With the recent High Court decision to declare R4 cards and similar devices for the DS illegal, savagehenry wonders what the effect will be on similar mods and hacks for other consoles. He also questions why the devices are being singled out, and if shutting down rom sites might not be a better option.
“We already have a copyright law that is clear about the rules of copying anything without prior consent from whomever owns the intellectual property." Argues savagehenry. "So why target the devices used to transport the roms and those that are selling them? Shouldn't they be going after the people who are copying the original carts in the first place?”
Nintendo’s stance is certainly understandable, as many sites were selling devices preloaded with hundreds of games. A high profile conviction of someone selling pre-loaded cards would be likely to dissuade market stall holders and corner shops from continuing to stock them, but are the companies enabling the storage of pirated software - on devices intended for homebrew projects - equally as culpable as those who acquire it? Is it fair to also punish those who use the cards legitimately?
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