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Nintendo Wins Court Cases

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24th February 2010, 10:48am
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February has seen Nintendo win two court cases against piracy. The first case, against an individual who copied New Super Mario Bros. and uploaded the game online for others to download, resulted in the individual owing $1.5 million in damages to Nintendo. When it was uploaded, the company identified using computer forensics the user responsible, received a Federal Court search warrant, and seized property from the individual's home.

In the second suit, Nintendo took action against a seller of "R4 cards" used to copy games. The infringing website owes $620,000 and must deliver all its offending stock to the company for destruction. In its press release announcing the success, the company revealed that since 2008 it has undertaken over 800 actions in 16 countries and confiscated over half a million Nintendo DS game copiers.

In 2005, the High Court sided with consumers and stated it was legal for users to modify their consoles to play legal or pirated software imported from overseas. With no recourse against console modders, companies like Nintendo have been forced to chase those creating the initial pirated games, or producing or distributing illegal add-on hardware rather than the average consumer.

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by Nick Schaedel » Author's Blog

Reader Comments:
Master Chief
Posted by Master Chief 24/02/2010 12:21pm
How about they put out a campaign to all the retarded parents who come in to game stores asking where to buy the fucking R4 cards.
G-Train
Posted by G-Train 24/02/2010 11:29pm
How about they put out a campaign to all the retarded parents who come in to game stores asking where to buy the f**king R4 cards.


Rofl! That's gold.

I'm not sure why but I find it hard to get angry about piracy when IMO the publishers have only themselves to blame. I mean yes, it takes money out of the pocket of devs etc who work very hard and are very talented. But maybe if you didn't charge upward of $120 for a game and set landmarks like $500,000,000US in 5 days ..... ppl wouldn't rip you off.

People uploading burnt copies to the net is a bit much though. That's like the difference between a recreational drug user and a full on trafficer.
nshady
Posted by nshady 25/02/2010 9:35am
Music has proven it's not just price. It's convenience, delays in worldwide releases etc.
insanopointless
Posted by insanopointless 25/02/2010 6:16pm
charge upward of $120 for a game


Where are you paying that much for a game man? I know EB goes overboard sometimes but there's usually a pretty good alternative somewhere.

I agree with Shady, price isn't the only thing. I feel a lot of say, sub par or at least sub-block buster games are pirated simply because people want to play them, but wouldn't buy them otherwise. Still silly.
G-Train
Posted by G-Train 27/02/2010 2:18pm
The stores that sell games in my town include K-Mart & Target (both of which have a pitiful selection) Harvey Norman (which I will *not* shop at) and EB.

Not exactly a lot of competition.
400 Turtles
Posted by 400 Turtles 27/02/2010 3:12pm
I don't really buy many new games these days. Steam has spoiled me with its low prices, I guess.

There are a lot of games coming out that I want to play, though.
G-Train
Posted by G-Train 28/02/2010 10:12pm
ADSL2 Im guessin Batman?
insanopointless
Posted by insanopointless 28/02/2010 10:58pm
Got a few off Steam today, Napoleon Total War, the new stalker (showing its age alright) and prepurchased a couple of games. I'm on normal ADSL and I'm reppin 500kb/s+, Steam just works.
Master Chief
Posted by Master Chief 01/03/2010 5:53am
someone on xbox.com was saying GFWL has batman AA for $22 at rhe moment
400 Turtles
Posted by 400 Turtles 04/03/2010 1:47pm
There's a sale going on at Games on Demand, yeah. The AA sale ended on the first, though. A new one starts up tomorrow:
http://www.microsoft.com/games/en-US/games/pages/sales.aspx

ADSL2 Im guessin Batman?

Yes, but I'm pretty far from the exchange. I get about 500kB/s normally.