AMSTERDAM - The court in The Hague has found eleven webshops guilty of stimulating illegal downloading of games from nintendo.
Nintendo sued the webshops because they were selling flashcards for the ds and modchips for the wii, which can be used to mod the console. The case has finally reached it's conclusion after 2 years.
Copies
With the flashcards and modchips, it was possible to copy unautorised copies of nintendo games and play them. The shops also sold moddedversions of the WII console, which can also be used for illegal game playing.
The court judged that: "the traded goods were exclusively used to circumvent the provisions that Nintendo had taken for her copyright combat."
The trade in flashcards and modchips is, according to the judge, illegal with law article 29a, because a number of security measures are bypassed. With that included, the judge has forbidden the trade of flashcards and modchips. He has also forbidden the trade of modded consoles and providing the service of modding a console.
Compensation
The webshops are ordered to destroy all their supplys within 14 days, and they are ordered to pay nintendo compensation for "all the financial damage that has been caused by selling the flashcards and modchips." The amount of compensation is still to be decided.
The defense of the webshops, that Nintendo is guilty of unfair competition, was rejected by the court. According to the judge, nintendo has proven that she allows third partys enough chances to develop applications and games for her consoles.
