Common sense says no, but common sense and the law don't always intersect.
That depends on whether the law is limited to any specific product or the practice of piracy in general. As far as I remember, it all began with the R4 lawsuits, which resulted in a ban of this particular device. Not that it helped in any way. I'll assume you're asking because you want to "advertise, purchase and sell". I'd be cautious, if that's indeed the case. Especially if you live in the UK. If you simply want to purchase those devices, however, there is no reason to worry.
If UK does have a general flashcart ban, I'm not seeing any results. On the other hand, it would be pointless to ban any single brand, since there are countless DS and GBA flash devices, and it looks like the 3DS is next.
I don't know anything about British law, but I promise you that if it's illegal for DS flashcarts, GBA and 3DS are also included in that. Why? Because it would be stupid and silly to make a law so specific to one particular product. They would obviously include all products within the same broad category. Which means any cartridge the enables playing illegal reproductions would be against the law. Such a law could also cover PSP, PS Vita, and even devices that allow you to play backups on consoles, depending on the wording.
EDIT: What Mariko said is notable. I suppose it is possible that it just covers one device if its the result of a lawsuit on that product, but the lawmakers would have to be pretty stupid to think that a ban of one device would stop it altogether.
EDIT: What Mariko said is notable. I suppose it is possible that it just covers one device if its the result of a lawsuit on that product, but the lawmakers would have to be pretty stupid to think that a ban of one device would stop it altogether.
The ruling by London's High Court specifies R4 and R4-derrivative carts and those carts only. That being said, the ban could be expanded further almost instantaneously since a precedence was established by the prior case, but as it stands today, only DS flashcarts are covered by it.
Wouldn't that by default ban the Gateway and clones, since you need a DS cart to activate the system for the 3DS cart?
When you look at it that way, yes, I suppose it would. That being said, GBA flashcarts are in the clear and flashcarts for a myriad of other systems aren't even considered part of the equation since nobody other than Nintendo submitted any complaints...
...that is of course until someone does submit a complaint using the prior R4 case as part of their material at which point the court may automatically rule against the seller on the basis of that prior ruling.
Never taken a look at drug laws I assume.... wait "stupid and silly", carry on then.
Going on topic. I am never quite sure what status flash carts have (see what is on the books, what they bother to enforce and what they will pin on you just to make something stick). We occasionally see "hacking devices"/"hacking programs" type laws get proposed at various levels, however the line is blurry as you like in a lot of cases and said laws do not make it that far or basically become dead weight in the law books (Obscene Publications Act 1959 probably being a good example*) so we are back the matter of the previous sentence.
*R v Penguin Books Ltd. and Lady Chatterley's Lover being the terms you want to search for there, for the most part people generally assumed if that could be published then it is was basically anything goes and barring a few cases it was basically ignored. Though again "something that will stick" is a common theme in some of the cases it was used in.
https://ap.nintendo.com/_pdf/news/627078272.pdf
It states that the high courts in the UK ruled a judgment which determined "Game copiers" which are used with the Nintendo DS are considered unlawful. Now it does specifically mention the DS, but I would assume that the distribution of 'game copiers' for other Nintendo platforms that "circumvent Nintendo’s security systems before any non-infringing application can be played" would trigger a losing lawsuit.
The entire argument is really different though in different countries. A similar lawsuit was filed and won by Nintendo for the distribution of R4 cards in Australia, but there are still sites based in Australia that sell them without problems. And the basis for bans is apparently due to the security circumvention, but modchips are considered legal in Australia despite the fact that they basically circumvent system security to play backups and homebrew. The law is a weird beast sometimes.
It states that the high courts in the UK ruled a judgment which determined "Game copiers" which are used with the Nintendo DS are considered unlawful. Now it does specifically mention the DS, but I would assume that the distribution of 'game copiers' for other Nintendo platforms that "circumvent Nintendo’s security systems before any non-infringing application can be played" would trigger a losing lawsuit.
The entire argument is really different though in different countries. A similar lawsuit was filed and won by Nintendo for the distribution of R4 cards in Australia, but there are still sites based in Australia that sell them without problems. And the basis for bans is apparently due to the security circumvention, but modchips are considered legal in Australia despite the fact that they basically circumvent system security to play backups and homebrew. The law is a weird beast sometimes.
You will generally find most lawyers are less inclined to deal in absolutes than scientists; nobody tends to even know how many laws each country has, let alone how any relevant ones might get interpreted on the day, how other laws might overrule them (and in the UK that can mean a lot of EU stuff too which only magnifies the "how many laws" problem) and so on.
To that end I think I will stick with my first reply of "rulings of the UK would seem to indicate they are not cool, the enforcement of said laws seems to be minimal too" and maybe add on "and if you are prepared to fight it, and have the money to do it, you might be able to get quite far".
Which is silly, because flashcarts aren't "game copiers" in the first place, but that's the gov't for you.
Multi Game Hunter, Super Wildcard, etc, those were game copiers. They actually let you plug in a game and... COPY IT, unlike flashcarts which just play back games already copied elsewhere.
i did not know Nintendo had an anti piracy website. i wonder if sony or microsoft have one.
I may have to swap it out and use wifi or use a GBA slot but I can copy my own games using many DS oriented flash carts, several GBA carts came either with linkers that could read the game straight off or with cables that could boot the console and rip the game.
Lulz, you're tickling my ballzies.
Seriously though, it's not illegal... yet. It hasn't been banned but very well may be by means of using the DS flashcart case as one that established a legal precedence.
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