R4 made illegal in UK

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.