R4 DS Carts Made Illegal in the UK

By Jorge Ba-oh 29.07.2010 14

R4 DS Carts Made Illegal in the UK on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

R4 carts and other similar devices that enable illegal roms to be played on the Nintendo DS have been banned in the UK.

According to MCV, London's High Court has ruled in favour of Nintendo, making the homebrew devices illegal in the UK, preventing retailers from importing and selling the hardware. Defendants Wai Dat Chan and Playables Limited argued that the R4 allowed users to run homebrew applications, but was made redundant as the R4 must bypass Nintendo’s security before it can work.

Nintendo initiates these actions not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of over 1,400 video game development companies that depend on legitimate sales of games for their survival.

Comment on this article

You can comment as a guest or join the Cubed3 community below: Sign Up for Free Account Login

Preview PostPreview Post Your Name:
Validate your comment
  Enter the letters in the image to validate your comment.
Submit Post

Comments

JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 29.07.2010#1

I think this is great news. Piracy on DS was getting ridiclous among ignorants who thought what they were doing was completely fine.

As for those gamers who use R4s to "try out" games, ok, that's just one excuse used by a tiny minority of an install base that otherwise just pirates the crap out of every game they can think of.

Buy games you know you'll like, read reviews, get the opinions of others.

Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery
 
Phoenom is offline. Phoenom 29.07.2010#2

That 70% sale the main R4 sellers had on a few weeks ago suggests they knew this was coming. I hope this extends to all other flashcarts too. I do feel sorry for the genuine Homebrewers, but what needs to be done needs to be done.

( Edited 28.07.2010 19:54 by Phoenichigo )

 
jb is offline. jb 29.07.2010#3

Phoenichigo said:
That 70% sale the main R4 sellers had on a few weeks ago suggests they knew this was coming. I hope this extends to all other flashcarts too. I do feel sorry for the genuine Homebrewers, but what needs to be done needs to be done.

It does - R4 was mentioned as the primary one I think because of its popularity.

I noticed those crazy offers too - a site I bought an SD card from a while back was bombing my inbox with "Special today only - R4i with 4GB memory card" for just over a tenner. Mad!

Cubed3 Admin/Founder & Designer
 
TAG (guest) 29.07.2010#4

I don't know if I'm happy about it or not. I hate piracy more than most people, but I'm also all for homebrew games and such (I rarely play them, but I think people should be allowed to do so!).

Does this mean it's illegal to own the R4 carts, or just illegal to buy and sell them? I'm just curious. I'm in America so this doesn't directly affect me.

PMD is offline. PMD 29.07.2010#5

I agree with SuperLink. Piracy is way too easy and popular because of these devices that it is naive to say that they aren't affecting sales at all. Homebrew DS is a small price to pay for massively reducing piracy.

And, from what I read, it is only illegal to sell and advertise the flash carts.

 
PK Mongoose is offline. PK Mongoose 29.07.2010#6

Why doesn't Nintendo make some kind of Homebrew Channel? Oh wait, that would cost server space which would cost them money.

It requires great courage to look at oneself honestly, and forge one's own path.


 
Marzeee is offline. Marzeee 29.07.2010#7

I wouldn't have bought Toy Story 3 for the DS, so what's the difference if I download it, to try it? They wouldn't have made a sale anyway.

At least it means their work is getting played still.

( Edited 28.07.2010 22:08 by Marzy )

 
JoshSL is offline. JoshSL 29.07.2010#8

Marzy said:
I wouldn't have bought Toy Story 3 for the DS, so what's the difference if I download it, to try it? They wouldn't have made a sale anyway.

At least it means their work is getting played still.


You're just one person though. Like I said, a tiny minority used the flashcards to try out games and sometimes buy games they wouldn't have bought otherwise

But the grand majority of R4 users were just pirating games, never buying.

Or they were people like this:

"i bought my son an R4 for his DS for christmas (:, but now someone is telling me its piracy to use one. is this true?"

Twitter | C3 Writer/Moderator | Backloggery
 
WP-Final is offline. WP-Final 29.07.2010#9

The R4 has made life a lot easier for me. I'm one of those who use it to demo games. The majority of the games I've bought were after I tried them on the R4.

I like 'officially' owning a game so only using the R4 isn't an option for me but I know a lot of people who only use one and never buy games. Why some people fail to see what's wrong with using the R4 as a means to get free games... Smilie

Without the R4, I wouldn't have bought The World Ends With You and it also saved me from buying the mess that is Sonic Classic Collection. Smilie

 
Squidboy is offline. Squidboy 29.07.2010#10

Great, it's about time.

3DS Code 2578-3122-0744
 
Ikana is offline. Ikana 29.07.2010#11

Guess this is good news, though I'm in the camp of people that only use the R4 to 'try before you buy'. Without my R4, I'd never have considered Elite Beat Agents, and would have wasted money buying Electroplankton. Smilie Also love my R4 for fan-translated Jump Ultimate Stars (I have a legit copy too though). But I totally agree with SuperLink, there are loads of Nintendo's adored 'casual gamers' that have R4's and don't have a clue that what they're doing is piracy. Plus of course there are the people who know exactly what they're doing and never pay for games...

( Edited 29.07.2010 11:27 by Ikana )

 
Darkflame is offline. Darkflame 29.07.2010#12

I think the easiest way to get out of this mess is just to rule home brew as always legal, piracy as always illegal. Then leave it upto Nintendo to ensure one is possible without the other.
Then if anyone gets around the projection stopping piracy, theres a clear legal distinction from those just using it for homebrew.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
Last update; Mice,Plumbers,Animatronics and Airbenders. We also have the socials; Facebook & G+. 
 
Yasmin (guest) 31.07.2010#13

I only ever used the R4 for Japanese games that are due to come out in english, but not for a long time (for example, Pokemon), then I buy the English version once it's released (and homebrew stuff too).
What happens if you have an R4 from before the ban? I'm glad there's less piracy (I'm such a hypocrite Smilie), but I did use some homebrew stuff because some of it was pretty decent.

Martin_ is offline. Martin_ 31.07.2010#14

I better get one quick, then!

 

Subscribe to this topic Subscribe to this topic

If you are a registered member and logged in, you can also subscribe to topics by email.
Sign up today for blogs, games collections, reader reviews and much more
Site Feed
Who's Online?
Steven M

There are 1 members online at the moment.