R4 cartridges banned in the UK

Written by Joe Martin

July 29, 2010 | 10:56

Tags: #handheld #homebrew #piracy #r4

Companies: #nintendo

R4 cartridges and similar third party carts for the Nintendo DS range are now illegal within the UK after some successful lobbying from Nintendo.

Third party cartridges, of which the R4 is the most popular model, usually contain a MicroSD card adaptor and are used for running homebrew software or pirated games on the Nintendo DS range of handhelds.

A judge ruled against R4 manafacturer Playables Limited and Wai Dat Chan today, making it illegal to either sell, advertise or import R4 cartridges within the UK - a move hailed as a 'first ever' judgement by Nintendo.

The judge made the ruling on the basis that such devices bypass Nintendo's security measures and violate DS terms and conditions in order to run software, regardless of whether such software is pirated or not.

"Nintendo promotes and fosters game development and creativity, and strongly supports the game developers who legitimately create new and innovative applications," Nintendo said in a statement.

"Nintendo initiates these actions not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of over 1,400 video game-development companies that depend on legitimate sales of games for their survival...In the U.K. alone, there have been over 100,000 game copying devices seized since 2009," Nintendo said.

This, naturally, renders our Guide to Nintendo Homebrew Software a bit obsolete. Ah well.

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