Hacking Can Gateway sue clone makers?

[LurkerA]

Gateway put a lot of hard work of several months and their card is blatantly cloned. What's the legal option for them? Shouldn't they sue the clone making companies for stealing their work?

I mean how Apple did Samsung.

The most funny thing i've heard today...

 

[Foxi4]

I don't see why people are so snarky here. If the Gateway was a patented device, it would be subject to the exact same level of protction as any other and even without a patent the could still find their footing in court if the design was "stolen" from them by means of reverse-engineering and blatantly plagiarized for commercial purposes - the purpose of the device has nothing to do with issues of plagiarism and blatant industrial theft.

Naturally Gateway team will not do that because the very device in question is of dubious legality.

 

[ShadowSoldier]

I don't see why people are so snarky here. If the Gateway was a patented device, it would be subject to the exact same level of protction as any other and even without a patent the could still find their footing in court if the design was "stolen" from them by means of reverse-engineering and blatantly plagiarized for commercial purposes - the purpose of the device has nothing to do with issues of plagiarism and blatant industrial theft.

Naturally Gateway team will not do that because the very device in question is of dubious legality.

That's the thing, pretty sure they can't get a patent even if they tried.

Anyways, no they can't. If they could, would they? No.

 

[McHaggis]

It really depends on several things, including:

• Are Gateway the original creators of the software being used in the "clone" flash cards (and can they prove it)?
• Is there a patent on the Gateway hardware that could be enforced?
• Are the clone cards causing significant losses in sales of the Gateway card?
• Does the country of residence for Gateway―if it's a registered company―or its owning entities have a legal arrangement with the country of residence of the clone manufacturer? (China signed the Hague Service Convention, along with many other countries).
• Do Gateway wish to retain a certain level of anonymity? Public records go hand in hand with lawsuits, and drawing attention to yourself is probably not a good idea.
• Do Gateway want to throw (plenty of) money at lawyers and courts tracking down the clone companies before even getting them in a court room?

These are just a few of the things Gateway would need to consider before taking action. Even if they had a case, the third one is an important conundrum because damages are awarded based on losses and those damages would need to be significant in order to actually "win".

 

[RachelB]

The clones are based in China, so the answer is automatically no. You'd have more luck burning your money than trying to sue someone in China for copyright infringement.

 

[minexew]

You are just kidding, but someone in Czech Republic really did that.

Got any source on that?

 

[Rinth]

I remember an old English case, where a bandit sued his partner in crime for not giving him his share of spoils robbed from travelers. The court loled him in the face, and thus the "Clean Hands Doctrine" was born.

 

[migles]

I have emailed the idea to Gateway team and asked them if they would like to sue the clone. I also attached in the email a list of world's best lawyers that specialize in this.

i really hope this is a joke...

 

[Issac]

It's not likely a business who's foundation plays on Illegal activities would get the law involved.
That's like ratting yourself out.

Like A drug dealer calling the police, because somebody stole his drugs. Idiocracy at it's finest.

You are just kidding, but someone in Czech Republic really did that.

This is pretty unrelated and off-topic, but I think you'd like to know that here in Sweden: if a thief breaks in to your home and steals your TV or something, then he jumps out to the icy ground outside your window. If he slip and hurt himself, breaks his leg or something, then YOU have to pay HIM because it's YOUR fault that the thief hurt himself while robbing you. o__________O

EDIT: This actually happened to my dad. When a thief broke in to his wood store a long time ago, he got stuck with his jeans on some barbed wire. My dad had to pay for new pants for the thief, because he had to have some special permit for the barbed wire...

 

[Rinth]

i really hope this is a joke...

Nay, 'tis just ignorance and delusion. I support Gateway and all, but... well, I'm sure Gateway is sensible enough to have a good laugh about the email.

 

[pyromaniac123]

If Gateway came to court with their piracy device and said that their business is being ruined by people stealing their work, wouldn't they be punched in the face by the judge?

You'd probably need a new judge as well, since the old one would die from laughter.

 

[migles]

Nay, 'tis just ignorance and delusion. I support Gateway and all, but... well, I'm sure Gateway is sensible enough to have a good laugh about the email.

they are already getting a bunch of mails with angry people who dont want to wait until 2.0, or have 6.x on the 3ds....

it's things like this who make people stop bothering with emails... or giving support...

 

[dezmen]

they are already getting a bunch of mails with angry people who dont want to wait until 2.0, or have 6.x on the 3ds....

it's things like this who make people stop bothering with emails... or giving support...

They did huge mistake by pointing out in news about trying to add 6.X support. This make people spam/hate them, cuz you should make news about such things when you have it working.

 

[Dimensional]

I'm reading all these, and I have mixed feelings about it. It's not exactly something that can be done. I mean, if you could sue a guy for making a clone, then Microsoft would have folded years ago under Apple's Lawsuit back in the early 90s/late 80s. Then again, most of the laws regarding software has changed since then, and now you can be sued for using a single line of code that is found in something proprietary, and vice versa. Unless the clone makers can make enough modifications to their versions to make it distinguishable from the Gateway, in features mainly, then they are blatantly ripping off someone elses work, and theoretically could be sued.

As for legality, sadly the Gateway was only made to play roms, not homebrew. If it had Homebrew capabilities, then I could see it falling into the category of Homebrew device, which is perfectly legal. But because it's only function is related directly to piracy, it can't be considered all that legal, and as such couldn't sue without getting in trouble with Nintendo. After all, if you try to sue someone claiming you should be the only person who can legally sell illegal merchandise, then you're painting a big, glowing, neon red target on your back for the companies you are essentially pirating from. So again, they could sue the cloner makers, but not without the big possibility of getting a target painted on their backs for Nintendo to zero in on.

 

[3bbb7]

A company with the sole purpose to pirate 3DS games is going to sue someone who is going to pirate 3DS video games by making a clone of their game cart?
If they even tried, the judge would laugh.

 

[Deleted member 473940]

Lol

you know that guy that sells burned copies of DVDs in that shady part of town? Yeah if someone new came in and started doing the same thing but with cheaper disks, the original shop owner still has no right to sue him, neither of them are practicing legal habits.

that was a bloody good example

 

[bowser]

I have emailed the idea to Gateway team and asked them if they would like to sue the clone. I also attached in the email a list of world's best lawyers that specialize in this.

They will probably need funds for litigation, I could assume they already have 20-30k from Gateway profits and so another 20k they could ask in donations. 50,000 dollars is a pretty good start for this.

What the hell is the matter with you?!

 

[osm70]

Got any source on that?

TV Nova broadcasted that in "Televizní Noviny" (news channnel) last year.
(Minulý rok to bylo v televizních novinách na nově)

 

[WulfyStylez]

The only thing that Gateway did was build on an already public 3DS exploit. Keeping in mind that the flashcart only exists to serve up the contents of an SD card to the console and isn't in any way special, all they've got going for them is their hack.

To put it this way, if I were to develop and release a jailbreak for iOS and start selling it, would I be able to sue people who took my code and released it for free or cheaper? No. Not really.

 

[trumpet-205]

To sue someone, Gateway needs to have an enforceable patent. Can Gateway even get a patent? Nope. Not even a chance. Nintendo will sue Gateway before it ever happens.