Topic: Nintendo and Others Take R4 Distributors to Court

[Nick DiMola]

Nintendo and 54 other game software companies take R4 distributors to court citing the Unfair Competition Prevention Law as their legal grounding.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=16485

 Nintendo filed a lawsuit today with the Tokyo District Court against companies distributing the "R4 Revolution for DS." For those unfamiliar, the device allows gamers to play ROMs on their DS systems. After downloading illegal ROMs from the internet players need only to transfer them to a mini-SD card and insert it into the R4 DS game shell.    

Though the R4 can be used for more harmless tasks, such as homebrew development, it is also being used as a pirated game player to a large enough extent to draw attention. Nintendo, Arc System Works, SNK, Capcom, Koei, Jaleco, Square Enix, Taito, Sega, Tomy, Tecmo, Hudson, Bandai Namco, The Pokemon Company, Yukes, Level Five, and others are pursuing the case in an attempt to curb piracy.

[KnowsNothing]

It's funny because on the DS homebrew scene, the R4 is kind of a joke.  Plus didn't Nintendo shut down a bunch of R4 factories a while back?  It just amuses me that they get hammered while plenty of other companies are making superior products, you know, with all their factories intact.  I guess that's what you get for being first.

[Flames_of_chaos]

The thing is that it isn't just for the R4 but the other devices as well.

[KnowsNothing]

Oh wait, now that I've read the article I see that it says companies DISTRIBUTING R4 devices.

[MegaByte]

I guess that's what you get for being first.

But they weren't even first.  I'm really not sure how the R4 got so popular in Japanese shops (there are even identical cards with a different branding).

[planetidiot]

And yet all this could be prevented if they allowed for legitimate home brew through something like the xbox creator's club and a licensed flash card.

[NWR_insanolord]

And yet all this could be prevented if they allowed for legitimate home brew through something like the xbox creator's club and a licensed flash card.

No, that would just stop the people who use these things for homebrew from buying them. The people who just want them for piracy would still be buying them.

[Nephilim]

I hope it doesnt end up like 360 in the next gen of handhelds to stop this, with its licenced only deal.
Seems like the only legal way to block them.