London High Court rules against Playables Limited, outlawing the import, advertising or sale of device

A new ruling from the London high Court has officially illegalised the importing, advertising or sale of R4 cards in the UK.

The R4 is a accessory that allows users to play custom code and, more commonly, illegally pirated games, on the DS handheld.

Defendant Wai Dat Chan and Playables Limited argued that the R4 is legal as it allows the use of homebrew applications. The Court, however, ruled that the R4 must first must circumvent Nintendo’s security systems before it can work, therefore making it illegal.

“Nintendo promotes and fosters game development and creativity, and strongly supports the game developers who legitimately create new and innovative applications,” a statement read. “In the UK alone, there have been over 100,000 game copying devices seized since 2009.

“Nintendo initiates these actions not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of over 1,400 video game development companies that depend on legitimate sales of games for their survival.”

The decision follows a ruling in the Dutch courts earlier this month that saw 11 retailers convicted of acting unlawfully having imported and sold R4 devices. Nintendo adds that there have also been 20 successful prosecutions of people selling game copying devices in Germany.

However, the ruling does seem at odds with the US Government’s decision earlier this week to make mobile devices exempt from the Digital Millennium Copyright Act that forbids the bypassing of a company’s security measures.

Good job I have a cyclo as well as a R4 card. Funnily enough they are full of copies of games I own! So I am guilty of that awful crime of format shifting!!! They are si handy when you don't want to carry around 20+ cards when you can carry just the one.

There is the problem format shifting and backing up your own copies is now illegal. What about CD's and music? The iPod does the same as the R4.

Apart from you dont need a device to circumvent security whereas the DS/R4 does. I think thats how they got the ruling.

Yes but the computer does the same as the DS/R4 by ripping, and storing. If I had a Nintendo I would probably use a R4 but with legal copies of games that I bought, not downloaded. 20 different games on one cartridge is a very good idea. Perfect for travelling. Nintendo should come up with a version of their own with all the DRM that stops problems.

And as pointed out by Veato, to use an R4 card you are circumventing technological measures that are in place (which you don't find with CDs etc), which is a crime.

I certainly dont dispute the usefulness of having a backup. I've ripped media I've owned before for portability reasons.

I'm not sure what to think about the whole R4 thing. On the one hand it would be useful having all your games on one cart. One the otherhand I can understand why they've been made illegal for reasons previously stated. More importantly though for every one user who has an R4 for 'geniune' reasons I'd wager there are 100 more using them purely to pirate games.