Nintendo Wins Lawsuit Over R4 Mod Chip Piracy

schliz writes "The Federal Court has ordered an Australian distributor to pay Nintendo over half a million dollars for selling the R4 mod chip, which allows users to circumvent technology protection measures in Nintendo's DS consoles. The distributor, RSJ IT Solutions, has been ordered to cease selling the chip through its gadgetgear.com.au site and any other sites it controls, as well as paying Nintendo $520,000 in damages."

Comments

Re:Games from different regions?

[bbqsrc]

This article seems rather flawed. R4 is a cartridge that takes micro-SDHC cards that could use homebrew applications on your DS. The DS is not region-locked whatsoever. They're evidently attempting to apply previous understanding of consoles to this one and falling rather short.

This is also not the only homebrew cartridge available for the DS, and by far not the best, but probably the most well known. I bought one so I could use emulators and DSLinux :)

How come the usual BS didn't work?

[aussie_a]

Modding consoles, selling chips to mod consoles and selling services to mod consoles have been deemed legal in Australia in the past due to the justification that they allow you to play backed up versions of games you've legally bought. Of course this is a valid reason to want to mod a console, but its also a "nudge nudge, wink wink" situation as the people who would actually mod their console only for playing backed up versions of their game would be in the extreme minority.

But this bullshit justification has always been enough in the past to stop people from facing the consequences of selling chips to get around DRM in consoles. So how come the excuse didn't work this time? Is it because its a civil trial? I understand the burden of proof is much less in civil, but if this was a successful avenue for corporations to take, I'm sure Sony would have done it years ago with the original Playstation. Did the defendants in this case mess up and get caught actively encouraging people to use their chip to pirate games?

I RTFA, but it was completely silent on how Nintendo managed to win this court case.

Re:How come the usual BS didn't work?

[bbqsrc]

Did the Playstation chipping case occur before or after the Australia-US Free Trade Agreement? If you weren't aware, our copyright laws were heavily modified by that "trade" agreement.

Re:How come the usual BS didn't work?

[aussie_a]

Oh goodie. Yet another thing to thank Johnny Howard for.

Given I'm talking about the original playstation (which is when I heard about this legal loophole that allowed stores to openly selling their services to chip playstations) and the PS2 came out in 2000, I'm going to assume it happened before the free trade agreement ;) (I don't remember the exact date I saw stores openly selling playstation modding services, but I do remember being quite surprised and either seeing something about it on the news or looking it up on the internet).

That said don't misconstrue this as to have any actual sympathy for people selling devices to get around copyright protection. I understand that these devices can be used for homebrewing. And I'll support the first to support any company that actually tries to make a business out of homebrewing for the Nintendo DS. But first that company will have to do a pretty damn good job convincing me they really are trying to make a business out of homebrewing and aren't using it as a legal pretext to allow people to pirate DS games.

Re:How come the usual BS didn't work?

[discord5]

That said don't misconstrue this as to have any actual sympathy for people selling devices to get around copyright protection. I understand that these devices can be used for homebrewing. And I'll support the first to support any company that actually tries to make a business out of homebrewing for the Nintendo DS. But first that company will have to do a pretty damn good job convincing me they really are trying to make a business out of homebrewing and aren't using it as a legal pretext to allow people to pirate DS games.

There is no business in homebrewing on the DS. But as someone who's spent a substantial amount of time in tinkering with the DS, let me reassure you that it's a lot of FUN! (Warning: your definition of FUN may vary). By todays standards you've got a very limited amount of room to do your work in and you have to make the most out of it, and most of the code you write is going to be really close to the hardware. If you're remotely interested in this sort of thing (even if you're not going to write a game), the DS is a pretty cheap ARM platform for all the hardware that's in it:

• two small screens, addressable through several memory banks, with several modes of operation (including a rudimentary OpenGL like 3D API on one of the screens)
• a touch screen interface
• wifi
• sound output via speakers and input via microphone

The DSi even has two cameras onboard, but I don't think they're supported by libnds yet.

Oh, and of course, very interesting is that a lot of people have made the source code for their homebrew games available. Sometimes you'll just go and have a peek at how someone else did something, and discover something really ingenious, often optimized to give the best performance given the limited hardware available.

But let's face the fact, without Nintendos official seal of approval (read: a wheelbarrow of cash and a reputable game-company backing it) there will never be any real money in whatever you're going to code. If you want to do something commercially, you'll have to buy Nintendos tools, etc. If tinkering with a piece of hardware you buy is going to make you a criminal, I fear for the next generation of geeks.

Re:Games from different regions?

[Shrike82]

Apparently the DS is region free so that's one legal defense out the window.

Just wait until they take a look at DSi carts

[marcansoft]

Every single DSi-compatible DS cart, including Datel's Action Replay DSi, includes portions of a pirated cart ROM. Nintendo started signing all executables and retroactively signing the existing library of DS games (they include the hashes built in to the DSi firmware), so the only way you can get an unofficial DS cart to run on the DSi is by pirating a game's executable/header and partial data and then using a data file exploit (data files aren't signed) to make it bootstrap your code. These DSi-compatible cartridges even show up with the game icon of a real game in the menu, since that part is also signed.

If that isn't a lawsuit in the making then I don't know what is.

Re:Just wait until they take a look at DSi carts

[drinkypoo]

This is different, as the end product doesn't just incorporate a trademark or code that shows a trademark, but rather almost a megabyte of a game. That falls under copyright infringement, not trademark misuse.

Sega v. Accolade didn't make a distinction based on the type or quantity of content. It simply stated that if you have to include the magical secret code for the game to function, you may include it. So far, that case has held up and/or not been challenged even in the face of the DMCA and its clauses about defeating a copy protection mechanism, so I figure it's probably pretty secure here too.

IANAL, but in my opinion a whole different case would be needed to establish whether copying a large amount of code/assets/whatever can be regarded as fair use if it is a requirement to be able to run unlicensed original code.

IANAL either, but; I agree that a whole different case would be needed, but there's already ample provocation to bring one if "they" think they can win. This hasn't happened, so I suspect that the lawyers don't agree with your assessment that it's clear infringement.

This is a long way from just showing a SEGA or Nintendo trademark.

The trademark was included in the code, not shown. The trademark display was a Dreamcast thing and came dramatically later. Go read up on SvA on Wikipedia please.

Re:TPM?

[Farmer Tim]

I'd like it if anyone could find "technical protection measure" actually defined within any Australian law.

Copyright Act, here and here.

Re:Games from different regions?

[mustafap]

>Sure you do but profiting off it is another matter.

I hope you don;t mean that.

If I buy object "a", and create useful additions to that object, I bloody well should be able to profit from it.

If the leased me the DS then it would be a different matter. But I purchased it, so I shouldn't be considered a criminal if I hack it, paint it, blow it up, whatever. It's now mine, and my business what I do with it.

Re:TPM?

[jimicus]

It most obviously does NOT mean "technical measures which protects from running unauthorized code", because then the R4 wouldn't exist.

If there was such a thing as a 100% reliable technical protection measure, there would be no need for such a law to exist.

It's your system

[Murdoch5]

You should be allowed to do what ever you want to your system. Are they going to sue me for putting a mod chip in my Game Cube? Modding my SNES? Even modding my Gameboy. If you paid for the system you can do what you want to it.

Re:It's your system

[Tjebbe]

True, and in this case it's not even a chip, just a game card where you can insert a memory card, and run your own stuff.

I have one, and it only contains one game; nethack-ds. I fail to see how that would be illegal.

Re:Games from different regions?

[LKM]

I think the gun comparison is interesting. You can legally buy a gun, but you're not allowed to shoot people with it (usually). Likewise, it should be okay to buy an R4, and illegal to use it for piracy. And there actually are valid reasons for owning an R4.

Goerge Miller had it all backwards

[elrous0]

It's funny now to go back and look at "Mad Max" and realize that the premise of that movie was that the future of Australia would involve too much lawlessness and a lack of legal enforcement (criminals going free, no law to protect citizens, etc.). Now here we are in the actual future and Australia of late is looking at actively censoring the internet, banning any videogame that shows blood, imposing criminal and civil sanctions on people for modding their videogame consoles, and even banning criticism of lawmakers. It seems that the Australia of 2010 turned out to be more of a police state than a free-wheeling lawless anarchy. Turns Tina Turner was right. We didn't really need Max at all.

Re:Games from different regions?

[geminidomino]

So GP posts to a site about a homebrew/indie game to give an example of a reason to legitimately own an R4 (or similar device) and you come back with "The R4 used entirely for counterfeiting and piracy?"

Do you work for Nintendo's PR department, or are you just functionally illiterate? And if there is a legitimate use (even if it is, as you claim "Very little") then why the hell would those who use it as such NOT cry foul at the sale of the device being banned?

Did Nintendo kill the DS Mod community?

[MobyDisk]

I wrote a fairly popular DS app a few years ago, but I saw the writing on the wall for this platform. Between Nintendo making it harder to get these chips, and cell phones becoming more open, I don't see much point in writing for the DS. It's a shame: I think Nintendo could be where Apple is today with the iPhone, had they opened the DS. It had so much potential. Now, it is simply out of date.

Re:Games from different regions?

[Hatta]

There's a couple of reasons. First, homebrew. You can use your DS as a decent MP3 player, or even video player (with transcoding). There are also apps to take notes, read ebooks, etc. etc. There's even a handy scrabble dictionary, and some homebrew games available. (Amazingly, Quake runs pretty well on the DS.) A French court recently ruled that flash carts were legal for homebrew purposes.

There's also convenience. It's just easier to carry one card with your entire collection of DS games instead of juggling a dozen carts when you travel.

That said, there's plenty of illicit uses for such a device as well.

Re:Feh

[tepples]

I gotta admit I can list off about 16 people who all own DS's and Modchips, and half of them have yet to pay for a legal copy of a game for the DS. The other half run *mostly* modded games. None of them use the R4 for any legal 3rd party applications.

Then add tepples as #17 and replace "None" with "One". The microSD card that I used with my R4 back when I was still into DS includes MoonShell, DSOrganize, Colors!, Lockjaw, and a couple saved game management utilities, but no pirated DS games.

freedom protection

[sixsixtysix]

i don't care if 99% use something for piracy, the other 1% should never be affected. i should be allowed to tinker with whatever i buy, and if i can do something myself, i should be able to pay someone else to do it for me, whether it be modding my own hardware(or am i licensing the hardware?) or archiving my legally purchased media to whatever format i choose(seeing as i am allowed to record and archive content off the tv, why can't i use the internet as a dvr?).
what's even more ridiculous is the bullshit development licensing consoles have in the first place. anyone for that system, would have to be for development licensing fees on windows, linux, mac, etc. they are all computers ffs!