Nintendo screws NDS homebrew in Australia, and brags about it
Most major companies when they win a court case against a small business, don’t announce it to every press organization that they have ripped the defendants to shreds. It just feels in bad taste when they do it, yet… Nintendo of Australia has decided to alert every contact they could (yes, somehow even us at the Hardline got the email), that they have won a court case against a small online store selling R4s.
The full press release follows.
Nintendo confirms it has successfully taken action against an Australian company in relation to game copying devices, commonly referred to as R4 cards. In September 2009 Nintendo filed proceedings in the Federal Court of Australia against RSJ. IT Solutions Pty Ltd which trades as “GadgetGear” – an online seller of gadgets, including gaming consoles and accessories- and the individual directors of the company, Patrick Li and James Li.
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. 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 the directors will also pay Nintendo a total of A$620,000.00 by way of damages. GadgetGear will also be delivering to Nintendo all its stock of game copiers for destruction.
Nintendo guards its intellectual property rights in order to protect the interests of its valued consumers, its own interests, and others in the games industry including independent content creation organisations, developers and publishing studios and all distributors of Nintendo products. Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise the gaming industry by using all means available to it under the law. In particular, Nintendo is currently contemplating bringing further actions against other sellers of game copying devices in Australia.
Since 2008, Nintendo has pursued over 800 actions (including customs seizures, law-enforcement actions and civil proceedings) in 16 countries, confiscating well over a half million Nintendo DS game copiers. Piracy not only affects sales, it affects the price of video games and employment in the video game industry. Fewer sales of Nintendo’s hardware and software systems means fewer resources that Nintendo, its licensees, developers and publishers have to create and market new video game products which is ultimately to the detriment of video game enthusiasts. When there is a decrease in game development, there is also a decrease in the number of jobs in the industry.
The existence of piracy jeopardises the strength of the video game industry overall.
I certainly feel sorry for the Li family, having to pay off $620,000.00 isn’t going to be an easy task. I guess this is the end of homebrew NDS’s in Australia?
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