News R4 cartridges banned in the UK

http://www.bit-tech.net/news/gaming/2010/07/29/r4-cartridges-banned-in-the-uk/1

 

Wow, this just came in as the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in the US ruled that breaking copy protection in itself wasn't illegal (as long as the intended end result wasn't to violate copyright).

Ah well, I can now add that to the bottom of the long list entitled "Reasons that the current system of IP laws is completely broken and inadequate".

 

Booooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

(though fair enough really I suppose)

 

I completely agree with this ruling and well done to Nintendo for fighting right to the very end.

 

Surely this is like banning DVD players because you could play pirated movies on them

 

A depressing decision made by a judge who probably doesn't really understand the issue he's judging on. Breaking into your own machine should never be illegal.

 

@loftie, its more like banning DVD Rs because you can copy pirated movies to them. Banning the DS would be like banning DVD players.

I'm not too familiar with the DS stuff but is there any legal use for these cartridges??

 

Yes, there's plenty of homebrew software for the DS, and all of it requires a flash cart to run.

 

Guess its the "acekard 2" from now on then!?

http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showtopic=79368

 

Tis true, bad analogy But yea, homebrew apps, including games, browsers, instant messaging, personal organisers, media players, paint, think there was even a VOIP app. I'm sure everyone who owns one of these has used it for pirated games at some point, but there are other uses for them. My most used apps included Beup and moonshell.

 

CycloDS, SuperCard DS2, too! ^^

 

I think what people seem to be missing is that its not the actual fact that R4 cartridges and the like can be used to play homebrew or pirated software but the fact that they break the security measures put in by Nintendo. This is the fact why the judge ruled in Nintendo's favour as your effectively "breaking" the DS and abusing the consumer agreement in the T&Cs. Saying its like banning DVDRs or DVD players is rather incorrect as namely the software is loaded into a blank microSD not the R4 itself per se and there is little else the R4 can be used for (unlike a DVD player where you can use legal DVDs/CDs along with any DVDRs loaded up ilicitedly for example), hence why the judge ignored the homebrew software part ofthe defence.

Personally, I think its a shame that proper homebrewed software users lose out to this but as for pirated games then well life sucks, get over it and to the game store if you really want the game.

 

So you've got to buy them in the shady corner of the schoolyard from now...together with pr0n and dope...

 

The Judge's comment on the defence is a bit worrying tbh:

You could use that argument for anything (just replace device with whatever).

 

"breaking the DS and abusing the consumer agreement in the T&Cs"
if I bought it I can break it or into it if I want.
As for T&C's I bought it its mine, not rented or hired it. You won't get to read the T&C till you pay for it and open the box any way.
Unlocking phones will be next,

 

Does anyone aside from my 9 year old niece own a DS?!

 

Yes that is rather terrifying, because I believe in the US at least that very certainly was a defence, and a cast-iron one at that.

 

**** Nintendo and that useless judge!

 

agreed, is there anything at all in this reality that cannot be used for an illegel activity?