r4ds
R4 emulator DS carts officially banned in UK
Nintendo is continuing is ground pound on bootleggers, this time with a win in court against the R4 emulator cartridge.
A British high court decided against defendant Playables Limited and its owner, Wai Dat Chan, and determined that it is “illegal for the R4 card to circumvent Nintendo’s security systems in order to play content on the DS.” The finding makes R4 cards illegal to “import, advertise and sell anywhere in the UK”…
R4 cartridge importer sentenced to year in prison
As further proof that the game industry is not playing around when it comes to piracy, United Kingdom resident Yun Can Meng has been sentenced to 12 months in prison.
Meng plead guilty to illegally importing R4 game copier cards. How many? Try 26,500 on for size. The cards allow the use of pirated content on the Nintendo DS.
This bust was a combined effort of…
Nintendo sues Japanese firms over R4 and similar devices
Today (July 29, 2008), Nintendo and 54 Japanese software makers filed a lawsuit against five Japanese companies which have been distributing R4 DS units and similar slot-1 devices. The five companies have reportedly been importing the devices and selling them to the public.
This news comes on the heels of retailers in the UK asking for R4 cards to be banned. According to MCV, retailers in the UK are noticing a decrease in DS game sales and are blaming the use of piracy devices like the R4. Sure, its the fault of pirates. It isn’t because games are much more expensive in Europe than in the US so people may be a bit more choosy concerning purchases. For example, Dr. Kawashima’s Brain Training aka Brain Age is £14.98/$29.87, Mario Kart DS is £24.98/$49.82 and Harvest Moon DS is £28.48/$56.80.
The R4 team won’t support fake R4 carts
The team behind the R4 slot one flashcarts think piracy is wrong. Well, at least when it effects them. They’ve had enough with knock-off R4 flashcarts, and have decided that, after September 15, 2008, they will change the programing in the R4 kernels so they will only work on official R4 carts.
Let’s say you already own a fake R4 cartridge. Well, you better not update the firmware for it after September 15. The new update will not only not work with the fake card, it will also turn your DS into a very expensive brick. R4′s development team has issued a firm statement that owners of the fake carts who ignore their warnings and render their DS units useless will have to complain to the shop they purchased the fake cart from.
