Nintendo wins Australia payout over game-copying device

[Phillyman]

Nintendo is getting damn serious on people these days

[Nintendo wins Australia payout over game-copying device] Nintendo wins Australia payout over game-copying device

SYDNEY (AFP) - – Gaming giant Nintendo said Friday it had won 556,500 US dollars' compensation from an Australian firm for selling illegal game-copying devices.

Nintendo said it won a Federal Court case against online console and accessory seller GadgetGear over the gadgets, known as R4 cards, which pirate games for its handheld DS system.

"GadgetGear and its directors have now acknowledged that game copying devices infringe both Nintendo's copyright and Nintendo's trademarks and that they are illegal circumvention devices," the Japanese company said.

"As a result, GadgetGear and the directors have agreed to permanently refrain from importing, offering for sale and/or selling game copier devices."

GadgetGear and directors Patrick and James Li were ordered to pay Nintendo 620,000 Australian dollars (556,500 US dollars) in damages and hand over all its stock of copiers for destruction.

Nintendo said it was mulling further action against other Australian sellers of pirating gadgets, and would use "all means available to it under the law".

This month, an Australian man agreed to pay Nintendo 1.3 million US dollars in an out-of-court settlement after illegally uploading New Super Mario Bros. to the Internet six days before its global release.

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/afp/20100220/tbs-technology-australia-piracy-games-ni-fc10a48.html

[Data]

Good for Nintendo and good for all game companies. Emulation has crossed the line into damaging the game industry in these particular cases.

[KiwiArcader]

Well ... this is actually setting a very bad precedent indeed.

It's a little bit like taking Colt to court because someone used their .45 Hi-Power pistol to shoot someone. Hang on a minute, why not sue a fishing tackle manufacturer because someone caught an undersized fish while we're at it.

I would have thought that at the end of the day it is the person actually commiting the crime that should pay. A recent court case in Australia said just that ...that an ISP was not responsible for the actions of its users in regards to piracy. Now we have exactly the opposite in this case ... and it should set alarm bells ringing due to the double standards being applied in the court system over there.

While I feel for companies like Nintendo and appreciate they need to try and protect their IP I have to say that they are going after the wrong targets here. I guess they look at it like" If we stop the devices getting to market it'll stop piracy". Wrong ... those people wanting to obtain such devices will always find a way. But while this particular attack may have been much more succesful 10 years ago the internet has made a resolution as simple as "click here to buy" followed by a few day wait for the package to arrive.

[Phillyman]

Well ... this is actually setting a very bad precedent indeed.

It's a little bit like taking Colt to court because someone used their .45 Hi-Power pistol to shoot someone. Hang on a minute, why not sue a fishing tackle manufacturer because someone caught an undersized fish while we're at it.

I would have thought that at the end of the day it is the person actually commiting the crime that should pay. A recent court case in Australia said just that ...that an ISP was not responsible for the actions of its users in regards to piracy. Now we have exactly the opposite in this case ... and it should set alarm bells ringing due to the double standards being applied in the court system over there.

While I feel for companies like Nintendo and appreciate they need to try and protect their IP I have to say that they are going after the wrong targets here. I guess they look at it like" If we stop the devices getting to market it'll stop piracy". Wrong ... those people wanting to obtain such devices will always find a way. But while this particular attack may have been much more succesful 10 years ago the internet has made a resolution as simple as "click here to buy" followed by a few day wait for the package to arrive.

Your analogies are off.....its better to use the following....

Take Lite-on to court because their CD burners can copy Music CDs

Take Apple to court, because their IPOD's accept MP3's (they tried this with Rio back in the day)

[KiwiArcader]

Your analogies are off.....its better to use the following....

Take Lite-on to court because their CD burners can copy Music CDs

Take Apple to court, because their IPOD's accept MP3's (they tried this with Rio back in the day)

Sure but I was just trying to highlight the stupidity of this type of lawsuit using something other than piracy given people have tried those too ... and lost ...

This sort of thing is a highly emotive issue for some people. Often you find someone taking the moral high road on an issue like this yet they will happily download a copy of Nintendo Power. Both are a crime but it all comes down to personal perspectives. Even the Mega Corporations are not clean ... Sony's recent fubar where they caught were using pirated software is an example.

Jake's comment that emulation is damaging the industry is wrong. Without emulation you wouldn't be playing your PSX games on your PS2 or PS3. Or playing Mario 64 on your Wii. Emulation is just an engine for the use of non-native content on a different device. Pirating of the content itself is where the damage is occuring.

[Data]

I think of a it as a drug deal. You can put all the cops on the street to sniff out dope and catch a few smoking it on the street while other more serious crimes are being committed or you can find the gang who imports or grows truckloads of it at a time. These gangs make themselves rich by making everyone else poorer. At least moreso for the hard drugs.

This is similar to how game copying is and Nintendo as well as others are trying to catch the biggest pirates. It's not always that easy to catch individuals on the internet but it isn't impossible. With the help of the courts, the law can track down the distributors of these illegal back ups even on torrents.

These illegal memory sticks were designed to plug in to the Gameboy. This alone is a copyright infringement. This is the reason we have patents. This company is making money selling products that allow an individual to play any game he chooses from behind the glass looking plate without paying a red cent for the games.

So my comment is not wrong. I should have said game pirating is ruining the game industry. The game industry is not you and I. We are consumers of the game industry or maybe stakeholdes. The game industry is Nintendo, Sony, Microsoft and all the game developers. This game copying device steals cash out of the pockets of Nintendo and all it's developers.

[Mister Zero]

I think entertainment industry altogether has gone too far.

If you're out there making sub-par games, NO ONES GOING TO BUY THEM. Just like music albums- if you have one or two good songs and the rest are filler, don't expect to sell much, no matter how hard you want to push the stuff on people with advertising. They shouldn't really be taking it out on fans and technology companies.

I agree that piracy is bad, mmkay, but in today's overpriced world you have to look out for what you buy. We've all been duped into paying too much for a piece of crap that the entertainment industry has pushed upon us. I know that a lot of people are afraid of wasting $35 on a game that's not that great- either it's too short, not the type of game they thought it was, the game was just bad, etc.. Sure, there are demo stations around sometimes, but they're not always up-to-date with the latest games stocked for you to play. Some people want to actually try the game before they buy it.

I actually have an M3 Real DS, but I mainly use it for emulating NES games I already own copies of- something Nintendo isn't doing(not sure why they don't- I play through most NES games on the go now that I can). Sure, I have a few Classic NES series GBA games I can play through the GBA port, but those are only a couple first-party games. I could easily download games for the DS if I wanted to, but it's not like it CAME with the M3. It's up to the person if they seek that stuff out, not the company.

I'm going to end my rant here because I really don't want to cross any lines about piracy. I suppose it's easier to go after the companies creating the backup devices than to personally find the people downloading ROM files, but I think if more games were higher quality, people probably wouldn't mind buying them as much.

[Data]

I just want to add that stealing is stealing and trying to justify the quality of the product as an excuse to download the copy of it for free is stealing. I wouldn't be happy if I released some programming or did some services in which I got paid nothing for. I would be left with two choices. One would be to find a different profession and the other would be to fight with fire and that is a lawyer in court.

Many of us would be found guilty of downloading something that we didn't pay for and it will likely always be this way but be prepared to suffer the consequences if you're the one caught providing it.

[KiwiArcader]

And that's the way it should be ... do the crime ... do the time. Or whatever.

A satellite descrambler has no purpose other than viewing protected content and the DMCA covers that adequately as witnessed by successful litigation against the manufacturers of those devices.

A device created to allow Homebrew software to be created on a console etc in and of itself isn't the issue. You could argue that it encourages people to create software for a device without paying the exorbitant costs the companies often charge for the privilege of writing content for their device. You could also make a case ... and it was done successfully in Australia a while ago ... that a modchip allows someone to buy legal software while on holiday and be able to use it on a device regardless of region. That's one reason why DVD players come region free out of the box in Australia and New Zealand nowadays.

Unfortunately, the side effect of protecting what should be basic consumer rights has also opened the devices up to using pirated content. At the end of the day it becomes personal choice on whether you walk that path or not.

And yeah ... a person who decries someone from downloading a ROM as being a pirate yet is happy enough grabbing a scanned magazine from this site is no better than the person he attacks. He's worse in fact .... he's a hypocrite.

[Thor]

You know I think this is a good thing. The G4 device is sold for "homebrew" but how many people actually use it for that? No taking them down wont stop piracy but it's better than sitting idle and doing nothing.

[Data]

A satellite descrambler has no purpose other than viewing protected content and the DMCA covers that adequately as witnessed by successful litigation against the manufacturers of those devices.

And I could always defend that by saying, Direct Television is beaming a singnal into this f***** trailer park without my permission, not me, so i got these little things that pick up the signal from space, how the f*** is that stealing? What, do you own space? No, Nasa does.

A device created to allow Homebrew software to be created on a console etc in and of itself isn't the issue. You could argue that it encourages people to create software for a device without paying the exorbitant costs the companies often charge for the privilege of writing content for their device. You could also make a case ... and it was done successfully in Australia a while ago ... that a modchip allows someone to buy legal software while on holiday and be able to use it on a device regardless of region. That's one reason why DVD players come region free out of the box in Australia and New Zealand nowadays.

Sure it sounds all good. Gameshark and Gamegenie had some troubles in the past with Nintendo for releasing a game you could call it that fit into the Nintendo the same way this R4 card fits in a DS. The court ended up allowing Galoob to continue selling the Game Genie on the market. But that was then and this is now. Unlike the Game Genie the R4 stores game roms which we all know have been obtained illegally from what I've seen. It's not even hard to find. You have to realize that these guys were making money hand over fist on these cards. They weren't cheap either. They never even offered Nintendo a piece of the pie.

I would bet that if the DS had a USB or Firewire port, we could use any external hard drive to store the roms and the software needed to achieve the same results. If the emulator team released their updates through the black market, Nintendo would have no address, phone number or names to track down.

Unfortunately, the side effect of protecting what should be basic consumer rights has also opened the devices up to using pirated content. At the end of the day it becomes personal choice on whether you walk that path or not.

Yes, and we all must protect our properties.

And yeah ... a person who decries someone from downloading a ROM as being a pirate yet is happy enough grabbing a scanned magazine from this site is no better than the person he attacks. He's worse in fact .... he's a hypocrite.

Nah. Not the same at all through my eyes. These old magazines were just wasting away under peoples beds and whatnot. Sure there's still publishing rights on just about everything printed but so far there is no more money to be made on them. Some magazines sell back issues as much as 5 years and as we know we only offer 10 years and more.

I don't think you can compare games that are still on the shelves or in what started this thread as the guy who released The New Super Mario Brothers 6 days before Nintendo released it, with downloading scans over 20 year old Nintendo Powers. More people would download new magazines than who wouldn't of course from the what I've seen going on but, this isn't what we do at Retromags.

Now let's play some SNES Roms!

[KiwiArcader]

SNES ROMS ... Alien 3 or Super Mario World ... yeehaaa!!!!

Hey ... don't get me wrong here. I ain't no saint by any stretch ....

But you either run with the principle that of theft of works is a crime or you don't. In this particular case you can't have it both ways ... all works are protected unless their copyright has expired when they then become public domain or have been allowed by the owner ... or you don't hold to that principle.

In a court of law the defense that the Nintendo Power Phillyman uploaded should be okay because it is over 10 years old will get shot down in the first few sentences, those being ....

"Does the magazine in question have a copyright disclaimer?"

"Yes it does"

"Are you the owner of said copyright?"

"Er ... well ... but it is really old and no-one is making money off it your honor"

"I'll repeat the question again for you in case you misheard me ... Are you the owner of said copyright?"

"No your honor"

"Court finds in favour of the publisher. How many zeroes do you want on the damages amount Mr Publisher?"

While this is an unlikely scenario for older works the simple reality is that whether you scan a 12 year old magazine or rip a Wii game both are a crime and the law doesn't look at them any differently. I heard the argument that the publisher had gone out of business so those mags must be fine to scan. What the person didn't take into account was that usually someone else buys the rights to their IP when they go out of business. Just because the original publisher has gone doesn't mean the new owner isn't at some point going to look to recoup on their investment in the IP that they purchased. It simply boils down to whether the copyright owner see's any benefit to pursuing a case vs the potential costs to do so.

If the owners of EGM or Nintendo Power were to come to Phillyman and say remove them or face a lawsuit who is backing Phillyman on this one? I don't think Phillyman would back our 10 year old age excuse to win in a court of law ... I sure wouldn't.

Off to play a game on MAME .... the greatest single piece of software ever written. Who wants to play console arcade games when you can play the real arcade versions