Updated It's a Bizarro-World indeed when Microsoft is held up by a judge in Europe as a paragon of openness, but that's apparently what happened in a law suit brought by Nintendo.

The games console and software maker has lost its case against Divineo Group in a Paris suit to block the sale of Nintendo DS Flash cartridges in France.

Maxconsole, a site run by Max Louran of Divineo, wrote the judge said Nintendo: "Should be more like Windows where ANYONE can develop any application if they wish to."

The ruling has been seized upon as a victory for those building homebrew games or who install non-Nintendo games on systems via the Flash carts, and were worried that Nintendo's lawyers would come after them. The carts allow non-Nintendo games to be run on systems like the popular DS. The carts do this because they bypass Nintendo's DRM.

Maxconsole wrote: "Nintendo is deemed to be 'illegally' protecting their system by locking users out. Therefore, developers should not actually require separate development kits and should just be able to develop applications as they wish on retail versions of Nintendo's consoles."

A Nintendo spokesperson told The Reg: "We are reviewing the judgment and it would be inappropriate to comment further at this stage.”

It would seem Europe is shaping up to be hostile territory for Nintendo on this topic. A court in Spain last month dismissed the company's case against Grupo Movilquick over alternative cartridges for Nintendo DS devices.

Techdirt and Publico.es reported that although the judge found the cartridges circumvented Nintendo's DRM and could be used for pirating games and playing games downloaded from the internet, they also extended the devices by adding functionality not offered by Nintendo.

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2009/12/04/nintendo_flash_carts_microsoft/

Comments on this? What could be the implications of a ruling like this, if it holds up?

lolwat

That's pretty funny.

I thought France was cracking down on piracy?

I personally love the verdict. I am a big fan of the homebrew scene.

No big deal. Homebrew is legal. Correct me if I'm wrong.

Some of the programs and games these people make is simply amazing.

DS homebrew also grants you a proper MP3 player instead of the wannabe crap the DSi grants.

My DS has been playing MP3's properly for years now.

it seems this judge is backing piracy by his ruling and i think he should get fired for ruling against nintendo with his decision. piracy is very wrong and bad for the industry and this judge is a complete idiot for not grasping this idea.

@euphoria: Most people use that for free games...

People will use it for piracy, this is true, but why block out all of the homebrew only creators/users?

Homebrew is a wonderful thing.

Homebrew gave me MP3s on my DS along with video.

Homebrew gave me DVD capabilities on my Wii.

Homebrew gave me the ability to have a FFVI channel on my Wii.

Homebrew gave me a way to play my PSP games while listening to music on my PSP.

Think I would get any of this without homebrew? Don't count on it.

That is just the tip of the iceberg too!

Roms are illegal, ISOs are illegal.

Emulators are legal. Homebrew apps are legal.


By granting Nintendo a victory in this case they not only get what they want in shutting out pirates but they also take away things that are in fact legal.

Soriku is right, this case is very complicated, but I honestly feel it was ruled correctly.

A ruling like this only benefits us as consumers, depending on what we use flash carts for anyways.

Yarr, matey.  Ye be doin' us proud.

None of that is pirating.

It is all 100% legal in fact. The programs are legal and the flash cart is legal.

Very similar to a mod chip. The chip is legal but the firmware later installed onto the chip may not.

Some mod chips in fact only come with firmware that allows only for homebrew use and does not enable the use of copied games.

In the PS2 era the Crystal Chip was one such chip.

Also, as for the PSP, homebrew scene supporters such as myself had internet radio on the PSP long before SONY implemented it in a firmware update.

Edit - In fact, my old PS2 is equipped with a Crystal Chip. My Crystal Chip had homebrew only firmware installed onto it.

When I sent my PS2 (with modchip and custom flip top case Phat model) for repairs SONY sent my PS2 back to me with the chip.