy the official collection when released. You could even set it record automatically at specific times, and later a standard was produced so you could insert a code (listed in TV schedules) that would do it for you.
Let\'s not fool ourselves - R4 has legitimate users and the company and technology itself should not be considered responsible for what their customers use it for, otherwise Youtube goes, iPod will be destroyed, and the internet dismantled.
Let\'s also not fool ourselves about piracy - it\'s an easy scapegoat for companies not willing to blame themselves for producing products people didn\'t want.
( Edited 05.12.2009 19:09 by Modplan Man )
ò_Ô
1594
L63 Shiek
Should be banned.
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6337L100 C3 Master
Josef said:
Which developers point to piracy as the biggest problem for selling which games exactly?
Which developers point to piracy as the biggest problem for selling which games exactly?
I think it's gonna be tough to find a specific example, because piracy clearly effects EVERY game available for any system. It wouldn't make any sense for a developer to say "Game1 sold about the right amount, but game2 sold less because everyone pirated it."
YOU HAVE JUST LOST THE GAME. Sorry. 
L1 New Born
I don't think it affects it too much, that's my point. I don't think you can point to a developer and say they went bust because everyone pirated their games. They survive because of either good and/or popular games. You could even argue the game industry grew so much in part due to piracy and thus more people coming into contact with games they liked.
In fact, I started gaming on a pirated commodore64 actually, as did a lot of people.
In fact, I started gaming on a pirated commodore64 actually, as did a lot of people.
Xenobladed
2723L77 K.K. Slider
Piracy dosnt cause failure, but it does raise the threshold needed for success a bit.
eg, if you lose 10% of sales due to piracy, then you need to sale 10% more to make the same amount.
I think piracy does have a negative effect, but not a massive one. Some people who pirate games might buy games they never would have had in the first place.
And I think this positive effect dosnt whip out the negative, but reduces it somewhat.
eg, if you lose 10% of sales due to piracy, then you need to sale 10% more to make the same amount.
I think piracy does have a negative effect, but not a massive one. Some people who pirate games might buy games they never would have had in the first place.
And I think this positive effect dosnt whip out the negative, but reduces it somewhat.
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