Nintendo secures RCM loader ban in the U.S.

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For anyone living in the United States, buying a RCM Loader just got much more difficult.

As you may have heard, Nintendo filed a lawsuit in November 2020 against Vietnamese resident Le Hoang Minh, who manufactured RCM Loaders and sold them on Amazon under the name "Winmart". This came after a DMCA takedown request from Nintendo, resulting in Amazon taking down his listings. Le disputed the request, allowing him to resume selling the devices. Nintendo called this an abuse of the DMCA's counternotification system, since Le lives in Vietnam, where any consequences for wrongly disputing DMCA takedowns are unenforceable. Due to this, Nintendo sought an injunction by a U.S. court. After the lawsuit was filed, Le did not respond to it, nor did Le enter discussions with Nintendo. This led Nintendo to seek a default judgment.

According to Nintendo, here is why the product is illegal:
Once this circumvention has occurred, the unauthorized CFW modifies the authorized Nintendo Switch operating system, thereby allowing users to obtain and play virtually any pirated game made for the Nintendo Switch. All of this happens without authorization or compensation to Nintendo or to any authorized game publishers
On April 15, 2021, the U.S. court to which Nintendo brought the case has ruled in favor of Nintendo's request for a default judgment. Any online store selling RCM Loaders is now prohibited from shipping them to the U.S.

Nintendo is seeking a total of $2,500 in damages (down from their original request for $2,500 per violation) in an effort to not drag the litigation out much longer:
This request for a $2,500 award is intended to be very conservative and does not reflect anything close to the full amount of damages Nintendo could reasonably seek from Defendant,” the company writes.

Nintendo could…credibly seek a separate award for every device Defendant sold — almost certainly many devices, given that Defendant’s RCM Loader device was available online for many months. However, rather than attempt to quantify Defendant’s total sales, Nintendo seeks to facilitate an efficient resolution of this case through entry of judgment awarding damages for a single § 1201 violation.
The injunction also applies to "any and all products, services, devices, components or parts thereof” that circumvent Nintendo's security measures. Does this mean that Le Hoang Minh (and anyone working with him) can't even sell paperclips?

:arrow: Source (courtesy of TorrentFreak)
 

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PoiRan

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I guess I'll put one of these on my list of things to buy, I just WISH I could find a reseller. Or use Rekado, never heard of it until Nintendo banned this rcm loader.

Seriosuly though, is there a chance of a Streisand effect here? A lot of people I know don't even know you could hack a switch, and how easy it is if you have the right version. After reading in big media about Team Xecuter some friends have asked me about how they could hack their switch.

I can understand Nintendo doing this though, xecuter ban, but most easily hackable consoles are old and hacked already (or wont be in years) and the only real way to stop piracy is probably online validation, requiring internet to play.
 
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I_AM_L_FORCE

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Nintendo: Does something extremely obvious that any company would do to protect their products from piracy
GBAtemp: WAAAH WAAAAH NINTENDO BAD WAAAH WAAAH I'M THE VICTIM WAAAAH WAAAH
Understandable for SX which was quite literally advertised as a piracy solution, however RCM loader in & of itself only boots payloads, like Hekate or Linux... What you going to ban PCs and smartphones too?
 
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still doesn't make any sense.
while the purpose of the device is obvious, as it's sold, without payloads, it does not do what nintendo claims on it's own, it's just a board with some buttons and a usb c connector.

any smartphone can also be an injector and they couldn't ban sales of those on these grounds.

Wait yours came without payloads ? Odd.

It's like this thread is full of children...

It's illegal, we all know why, stop playing dumb.
Technically speaking, /now/ it indeed. Is.

TBH, this is just like back in the days, when Ninty banned the R4.
I wouldn't be surprised if they do it to "appease" their investors...
>There, we DID something, happy now ?<

Only 15.000.000 Switches are hackable eitherhow, so piracy is kinda backed in a corner for now.

(That might be the first time ever that Nintendo actually... won)

I am very super pissed off. I wish TRamp is still president!!!! I would tell tramp to repeal this copyright crap and DMCA crap
I hoped to have to never hear that name ever again.
Mood.
 
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Dust2dust

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the irony here is that Nintendo's actions brought awareness to this product. I had no idea this existed, because I haven't been following the switch scene, so thank you, Nintendo!
Same exact story when I first heard about the R4 cart for the DS. I had absolutely no idea it existed, then I read about Nintendo trying to ban R4s. A quick google search and I ordered an R4 cart the same day. :rofl: But to be fair, the R4 was much more copyright infringing than the RCM loader is.
 

godreborn

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Same exact story when I first heard about the R4 cart for the DS. I had absolutely no idea it existed, then I read about Nintendo trying to ban R4s. A quick google search and I ordered an R4 cart the same day. :rofl: But to be fair, the R4 was much more copyright infringing than the RCM loader is.

looks like I'm in the clear, because my rcm loader has shipped. it arrived at the sorting facility at about 9 p.m. last night, so it looks like I'll get it before it becomes difficult to find. funny thing is that it was so easy to find one. I think with shipping and tax it was around $18. I don't know if that's a good price though as I just looked for the first one I could find.
 

Dust2dust

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looks like I'm in the clear, because my rcm loader has shipped. it arrived at the sorting facility at about 9 p.m. last night, so it looks like I'll get it before it becomes difficult to find. funny thing is that it was so easy to find one. I think with shipping and tax it was around $18. I don't know if that's a good price though as I just looked for the first one I could find.
I have three of these, which I ordered a couple years ago. They're nice. The only negative is that the battery depletes whether you use them or not, so they must be charged often. Maybe an ON/OFF switch would have been a good idea, like on the NS-Atmosphere dongle.
 

BitMasterPlus

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Wait yours came without payloads ? Odd.


Technically speaking, /now/ it indeed. Is.

TBH, this is just like back in the days, when Ninty banned the R4.
I wouldn't be surprised if they do it to "appease" their investors...
>There, we DID something, happy now ?<

Only 15.000.000 Switches are hackable eitherhow, so piracy is kinda backed in a corner for now.

(That might be the first time ever that Nintendo actually... won)


I hoped to have to never hear that name ever again.
Mood.
Trump 4 lyfe.
 

Jokey_Carrot

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Nintendo: Does something extremely obvious that any company would do to protect their products from piracy
GBAtemp: WAAAH WAAAAH NINTENDO BAD WAAAH WAAAH I'M THE VICTIM WAAAAH WAAAH
People should have the right to run their own software on a device they own. Having a hacked switch allows you to use xbox/ps4 controllers, overclock the switch, use it to stream games, use it as a media player or install linux or android. I can somewhat understand them banning r4 cards as they didn't have much utility besides playing "backups". Besides maybe people wouldn't pirate games if they stopped selling old games slightly upscaled for $60.
 
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