Inside the Messy, Dark Side of Nintendo Switch Piracy (vice.com)

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Inside the Messy, Dark Side of Nintendo Switch Piracy (vice.com)

Posted by msmash on Tuesday November 13, 2018 @04:00AM from the closer-look dept.

Doxing rivals, stealing each other's files, and poking around Nintendo's servers are all a normal part of the ballooning Nintendo Switch hacking and piracy scenes. Joseph Cox, reports for Motherboard: The Switch piracy community -- much of which operates on the gamer-focused chat app Discord -- is full of ingenuity, technical breakthroughs, and evolving cat-and-mouse games between the multi-billion dollar Nintendo and the passionate hackers who love the company but nonetheless illegally steal its games. Pirates deploy malware to steal each other's files so they can download more games themselves. Groups deliberately plant code into others' Switches so they no longer work. And some people in the scene have been doxed, meaning they've had their personal information published online.

Pirating games for the Switch is not technically straightforward. Instead, there's a complex supply chain constantly grinding away that helps people source and play unreleased games. There are reverse engineers who figure out how Nintendo's own tools work, so hackers can then use them for their own advantage. There are coders who make programs to streamline the process of downloading or running games. Reviewers, developers, or YouTubers with access to games before general Switch users often leak unlock codes or other information to small groups, which then may trickle out to the wider community.

[...] To release a game, pirates may dump a copy from the physical cartridge; they can do this before the game releases in the United States by sourcing the cartridge from an Australian store, which releases earlier because of the time difference. But this only gets a game out one or two days before official release. For the more sought-after and early dumps, pirates often manage to grab a copy from Nintendo's eShop, the company's digital download game store that is built into the Switch. Here, pirates will likely use a piece of hacker-made software on their computers to talk to Nintendo's servers, one pirate who uploads large archives of games explained to Motherboard in an online chat. The files can sometimes be downloaded early by anyone (by design), and are encrypted and need a so-called "titlekey" to unlock them and make the game playable. Further reading: Nintendo 'Wins' $12 Million From Pirate ROM Site Operators.

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Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:04 · Score: 2, Interesting

It isn't stealing unless the person stolen from doesn't have the property anymore. Period. Unless you want to discuss silly concepts like stealing a kiss, in which case, I fully support the use of the term in such a positive fashion.
It's called pirating. Illegally copying (especially since you mentioned illegal stealing, it's not even any more clumsy). Just use the right terminology, because right now I'm imagining a bunch of hackers wanting revenge on each other because their code keeps going missing.
1. Re:Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:14 · Score: 1
  
  I also take exception to the word "pirating," since data-duplication is a FAR FUCKING CRY from murder, rape, kidnapping, and actual property theft that goes on in the high seas. They are not remotely morally equivalent, either.
  But, that's the term, that ship has sailed.
  In any event, it sounds like Nintendo would be wise to beef up its security efforts a bit. This article makes it sound like Nintendo is as easy to hack as Sony!
2. Re:Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:14 · Score: 0
  
  Do you want to be pedantic? Because that's how you get pedantic.
  It isn't pirating unless the person doing the stealing is in a ship at sea.
3. Re: Repeat after me by reanjr · 2018-11-13 04:17 · Score: 1
  
  It isn't piracy unless it involves hijacking. It's copyright infringement.
4. Re:Repeat after me by shaitand · 2018-11-13 04:24 · Score: 1
  
  Yes, that is what they were going for... but it totally backfired. Pirates are fun and everyone loves them. They even used connections to highlight Somalian pirates so we'd all know how bad pirates are and instead we created the FSM and talk like a pirate day.
  
  The ship has sailed on people equating the word pirate with anything bad.
5. Re: Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:26 · Score: 0
  
  Repeat after me: stealing is to pirating as counterfeiting is to....
6. Re: Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:33 · Score: 0
  
  Somebody's jimmies are rustled today.
7. Re:Repeat after me by Riceballsan · 2018-11-13 04:38 · Score: 1
  
  honestly I don't get why it's really worth it to go so crazy on the consoles. PC gaming hasn't exactly been killed by piracy, and that's in a world where 99.9% of the time piracy is, "download torrent, run game", if it's really complex, replace games installed exe and 1 or 2 DLLs with the pirates version. Maybe you have a 2% risk of downloading some malware. Console piracy, you usually need someone comfortable enough to open up the console, usually solder a thing or 2, buy an external chip that runs a bit. Oh and run the risk that if the console manufacturers detect it the console may permanantly be blocked from buying or using existing games. The reality is I'd be pretty darn shocked if console piracy even had a blip of effect on their sales, the insane amount of hurdles someone has to go through to do it, combined with the risks, drawbacks, etc... its simply insane to me to imagine that's actually worth their time to keep whack a moling it. The initial hurdles of getting consoles modded etc... it would seem to me all that's really needed after that is. ban abusers in online games... over time set up some detections that will ban the users account. The .01% of players that are likely to be using these things aren't worth that much effort to chase.
8. Re: Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:41 · Score: 0
  
  Which definiton of "pirating" exaclty?
9. Re:Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:52 · Score: 0
  
  No no, semantics.
  Copying something where the original doesn't cease to exist is still an unauthorized copy. You can steal a copy.
  What people get hot and bothered by is the fact that stealing is short hand for scripture of "do not covet thy neighbors property"
  Every single churchie joe who has ever pirated a game, movie, movie or other piece of art is going to hell. So pirates either do not believe in any kind of hell or do not believe in any kind of afterlife, so they are just following the rule of "live life to it's fullest, you only live once"
  If you do believe that you will be judged on your deeds on earth once you pass away, then you'd also realize that fraud is considered a more heinous sin than violence. Sure you might kill someone, but you surely had a good reason for it right? There is no good reason to steal anything other than food, and even then bread is the only thing you can be justified in stealing and not reap negative karma for.
  Stealing anything else, be it a cake, or a digital song, is bad, and the reason it's bad is because when people realize there is no cosmic force going to punish them, they then they feel justified in stealing everything that nobody will actually miss.
  And that's the thing about piracy, stealing a download, nobody will miss it. The developers will not get any money for it, so that developer will just go out of business and then the pirates will miss having those games.
  And to come full circle on this, EA does more to damage the games industry by it's own greedy IP strip-mining behavior than it ever loses in piracy.
10. Re:Repeat after me by CohibaVancouver · 2018-11-13 05:12 · Score: 1
  
  I've said it before and I'll say it again: It all comes down to whether or not you would have bought the thing, had you not been able to "pirate" it.
  
  If people weren't able to pirate "Game of Thrones" would they just shrug and go play frisbee instead, or would they have gone out and subscribed to an HBO service or paid for a digital download or DVD set so they could watch it?
  
  If the former, then yes, they haven't really cost HBO anything. If the latter, then one can argue pretty clearly that they've "stolen" revenue from HBO.
11. Re: Repeat after me by Dutch+Gun · 2018-11-13 05:16 · Score: 1
  
  And it isn't spam unless it's a can of meat. It's unsolicited e-mail. Because words can never mean more than one thing.
  
  --
  Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
12. Re: Repeat after me by BringsApples · 2018-11-13 05:33 · Score: 1
  
  Copyright is a type of intellectual property, an area of law distinct from that which covers robbery or theft, offenses related only to tangible property. Not all copyright infringement results in commercial loss, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in 1985 that infringement does not easily equate with theft.
  
  --
  Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
13. Re: Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 06:30 · Score: 0
  
  If that's stealing, no problem, I stole the Mona Lisa. Got a picture somewhere on my phone. I steal a lot of cars, lots of pics of them. And souls, oh, the souls I've stolen through photos.
  Or just admit you're using the word wrong.
14. Re:Repeat after me by JesseMcDonald · 2018-11-13 06:52 · Score: 1
  
  If the latter, then one can argue pretty clearly that they've "stolen" revenue from HBO.
  One cannot "steal" something that was never HBO's in the first place. One does not "own" potential revenues.
  The only real criteria is whether your actions involving the other party make them worse off than they would have been in your absence. For theft the answer is yes: if the thief didn't exist they would still have their property, so the presence of the thief makes them worse off. For copyright infringement the answer is no: if the infringer didn't exist they still wouldn't get any revenue, so the presence of an infringer doesn't make them any worse off.
  
  --
  "The state is that great fiction by which everyone tries to live at the expense of everyone else." - Bastiat
15. Re:Repeat after me by Skuld-Chan · 2018-11-13 07:16 · Score: 1
  
  You wouldn't feel that way if you yourself were running a commercial software company. If someone pirates your video game - the people who pay mortgages/rent, put food on the table for their family don't get paid.
  Sure you didn't take anything physical, but the net result is the same - something you should have bought didn't generate any revenue for the company who made it.
  And yes I agree some companies go way to far overboard when it comes to licensing, but then - it's their software not yours - I don't see why you feel entitled to own it.
16. Re:Repeat after me by rogoshen1 · 2018-11-13 07:48 · Score: 2
  
  Has anyone ever definitively proved that piracy actually lowers revenue?
  if x number of people pirate your game, some percentage will go on to purchase it. They'll also function as word of mouth free advertising, which encourages others to buy it. Can you prove that a company is worse off as a result?
  Remember shareware, way back when -- and in particular Doom? ID released as a fully functioning demo of the first few stages, and it clearly didn't impact their overall sales in a negative fashion.
  I'd wager in a lot of cases, a game popular enough to get pirated in significant numbers gains a bit of a halo effect similar to the shareware model.
17. Re:Repeat after me by tlhIngan · 2018-11-13 08:05 · Score: 1
  
  PC gaming hasn't exactly been killed by piracy, and that's in a world where 99.9% of the time piracy is
  No, but the number of big AAA game releases on PC has diminished greatly. There was a brief spike when Denuvo was king and could hold off piracy enough to make a little bit of money on the port. But before that, PC ports, if they existed were either online games or shitty ports that came out years later.
  In the meantime, the PC just gets tons of crappy free to play and indie games (not a bad thing necessarily). But generally not where the money's at.
  The only big publisher putting AAA games on PC would be Microsoft, and really only because UWP was proven to be much stronger - usually it's just easier to wait for the Steam release than try to break UWP (or rather, once the Steam release comes out, then UWP is cracked).
  PC gaming may not be dead, but it's certainly not attracting all the money it once did. Developers are going after consoles with their low piracy rate first, then providing shitty PC conversions because they know there's very little money to be made.
18. Re: Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 08:28 · Score: 0
  
  If someone pirates your video game - the people who pay mortgages/rent, put food on the table for their family don't get paid.
  Thatâ(TM)s clearly not the problem.
  There are many reasons those same people may not be paid, and those reasons are not at all equal.
  If I pirate the game, they make nothing.
  If I donâ(TM)t want the game, they make nothing.
  If I donâ(TM)t have the hardware for it, they make nothing.
  You just equated piracy is bad for the same reason not wanting or unable to use the game is bad.
  No one will feel morally bankrupt for not buying a game they donâ(TM)t want or canâ(TM)t play, yet you just attempted to claim I should, or that one should feel equally not bad for pirating.
19. Re:Repeat after me by Riceballsan · 2018-11-13 08:47 · Score: 1
  
  Either way, my general point still is there. The most basic console anti-piracy is good enough. The mere concept of needing to modify (or find someone who can modify) your console is a pretty big deal breaker for 95% of users, throw in the risk of bricking your console or permanently detaching it from online servers etc... IMO the difference in piracy fears between any 2 consoles is pretty darn negligible because of the huge inherent risks of trashing your console is a pretty big universal brick wall to keep piracy from ever reaching any noteworthy percentages.
20. Re:Repeat after me by Merk42 · 2018-11-13 10:02 · Score: 1
  
  Anyone who pirates (or whatever word you want to use) should be forced to do their own job for free.
21. Re:Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 12:13 · Score: 0
  
  Fuck off, you pathetic thief. Stop being a leech on society. Get a fucking job. Or, preferably, just fucking kill yourself. :)
22. Re: Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 13:47 · Score: 0
  
  Consequentialst ethics at their finest. Would you also contend if you killed someone you would need proof that the rest of their life would not be more misery than happiness before you accepted an ethical dilemma in killing them?
  They created it, they haven't given you permission to use it. You are going to say do you need their permission. You agreed not to violate their copyright multiple times when you skipped the EULA. I am guessing you think that the law states that they are unenforceable protects you. But it only does if you accept the law trumps morality of what you are agreeing to and if you do then you can't very well say you will use the law to protect yourself but not let it protect the software companies. QED.
23. Re:Repeat after me by dryeo · 2018-11-13 13:59 · Score: 1
  
  What people get hot and bothered by is the fact that stealing is short hand for scripture of "do not covet thy neighbors property"
  Every single churchie joe who has ever pirated a game, movie, movie or other piece of art is going to hell. So pirates either do not believe in any kind of hell or do not believe in any kind of afterlife, so they are just following the rule of "live life to it's fullest, you only live once"
  If you do believe that you will be judged on your deeds on earth once you pass away, then you'd also realize that fraud is considered a more heinous sin than violence. Sure you might kill someone, but you surely had a good reason for it right? There is no good reason to steal anything other than food, and even then bread is the only thing you can be justified in stealing and not reap negative karma for.
  Stealing anything else, be it a cake, or a digital song, is bad, and the reason it's bad is because when people realize there is no cosmic force going to punish them, they then they feel justified in stealing everything that nobody will actually miss.
  Oh, fuck off. The ones going to hell are those who stole from culture and invented a fake form of property called copyright. No religious book starts out with "Don't copy this" as they're all based on the idea that ideas are to be shared and attempting to lock them up for money is theft.
  All religious leaders have used others words without compensating them. Some like Jesus even created stuff out of thin air even though it deprived someone of the opportunity to sell their stuff. Think about it, copying food instead of buying it, therefore depriving some baker an opportunity to sell bread.
  
  --
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
24. Re:Repeat after me by dryeo · 2018-11-13 14:26 · Score: 1
  
  Perhaps we should just implement a tax to pay these poor commercial game developers. They obviously deserve to be paid for their work even if people don't buy their product.
  It can go with the internet streaming tax the *AA's are pushing for up here in Canada. Use over 15 GBs a month means you're streaming and since Netflix, Spotify, etc don't pay the artists enough, a tax fixes it. We could just add Steam to the list, make the tax bigger, and pay these poor souls so they can continue to produce stuff that people don't want to pay for.
  These are people who are owed a living, as they have families and bills to pay, and just like the artists who sell too cheap, they need support, especially from people like me who don't play games.
  
  --
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inverted_totalitarianism
25. Re: Repeat after me by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 19:07 · Score: 0
  
  What if I download copies that don't have that EULA, or it was edited it to say other things? Maybe the Tongan version is supposed to be free for all. That's what I heard so maybe you should download it from there.
26. Re: Repeat after me by stealth_finger · 2018-11-13 21:24 · Score: 1
  
  Repeat after me: stealing is to pirating as counterfeiting is to....
  ...photocopying?
  
  --
  Wanna buy a shirt?
  https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
27. Re: Repeat after me by stealth_finger · 2018-11-13 21:25 · Score: 1
  
  And it isn't spam unless it's a can of meat.
  That's a bit generous. Meat like substance maybe XD
  
  --
  Wanna buy a shirt?
  https://www.redbubble.com/people/stealthfinger/shop?asc=u
28. Re:Repeat after me by Hognoxious · 2018-11-14 06:35 · Score: 1
  
  One cannot "steal" something that was never HBO's in the first place.
  
  Replace "steal" with "deprive of"? Happy now?
  
  One does not "own" potential revenues.
  
  Imagine you had a wealthy aunt who you know is going to leave the whole pile to you when she pops her clogs. I convince her to change her will and leave two thirds to me and the rest to St Tiggywinkle's hospital; I'm not greedy.
  I take it you'd have no problem with that, then, since it was only "potential" revenue?
  
  --
  Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Better ... by PPH · 2018-11-13 04:05 · Score: 1

... that they carry on within the Nintendo ecosystem than pull this crap out in the real world.

--
Have gnu, will travel.
1. Re:Better ... by DontBeAMoran · 2018-11-13 04:15 · Score: 1
  
  Are you afraid they'll mess with your online games of "Super Elite Sniper game #51", "Car hijacking game #67" or "Mafia Syndicate game #154"?
  
  --
  #DeleteFacebook
2. Re:Better ... by Opportunist · 2018-11-13 04:35 · Score: 1
  
  That's "Super Elite Sniper game 18", "Car hijacking game 18" and "Mafia Syndicate game 18". Until next year at least when you get to buy the same game again. But with a 19 in the title!
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
3. Re:Better ... by CohibaVancouver · 2018-11-13 05:05 · Score: 1
  
  Are you afraid they'll mess with your online games of "Super Elite Sniper game #51", "Car hijacking game #67" or "Mafia Syndicate game #154"?
  Obviously you're unfamiliar with the Nintendo ecosystem and their target market. That should be Splatoon Paint Wars! #51, SuperDuper MarioKart SmashUP #67 or Luigi's Mushroom Syndicate #154.
4. Re:Better ... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 05:53 · Score: 0
  
  I thought the 19s went on sale earlier this year? Don't yearly games follow the same model as car.. er, models?
5. Re:Better ... by SCVonSteroids · 2018-11-13 06:24 · Score: 1
  
  You're insane if you think their skillset is limited to Nintendo and not being used in "the real world"
  Oh ignorance, maybe you one day go away and make us that much more insightful.
  
  --
  I tend to rant.
6. Re:Better ... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 08:20 · Score: 0
  
  gameshark (and the folks at gscentral) was what got me interested in n64 hacking. I learned, but barely understood, how assembly and machine code work, and learned some of the system architecture of the nintendo 64. I back-tracked some of the things I learned (assembly) from the n64 to explore similar concepts on the NES (memory mapping and addressing in particular come to mind). Years later, I actually learned about these things at university, and got a much better understanding of computer architecture instead of the "minimal necessary" knowledge I learned myself. I got a job offer while still in school because I was able to explain reverse engineering concepts to an interviewer. I graduated worked on some embedded hardware for a bit, but eventually moved over to high level software. Despite how much Nintendo is a hostilely "closed" ecosystem (the opposite of FOSS), I wouldn't have the career I do without Nintendo.
7. Re:Better ... by PPH · 2018-11-13 08:23 · Score: 1
  
  So, someone spends time developing 'skillz' and then wastes them stealing make-belive pots of gold and magic cloaks. Nintendo adds little note to their credit file to the effect that they have no compunction about violating trust or contracts.
  All those interesting jobs working for a TLA, banks or the DoD? Forget about them. Enjoy your career as a short-order cook.
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
8. Re:Better ... by PPH · 2018-11-13 08:26 · Score: 1
  
  Yeah. But did you actually steal stuff? Or just take it apart to see how it works? There's a big difference between hacking and piracy.
  
  --
  Have gnu, will travel.
9. Re:Better ... by SCVonSteroids · 2018-11-13 09:05 · Score: 1
  
  Grumpy ol' fuck aren't ya? Assuming my career and everything.
  
  --
  I tend to rant.
10. Re:Better ... by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-14 02:44 · Score: 0
  
  You will most likely go to work for one of us grumpy old fucks. Or not. Enjoy your tent under the freeway off-ramp.
Re:Here first by DontBeAMoran · 2018-11-13 04:12 · Score: 0

I have nothing clever to reply, so... boobies!

--
#DeleteFacebook
It Wuz Haxx0rz! by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:14 · Score: 0

Longreads full of h4xx0rZ!
Go read the haxxed longread!
Go click the haxxy clickbait!
Go read the longread! Or the haxx0rz will get you!
READ!
The greatest game by reanjr · 2018-11-13 04:18 · Score: 1

Sounds like Nintendo have created a successful advanced ARG for their dedicated fans.
+5: luvin it. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:19 · Score: 0

And of course this forum loves "down with the man, and up with piracy" so the story will get a (+5:joy to the heart.)
1. Re: +5: luvin it. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:35 · Score: 0
  
  Can you sell these games for cash?
2. Re:+5: luvin it. by Opportunist · 2018-11-13 04:38 · Score: 1
  
  It's more a "down with hype, up with technology". Cracking games isn't as easy anymore as it was when I was young, today it becomes more and more a game of cryptography and breaking encryption. One has to wonder why they toy with games instead of going after more lucrative targets.
  
  --
  We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
3. Re: +5: luvin it. by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 05:48 · Score: 0
  
  Because lot of people crack for the joy of cracking. The playable cracked game is like a built jigsaw puzzle. Boring, done, and of little interest.
  Cracking for $$ in the real world isn't fun, either. It's not a hobby anymore.
Pirate pirate hacker hacker by The+MAZZTer · 2018-11-13 04:26 · Score: 5, Interesting

The summary reads like an attempt to cram as many instances of "piracy" and "hacker" into the text as possible. There are other reasons people crack their Switches or other consoles, including running homebrew or just simply to explore how these devices work behind the scenes. Not everyone who is interested in hacking their Switch is interested in pirating Switch games.
One example is the lack of save game backup support like the Wii and Wii U had. We had over a year of Switch with no mechanism for backups available. Nintendo Online allows backups but certain titles opt out and there is no solution from Nintendo for backups of those. However, hacked Switches have been able to dump saved games to SD cards for months now. The hacker community does what Nintendon't.
1. Re:Pirate pirate hacker hacker by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 05:13 · Score: 0
  
  The hacker community does what Nintendon't.
  Nintendont does what NIntendon't. Personally, I consider the Switch a glorified tablet which is why it doesn't interest me for homebrew or piracy. My first handheld was the GBA SP precisely because it had a clamshell design. Any move away from that is absolutely stupid for using it on the go*. That and becoming monsterously big.
  * If you're using it docked only or like my 2DS you never take it with you, I'll grant you that it's an acceptable way to have a semi-portable device. The Switch is still a glorified tablet, and I'd rather use a tablet (with a web browser and streaming) or another game system. I can totally see getting it to play BotW if you want to side step the whole WiiU purchase, though. BotW seems too meh to me, though, to justify a whole system purchase.
2. Re:Pirate pirate hacker hacker by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 05:15 · Score: 0
  
  Switch hacker here. Let's not pretend that 95%+ aren't hacking their Switch to play free games.
3. Re: Pirate pirate hacker hacker by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 06:09 · Score: 0
  
  The Switch is a glorified tablet. Part of the glorification is the default and standard physical buttons.
  On a regular tablet you're stuck with rubbing your fingers against bare glass for all the controls, or using a third party physical controller that has sketchy support in only some games.
4. Re: Pirate pirate hacker hacker by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 06:31 · Score: 0
  
  Tablets suck for use as a gaming system, and slapping some buttons on the side doesn't really fix that. You sacrifice battery life and general processing power for weight, a screen, and concerns of heat. You'd be better off with a dedicated console or a handheld. And possibly a cheap tablet on the side for media consumption. Like I said, I only see it making sense if you're doing this to skip the WiiU (which also shipped with a glorified tablet) to play some Nintendo specific games and various ports (including Nintendo specific games). That's me though. I'm generally a cheap bastard, and I'd think filling out your PS2/PS3/Wii/Xbox 360 collection would be more sensical than moving towards investing in the latest and greatest. By the time you've done that, perhaps the WiiU used will come down to a sensible price.
5. Re: Pirate pirate hacker hacker by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 08:32 · Score: 0
  
  Switch hacker here, let's not act like 95% are hacking them because they like hacking for fun.
Someone should start a pirate pirate site by tepples · 2018-11-13 04:35 · Score: 1

Yes, that is what they were going for... but it totally backfired. Pirates are fun and everyone loves them.
I want to see a torrent site that carries only works that glorify sea piracy, such as Pirates of the Caribbean and Sid Meier's Pirates!.
1. Re:Someone should start a pirate pirate site by GameboyRMH · 2018-11-13 05:03 · Score: 1
  
  The PiratePirateBay?
  
  --
  "When information is power, privacy is freedom" - Jah-Wren Ryel
Music And Film Industry Associations by tepples · 2018-11-13 04:39 · Score: 1

Are you afraid they'll mess with your online games of [...] "Mafia Syndicate game #154"?
With Nintendo and affiliated companies bringing out new Mario and Pikachu movies, you're seeing "MAFIAA Syndicate" play out before you.
1. Re: Music And Film Industry Associations by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 04:47 · Score: 0
  
  Yer a doll
Exclusivity and Price rigging... breeds Piracy by SirAstral · 2018-11-13 05:28 · Score: 2

When you play the game like Nintendo does it, then you breed piracy. Games that take years to drop in price, exclusive content, rigorous control over the environment, total disrespect of their customers.
There are many reasons to break software free of the DRM grips of these kinds of businesses. If nintendo wants to provide me a walled garden with exclusive content and watch what I do, then they need to give it to me for free. I am not going to pay for this type treatment.
I don't feel sorry for consumers of Nintendo products, they have more than proven who and what kind of business they are. They have no honor!
1. Re:Exclusivity and Price rigging... breeds Piracy by SCVonSteroids · 2018-11-13 06:32 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  You want them to develop smash titles like Super Mario and give them for free?
  They're protecting their IP. It may seem scummy to you, but you wouldn't like it either if you tried to make a living off your games you made at your expense, then have people break your platform just so they can have it for free.
  There's nothing wrong with paying for entertainment. Every company has done dick moves of course, and I don't necessarily agree with everything Nintendo does; but at some point people are just acting like the self-entitled pricks that they have shown themselves to be.
  I have nothing against people hacking these systems and doing what they're doing. There's something to be said about the ingenuity of some of these work-arounds and just the knowledge some of these folks have. But I have no sympathy for them when Nintendo turns around and does something about it either. Heck, I'm sure the hackers don't either! Keeps the game interesting :)
  The only people who truly complain are the kids who want everything for free.
  
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  I tend to rant.
2. Re:Exclusivity and Price rigging... breeds Piracy by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 07:09 · Score: 0
  
  Who said _anything_ about "for free", other than you? Projection, projection. How about a big nice cup of STFU and go fuck yourself?
3. Re:Exclusivity and Price rigging... breeds Piracy by SirAstral · 2018-11-13 07:46 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  your rant was a non-sequitur.
  Read what I said again.
  "You want them to develop smash titles like Super Mario and give them for free?"
  Letting me play it at no "direct" cost to myself does not make it "free" in the way that you imply. Nintendo recoups that cost through advertising and data collection. I am just saying that if I give them my own money that I do not want them to also monetize me in other ways.
  "There's nothing wrong with paying for entertainment."
  Point out where I stated that paying for entertainment was wrong?
  "Every company has done dick moves of course, and I don't necessarily agree with everything Nintendo does; but at some point people are just acting like the self-entitled pricks that they have shown themselves to be."
  Name calling, many consider this to mean that you have already lost the argument. It is simple, if you do business with a company that makes these "dick moves" then what does that say about you? Asking a company to stop being "dicks" or making "dick moves" is hardly enough to accuse people of being self entitled pricks, but you seem to be unable to figure this out.
  "I have nothing against people hacking these systems and doing what they're doing."
  Seems to me that you apparently do have something against these people according to what you are saying.
  "There's something to be said about the ingenuity of some of these work-arounds and just the knowledge some of these folks have"
  Agree...
  "But I have no sympathy for them when Nintendo turns around and does something about it either. "
  even when what they do about it is more negative than positive? Why are you even commenting? If all is fair then what do you seek to gain by even bothering a comment?
  "The only people who truly complain are the kids who want everything for free."
  Ah, the old "no true Scotsman" fallacy combined with a provably wrong "lie" and "gate-keeping". Nice "triple-play" there fellow human.
4. Re:Exclusivity and Price rigging... breeds Piracy by SCVonSteroids · 2018-11-13 09:19 · Score: 0
  
  Meh, re-read. I just attacked your last point and nothing else, through my own boredom. You'll notice very large gaps in my commenting on here. I get bored sometimes... The fact you felt personally attacked by so many of my comments is sad. I'm sorry for you.
  People buy from Nintendo because they as kids loved it and the characters never really went away. My first two sentences were out of line but I stand by pretty much the remainder of it. Nobody said you had to agree with me...
  Oh, I guess you did on that one point. Cool!
  I AM curious where you got this impression, though:
  
  "I have nothing against people hacking these systems and doing what they're doing."
  Seems to me that you apparently do have something against these people according to what you are saying.
  What did I say... exactly?
  
  --
  I tend to rant.
5. Re:Exclusivity and Price rigging... breeds Piracy by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 12:17 · Score: 1
  
  lmao what a bunch of pretentious drivel from a pathetic thieving little teenager.
  Stop stealing, you little fucking thief.
6. Re:Exclusivity and Price rigging... breeds Piracy by SCVonSteroids · 2018-11-14 00:02 · Score: 1
  
  He even went so far as to get his moderator friends to make himself look good and me bad.
  Oh internet. Sad.
  
  --
  I tend to rant.
Summary submitted by breathless dipshit by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 06:07 · Score: 0

All these hacking hacker pirates doing their nasty deeds left right and center, nobody who interacts with them can feel safe blah, blah blah. It stinks. It's written as if Nintendo wrote it.
Secondly, people have been doxed? Deploying malware? And who would stand to benefit the most from that kind of behaviour? Someone not mentioned in that part of the text? Questions, questions. But only evil, hacking hackers present. Blah. The complete void of any form of critical thinking in the poo presented as "articles" is truly revolting.
It's Theft of Permission by kackle · 2018-11-13 06:31 · Score: 1

Piracy permanently takes away the sole "right to copy" from the owner. ...Not to mention the future potential profits.
1. Re: It's Theft of Permission by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 08:27 · Score: 0
  
  Not our problem. Deal with it.
2. Re:It's Theft of Permission by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 08:45 · Score: 0
  
  A concept that is completely artificial and not supported by natural law. Governments invent this stuff. Doesn't mean people have to follow it.
3. Re:It's Theft of Permission by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 09:42 · Score: 0
  
  Piracy permanently takes away the sole "right to copy" from the owner. ...Not to mention the future potential profits.
  So does the creator selling a copy to someone for the first time. Copyright is just a legal construct, it has no basis nor support in nature. In fact nature's own rules are the perfect DRM circumvention method. That's the reason DRM fails everytime. Nature says: "Nope, that's not how it works." Now if you can get others to agree to let you be the sole person to "legally" copy something fine, but remember nature makes no such agreements. Even those who agree technically still copy "illegally" by just processing it with their own brains.
  As far as the switch goes:
  Nintendo dug their own grave here. They've been permabanning console certificates left and right for any offense. Cheating? Permaban. Made a bad request to the CDN? Permaban. Had a custom avatar or theme installed? Permaban. Used an overpriced DLC you didn't own? Permaban. Used a game before the release date? Permaban. Used a (secondhand) game that was banned previously? Permaban. Used homebrew? Permaban.
  Those bans prevent you from even downloading system updates, much less game updates. Forget trying to go legit too. There's no way to restore your standing, and even the EShop won't let you sign in. So Nintendo's actively refusing your money at that point. The latest system updates make it so some games have to authenticate online. So even if they worked in the past, even if you paid for them, they won't in the future if you get permabanned. Other games will refuse to run if they detect an available update. Of course because you can't download them once permabanned, those games are useless too.
  Once permabanned, your only option for support is the scene. Need a system update? Gotta pirate it. Need a game update? Gotta pirate it. Want to get the latest game or DLC? Well the EShop isn't letting you in, so gotta pirate it. Wanna play online? Well currently there's no private servers, so you're only option is local lan play assuming it's an option for the game in question, but sooner or later the answer will be, sing it with me now: "Gotta Pirate It!" Someone needs to remix the Pokemon theme song now and upload it to youtube just to piss Nintendo off. Which guess what? They've been on a "we no likey mods, hacks, etc. videos so we hit you with Anti-Circumvention Copyright strikes on your channel now." bit lately. Even for their Creator's program partners. So even youtubers are pissed of at them again.
  For all of this, Nintendo deserves no sympathy. They've single handedly created an environment that is anti-consumer to it's very core. Rejecting people's money, actively denying people support, going after people who talk about things they want kept quiet, punishing people for the actions of others. The list goes on. Now they want to whine and cry about Piracy? Too bad, so sad. Next time don't hand out the death penalty to a person if you want to keep making money from them. Otherwise they will go where they can: To the open arms of the black market, that you forced them into.
4. Re:It's Theft of Permission by Katmando911 · 2018-11-13 10:22 · Score: 1
  
  Wanna play online? Well currently there's no private servers, so you're only option is local lan play assuming it's an option for the game in question
  There's also pseudo LAN play over the internet which works on both hacked and unhacked switches. This only requires you to change your IP settings on the Switch and run a program on your PC. lan-play.com
5. Re:It's Theft of Permission by kackle · 2018-11-13 14:29 · Score: 1
  
  Copyright is just a legal construct, it has no basis nor support in nature.
  So? What does nature have to do with this discussion; most of what humans create is not "natural", but nonetheless valuable.
6. Re: It's Theft of Permission by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 19:04 · Score: 0
  
  Copyrightists pirated our right to copy before we ever did anything to them. If you want to make sure no one copies it, do not show it to anyone.
Hackers do not "help" people by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 06:38 · Score: 0

Help is when your gf helps you toss your salad. Hackers work for those people and enable them using the software.
Lost me at Diablo III by Anonymous Coward · 2018-11-13 08:20 · Score: 0

Sorry, but you lost me at:

[...] just helped dump a copy of Diablo III, a hotly anticipated Nintendo Switch game [...]
The game has been out on other consoles for years.
Bad writing. by Oligonicella · 2018-11-13 09:01 · Score: 1

who love the company but nonetheless illegally steal its games
This is self-contradicting.
Spying, nonfreedom, and disablement? Not for me! by jbn-o · 2018-11-14 15:42 · Score: 1

You want them to develop smash titles like Super Mario and give them for free?
You're pitching this idea as though that would be unreasonable to ask for, but I don't owe Nintendo money for their investment choices. When we consider that they're currently distributing proprietary (nonfree, user-subjugating) software that can be remotely disabled (via digital restrictions management and server dependencies based on servers that aren't distributed but can go away) I see no incentive to buy. The specific price of the game doesn't even enter into this; I'm not objecting to paying for a game, I object to submitting to a proprietor's power, a power that subjects me to watching my investment disappear due to disablement, spying, and other proprietary software ills. That's not worth any price to me. So I choose to do without and they don't get any of my money.
Considered from another perspective, it could be argued that they used to do precisely what you describe. Consider how they ran their company for a while—they sold copies of ROM-based games users used to be able to run in perpetuity so long as they had functioning equipment to run the programs on. Eventually people figured out how to make copies of those games and share those copies but Nintendo was still in business making more such games. With the older systems there was no disparity between what users and Nintendo were able to do because the games were in ROM: Nintendo didn't have any power to change the program beyond what the user could do using the equipment Nintendo sold them (such as a Super Nintendo console). That's a sharp difference from investing in something one can't run (like can be the case with Nintendo Switch software). We don't even know all of what it would take to get Nintendo to disable one's copy of a Switch game. Perhaps we'll find out that Nintendo is more censorious than people thought they were; perhaps Nintendo will use their unjust proprietor power on Switch users who dare to criticize them.

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Digital Citizen