Nintendo and friends win $1Million in damages against R4 carts

[T-hug]

Today Nintendo, along with 50 other Japanese game companies including Konami, Capcom, Square Enix, Level-5 and Bandai Namco have won $944, 921 in damages from 2 Tokyo based R4 sellers.
Last year it was made illegal to import R4 cards in Japan.

http://www.nintendo.co.jp/corporate/release/2013/130709.html

 

[Foxi4]

R4's are the DS equivalent of CD/DVD/BR-R's, even less - they're merely adapters for rewritable storage. I find it odd that any court that has any understanding of technology would think that they cause any damage and that they could be made illegal. It's the end user's choice to use them for piracy - the carts themselves are in no way harmful just like blank discs aren't.

 

[xist]

The question is whether the companies who've lost have any available cash to pay up (unlikely - I'd guess it's sequestered away) or if it's just to force bankruptcy. In which case they'll probably just change names and spring up again doing a similar but tactfully rebranded thing...

 

[BrightNeko]

You know due to the topic title I really just wanna draw a title card for an animated show. "Nintendo and friends" with all the companies various main stays. >_>

Oh hey they won money? cool.

 

[Blaze163]

That doesn't sound like a whole lot, in all fairness. Considering how much money people DON'T pay to these companies as soon as they get one of these cards. You get a decent memory card, maybe 4GB on average, you can fit a good 30-40 games on there, each losing one of those companies £30 or so. And that's from one card. Can't help but feel that they've been given some paltry token payment to keep them quiet. A victory for public relations since they 'struck a blow in the war against piracy' but it surely doesn't come close to making up for the damages caused.

 

[Ethevion]

Did each company get that much money, or all the companies combined?

 

[Gahars]

I felt a great disturbance in the R-Force, as if millions of flash carts cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.

 

[orcid]

That doesn't sound like a whole lot, in all fairness.

It is not against the manufacturer. It is only against two sellers from Tokyo. So it is quite a lot.

 

[Blaze163]

It is not against the manufacturer. It is only against two sellers from Tokyo. So it is quite a lot.

If we're talking two guys running a little shop out of their basement or something, then that's fair enough.

 

[shakirmoledina]

at this rate, supercard shall be sued 10 years from now

but why only r4 and not others? it seems to be a message that nintendo and co. wants to send

and hence CFW > hardware backup devices

 

[BORTZ]

R.I.P. R4... Ill never forget you.

 

[evandixon]

R4 died a long time ago. All the R4s out now are simply clones.
Just saying.

 

[Minox]

but why only r4 and not others? it seems to be a message that nintendo and co. wants to send

They mention nothing about R4s in the original article, but rather マジコン(majikon) devices which is more or less the Japanese word for a flashcart. However, due to the widespread publicity the R4 has gotten articles usually refers to all flashcarts as 'R4s' even though a whole bunch of other devices might be involved.

 

[TwilightWarrior]

R4 died a long time ago. All the R4s out now are simply clones.
Just saying.

Naw, man they just realeased the new rts one like 3 months ago and its the official one

 

[Hanafuda]

It is not against the manufacturer. It is only against two sellers from Tokyo. So it is quite a lot.

Quoted because it seems most people replying here didn't get this -- it's just a couple businesses in Tokyo that were selling flashcarts that got crushed. Selling flashcarts in Japan is like going to a police station to see if they'd like to buy some stolen televisions.

 

[Tattorack]

Great, the link given is totally in Japanese =_=

 

[Chaossaturn]

This is bullshit, if someone buys a knife and kills someone, the seller don't get sued (if the person is of legal age to buy knife). If someone sells a R4 and the purchaser use it to pirate, the seller gets sued...

 

[FAST6191]

This is bullshit, if someone buys a knife and kills someone, the seller don't get sued (if the person is of legal age to buy knife). If someone sells a R4 and the purchaser use it to pirate, the seller gets sued...

Depends actually. Also as you can legally purchase a knife (give or take various restrictions) and the import, creation, sale, possibly use and export of R4 type devices was banned in Japan it would happen that being sued/fined is the order of the day.

 

[Ziggy Zigzagoon]

R4's are the DS equivalent of CD/DVD/BR-R's, even less - they're merely adapters for rewritable storage. I find it odd that any court that has any understanding of technology would think that they cause any damage and that they could be made illegal. It's the end user's choice to use them for piracy - the carts themselves are in no way harmful just like blank discs aren't.

The interesting thing is that I remember The 10 Commandments winning a lawsuit against VHS in damages because those who can watch The 10 Commandments at any time instead of (I think) once a year would not bother to watch the commericals that coincide with the official screening, thus losing profits.
Errata: The reverse happened. Sony got the right to sell blank videocasettes.

It is not against the manufacturer. It is only against two sellers from Tokyo. So it is quite a lot.

I think this is due to the two vendors having to pay less than one thousand dollars each (due to the way the leas post is written).

 

[reprep]

get your dstwo. now. or better get all the flash cards you want now. it might be too late later.