Hacking Would buying a flash cart be an illegal offense?

[iwakura]

people are saying it is completely legal to own and play homebrew/non-roms, but in a recent news article talking about the stores that were raided for modchips in the states, it said that these modchips were "illegal and smuggled"

I'm not really concerned, but i thought i'd point that out.

(sorry, cant find a link to the article)

 

[shinji257]

Any item can be considered illegal if it is used for illegal purposes. Mod-chips may be illegal however because they can be used to circumvent protection schemes built into the console even if they are only used to allow for homebrew software to run on the console. Most mod-chips though are flashed initially with firmware that only allows for the loading of homebrew and leaves the protection intact without circumvention and therefore does not allow for the individual to play copied games right away.

I should mention that the flashcarts for the Nintendo DS and Game Boy Advance do not circumvent any copy protection scheme and therefore are not illegal in themselves. The Nintendo DS has no known copy protection in it or at least no region protection (the unit is region-free) which is typically the main layer of any copy protection on a hand-held or console unit.

 

[Veho]

Flashcards, like mp3 players, are in a gray area (flashcards are in the dark grey area, while mp3 players are in the light grey part). Both can be used to play/listent to your own, legally owned content, but let's face it, both are there for the downloaded bootleg goodness

Slightly off-topic, but related to this thread:
In a stroke of chain-yanking genius, a local, Croatian version of MPAA/RIAA, called ZAMP, has devised a "memory storage tax", a fee on every piece of memory storage, be it memory cards, CDs, DVDs, flash memory, hard disk drives, but also PDAs, mobile phones, you name it.

Their reason: "60% of memory storage devices are used to store illegally downloaded content, and constitute a copyright infringement".

Well, since they are preemptively fining me for copyright infringement (the notion of being "innocent until proven guilty" be damned), this automatically means I can infringe any copyright I want, because they can't fine me for it twice. Double jeopardy and so on.

So, until Nintendo and ZAMP sort it out between themselves, I can semi-legally download any ROM or ISO I want

Back on topic. There is an End User License Agreement that you agree to automatically by buying a Nintendo console or game. By accepting it you agree that any form of modchip, firmware flashing, or any fiddling with the console is against the terms of use, and that Nintendo may take action against you. With games, the EULA includes a sentence saying, "this game is not sold to you, but leased", meaning, no, it's not your property, it's still theirs, but you may use it and play with it... for now. But you can't copy it, make backups, or anything of the sort, because it's not yours. And this is something you agree with automatically by opening the box it came in. They have you coming and going.


Doesn't apply to me, of course

The conclusion to this rant... Flashcards are perfectly legal, if you only use them to run homebrew. But let's face it. We don't

 

[shinji257]

Back on topic. There is an End User License Agreement that you agree to automatically by buying a Nintendo console or game. By accepting it you agree that any form of modchip, firmware flashing, or any fiddling with the console is against the terms of use, and that Nintendo may take action against you. With games, the EULA includes a sentence saying, "this game is not sold to you, but leased", meaning, no, it's not your property, it's still theirs, but you may use it and play with it... for now. But you can't copy it, make backups, or anything of the sort, because it's not yours. And this is something you agree with automatically by opening the box it came in. They have you coming and going.

Right but the individual does not have a chance to review said EULA until they open the package at which point it is too late to return the product for a refund if you don't like those conditions. Therefore those terms are non-enforcable in a court of law.

 

[O.G]

Flashcards, like mp3 players, are in a gray area (flashcards are in the dark grey area, while mp3 players are in the light grey part). Both can be used to play/listent to your own, legally owned content, but let's face it, both are there for the downloaded bootleg goodness Â

Â

Slightly off-topic, but related to this thread:
In a stroke of chain-yanking genius, a local, Croatian version of MPAA/RIAA, called ZAMP, has devised a "memory storage tax", a fee on every piece of memory storage, be it memory cards, CDs, DVDs, flash memory, hard disk drives, but also PDAs, mobile phones, you name it.

Their reason: "60% of memory storage devices are used to store illegally downloaded content, and constitute a copyright infringement".Â

Â

Well, since they are preemptively fining me for copyright infringement (the notion of being "innocent until proven guilty" be damned), this automatically means I can infringe any copyright I want, because they can't fine me for it twice. Double jeopardy and so on.

So, until Nintendo and ZAMP sort it out between themselves, I can semi-legally download any ROM or ISO I want Â

Â


Back on topic. There is an End User License Agreement that you agree to automatically by buying a Nintendo console or game. By accepting it you agree that any form of modchip, firmware flashing, or any fiddling with the console is against the terms of use, and that Nintendo may take action against you. With games, the EULA includes a sentence saying, "this game is not sold to you, but leased", meaning, no, it's not your property, it's still theirs, but you may use it and play with it... for now. But you can't copy it, make backups, or anything of the sort, because it's not yours. And this is something you agree with automatically by opening the box it came in. They have you coming and going.


Doesn't apply to me, of courseÂ

The conclusion to this rant... Flashcards are perfectly legal, if you only use them to run homebrew. But let's face it. We don't Â

The Bernes Convention makes the laws of one copyright permissible to any signatories(country). Sorry Buddy, Your way of "circumventing" is plain piracy. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Berne_Convent..._Artistic_Works

 

[grifter]

nope, unless you live in the mushroom kingdom.


Doubt anything is illegal in the mushroom kingdom since their always high off shrooms.

yup. it's one wacky place to be.