Gaming Are flashcarts illegal?

[DigitalDeviant]

from a strictly libertarian point of view, I don't think they are since there is nothing inherently illegal about of cartridge that runs homebrew/copies provided you have the actual games. Now from a business standpoint I can see the concern.

I'll put it this way I sincerely doubt the flash cart business would be so successul as evidenced by the amount of cheap knockoffs by companies trying to cash in on the craze if it weren't for the ability to download virtually any game you want.

so to the point, they are not, but there are caveats to that depending on where you live and what the laws are.

 

[WiiUBricker]

In a groundbreaking case, the US Supreme Court rules that they are legal as they can be used for legitimate purposes.

Yea, because even the Supreme Court fail to see that DSi compatible flash carts contain copyrighted code. They simply dont know. If you purchase a DSi flash cart, it's like you purchase illegal code. Team Cyclops havent released any DSi card, maybe because they know they need illegal code?

 

[.Chris]

yes, and i think it depends on how u use them....

 

[MelodieOctavia]

Flash carts are illegal in some countries, and not in most.

Piracy is illegal in most countries, but not in some.I realize that you're trying to use simple logic so you don't get corrected, however think of it this way: Someone who is not getting proper treatment with their own material will probably move to countries where they do. No one wants their property stolen and have it be made even worse because the offender isn't actually breaking the country's law.

Therefore, I ask if you know of any countries that don't have laws against piracy, or if you're speaking out of your ass.

QUOTE(WiiBricker @ Oct 18 2010, 10:45 PM) All DSi flash carts are illegal since they contain copyrighted code from Nintendo, but most of the people here fail to see that.

Cite your sources, so that I may rip them to shreds with logic. I dare you.

You're incredibly confident, yet you're still wrong. How do you think DSi flashcards bypass anti-piracy protection? They use codes from other games.

From what I heard, they aren't Nintendo games though WiiBricker. They are third-party games for the specific reason of not trying to fight Nintendo in court.

Laos and Marshall Islands are countries with no copyright laws that I can think of off the top of my head, but i'm sure there are more.

The code that bypasses the dsi's AP protection is distributed separate from the cart itself, so I say again that the cart itself is and never will be illegal unless there is a specific law that bars flash carts.

 

[WiiUBricker]

The code that bypasses the dsi's AP protection is distributed separate from the cart itself, so I say again that the cart itself is and never will be illegal unless there is a specific law that bars flash carts.

Are you sure? Lets say I buy a DSi with the first firmware on it and a New Acekard2i. I say the flash cart will work without additionally update the firmware on it. Which means the illegal code is already programmed in the cart.

But again, even if you're are, distributing those firmware updates would be just as illegal than distributing commercial roms.

By the way, did you read the entry on hackmii.com? bushing has reverse engineered the "clean" distributed cart and it contained illegal code.

 

[Hakoda]

No and yes.

They're not illegal if you don't use them to pirate. Meaning you buy every game you own and you use homebrew to dump it yourself, not just buy the game then download it off some site. You may want it to use for backup or convenience to carry all your games in one card.

They are illegal if you use them like most people to just download the ROMs off some site and place it on your MicroSD to just play at your own convenience.

The reason anti-piracy exists is because most people use them to pirate and the game companies can't tell what your true intentions, if you own the game, are so they just attempt to block everyone.

 

[WiiUBricker]

No and yes.

They're not illegal if you don't use them to pirate.

Your logic doesnt make any sense. IOS files (Wii scene) are illegal and not permitted here since they contain code from nintendo, whether you patch them to piracy enabling cIOS files or just install them to enable legit functions.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

Thus, any DSi card that needs to be updated to work with 1.4 / 1.4.1 (Aceard 2i, iEdge, SCDSONEi, M3i Zero), should then be legal, as it does not contain the "illegal" code.

 

[windwakr]

In a groundbreaking case, the US Supreme Court rules that they are legal as they can be used for legitimate purposes.

[citation needed]


And that one case that said it's OK to jailbreak a phone doesn't count. That talks about software only, not a hardware device.


And again people, it doesn't matter if you use it for legitimate purposes, they are illegal in most countries.

 

[WiiUBricker]

Thus, any DSi card that needs to be updated to work with 1.4 / 1.4.1 (Aceard 2i, iEdge, SCDSONEi, M3i Zero), should then be legal, as it does not contain the "illegal" code.

Wrong, all "retail clean" flash carts already contain illegal code to bypass security measures. It's "flashed" in their chips as bushing proved.

 

[Schizoanalysis]

Thus, any DSi card that needs to be updated to work with 1.4 / 1.4.1 (Aceard 2i, iEdge, SCDSONEi, M3i Zero), should then be legal, as it does not contain the "illegal" code.

Wrong, all "retail clean" flash carts already contain illegal code to bypass security measures. It's "flashed" in their chips as bushing proved.

But without the update, these cards won't boot up on DSi (1.4)...?

 

[Schlupi]

on a related note, I find it interesting that EVERY flashcart I ordered, whether it be from US or across the pond, always said "PC Card Reader" on the Customs Declaration.

Really strange. WHat do they have to hide?

 

[Zetta_x]

It's funny, I read a number of posts that mentioned logic and legality. If you place things in legal terms, then there is no bound to logic. Think about it, laws that define legality are made up from some biased point of view (something is wrong vs something is right). When you take things with a biased point of view, you are looking at a proper subset of a universal domain. In all cases, you can never form a valid argument as you can never show that for every element in the domain corresponds to some element of a range thus killing validity of a logical argument?

Was I just blowing smoke out my mouth with the above post? Sort of, but if you have taken some abstract mathematics and metalogic classes, the above paragraph will make a little sense!

 

[windwakr]

on a related note, I find it interesting that EVERY flashcart I ordered, whether it be from US or across the pond, always said "PC Card Reader" on the Customs Declaration.

Really strange. WHat do they have to hide?

What do they have to hide? An illegal object that would be confiscated if they marked it as "Game flash card."

 

[GreatCrippler]

Seemed like a simple enough question to me. Are they illegal? Absolutely not in the U.S.

 

[RoMee]

I use my SCDSTWO for backups lol

lol..yeah, everyone here use their flash cart for backup and homebrew only

 

[joshbean39]

obviously the us dosent care about the code on the cart

 

[ecko]

on a related note, I find it interesting that EVERY flashcart I ordered, whether it be from US or across the pond, always said "PC Card Reader" on the Customs Declaration.

Really strange. WHat do they have to hide?

mine said 'card adapter' which technically isnt wrong

QUOTE(Zetta_x @ Oct 18 2010, 07:51 PM) It's funny, I read a number of posts that mentioned logic and legality. If you place things in legal terms, then there is no bound to logic. Think about it, laws that define legality are made up from some biased point of view (something is wrong vs something is right). When you take things with a biased point of view, you are looking at a proper subset of a universal domain. In all cases, you can never form a valid argument as you can never show that for every element in the domain corresponds to some element of a range thus killing validity of a logical argument?

Was I just blowing smoke out my mouth with the above post? Sort of, but if you have taken some abstract mathematics and metalogic classes, the above paragraph will make a little sense!

it makes alot of sense
all in all, in threads like these you can only have 1 of the 2, and in this case it would be legality

 

[basher11]

mine said "video game accessories"

 

[joshbean39]

mine said "video game accessories"

same here