I personally believe this rumor is false, for the following reasons.
- Laws in the US/UK don't allow changes without consent.
If you are found to be using a flash cart or third-party accessory, Nintendo has the right to stop you from using their online services, because that is a service. However they do not have the right to change the device without your permission, as it is a good. The law recognizes the clear difference between goods and services, and this is partially why Nintendo needs your confirmation before running any updates (either individually manually, or allowing it with the automatic update option).
Yes there's warnings that updates will be automatic, but as another example the Wii also has the same warnings but doesn't do updates without your permission.
http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/w...ivacyPolicy.jsp
Yet they don't, you need to confirm the updates.
While some may argue that the software on the device is still Nintendo's property that you're licensing (and thus they have the right to disable it), there's two counters.
- The hardware will not function as advertised without the software, so if Nintendo did purposely cripple the software or brick the device they could get sued in a heartbeat. For an easy example, check out the lawsuits Sony came under for removing a major function of their PS3 system software. This can be found under US court documents 3:10-cv-01975-RS and 3:10-cv-01811-EMC, though later some of the suits merged. In the UK people could skip the suit and were able to request a partial refund for their machine once OtherOS was removed, thanks to UK's consumer protection laws.
- If Nintendo has the right to do this because you're just licensing the OS of the machine, then Microsoft has the right to brick your computer if you install something they don't like. Obviously this is not true and would never fly in a court of law.
- Other Nintendo systems also warn against third-party modifications, but don't break.
Checking out Nintendo's manuals (the PDFs for recent systems are available on their site), you'll notice that the GBA SP, GBA Micro, Gamecube, DS, DS Lite, and DSi/XL all warn against unauthorized third-party modifications.You'll also note that the warning gets more severe as time goes on, up to where the DSi/XL actually has three warnings on one page, and even says that if you mod it people could collect your personal information. This just SCREAMS "fear mongering", meaning Nintendo is just trying to scare you.
Checking game manuals, we see that Minish Cap (an older GBA game) warns that third-party devices may damage the system.
Kirby's Epic Yarn (a recent Wii game) flat-out tells you that if you have unauthorized stuff, an update may render your machine inoperable.Again we can see it's just fear-mongering that gets stronger over time as Nintendo faces more pressure from developers and publishers to keep piracy off the system.
- The 3DS has been out for a while no and no brickings have occurred, even though some of the most popular flash carts are being used on 3DS systems daily.
Don't even need an explanation here.- "Third-party modifications" do not include just flash carts, and cannot be detected perfectly.
When reading the warning everybody immediately thinks "flash carts for piracy", but what about fake/imitation game carts from ebay and such? Those also fail the header checks the 3/DS/i do, and would be picked up as a pirated cart as well, even though somebody may buy one from ebay thinking it's a legit used game. It happens all the time, especially with pokemon carts. If these warnings were true then your system could be bricked if you bought a game from ebay and it turned out to be a bootleg copy. That's not something Nintendo will risk.
In addition I've seen many people saying they're going to buy a third-party battery pack for the 3DS. Well, if these warnings mean what people think they mean, that would mean Nintendo has the right to brick your device for using one of those if the model you get isn't Nintendo-authorized...RandomRedMage said:- Nintendo does not profit in any way by damaging your system.
Oceanborn712 said:
Because you can't seem to read the stickies, here's a nice excerpt from our favorite temper Rydian:
I personally believe this rumor is false, for the following reasons.
- Laws in the US/UK don't allow changes without consent.
If you are found to be using a flash cart or third-party accessory, Nintendo has the right to stop you from using their online services, because that is a service. However they do not have the right to change the device without your permission, as it is a good. The law recognizes the clear difference between goods and services, and this is partially why Nintendo needs your confirmation before running any updates (either individually manually, or allowing it with the automatic update option).
Yes there's warnings that updates will be automatic, but as another example the Wii also has the same warnings but doesn't do updates without your permission.
http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/systems/w...ivacyPolicy.jsp
Yet they don't, you need to confirm the updates.
While some may argue that the software on the device is still Nintendo's property that you're licensing (and thus they have the right to disable it), there's two counters.
- The hardware will not function as advertised without the software, so if Nintendo did purposely cripple the software or brick the device they could get sued in a heartbeat. For an easy example, check out the lawsuits Sony came under for removing a major function of their PS3 system software. This can be found under US court documents 3:10-cv-01975-RS and 3:10-cv-01811-EMC, though later some of the suits merged. In the UK people could skip the suit and were able to request a partial refund for their machine once OtherOS was removed, thanks to UK's consumer protection laws.
- If Nintendo has the right to do this because you're just licensing the OS of the machine, then Microsoft has the right to brick your computer if you install something they don't like. Obviously this is not true and would never fly in a court of law.
- Other Nintendo systems also warn against third-party modifications, but don't break.
Checking out Nintendo's manuals (the PDFs for recent systems are available on their site), you'll notice that the GBA SP, GBA Micro, Gamecube, DS, DS Lite, and DSi/XL all warn against unauthorized third-party modifications.You'll also note that the warning gets more severe as time goes on, up to where the DSi/XL actually has three warnings on one page, and even says that if you mod it people could collect your personal information. This just SCREAMS "fear mongering", meaning Nintendo is just trying to scare you.
Checking game manuals, we see that Minish Cap (an older GBA game) warns that third-party devices may damage the system.
Kirby's Epic Yarn (a recent Wii game) flat-out tells you that if you have unauthorized stuff, an update may render your machine inoperable.Again we can see it's just fear-mongering that gets stronger over time as Nintendo faces more pressure from developers and publishers to keep piracy off the system.
- The 3DS has been out for a while no and no brickings have occurred, even though some of the most popular flash carts are being used on 3DS systems daily.
Don't even need an explanation here.- "Third-party modifications" do not include just flash carts, and cannot be detected perfectly.
When reading the warning everybody immediately thinks "flash carts for piracy", but what about fake/imitation game carts from ebay and such? Those also fail the header checks the 3/DS/i do, and would be picked up as a pirated cart as well, even though somebody may buy one from ebay thinking it's a legit used game. It happens all the time, especially with pokemon carts. If these warnings were true then your system could be bricked if you bought a game from ebay and it turned out to be a bootleg copy. That's not something Nintendo will risk.
In addition I've seen many people saying they're going to buy a third-party battery pack for the 3DS. Well, if these warnings mean what people think they mean, that would mean Nintendo has the right to brick your device for using one of those if the model you get isn't Nintendo-authorized...RandomRedMage said:- Nintendo does not profit in any way by damaging your system.
Oceanborn712 said:
@
realtimesave:
@
The Real Jdbye:
