Nintendo Loses Legal Battle Against Piraters

7th Dec, 09 | by Koru

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Nintendo has recently lost a major court case against the Divineo group in the main court of Paris.

Divineo is an online producer of flash cards that allow users to play Rom’s of Nintendo DS games. Nintendo originally took the group to court over DS flash cards, but the judge has ruled against Nintendo and suggested that they are purposely locking out developers from their consoles.

The ramifications of this are huge, as it indicates that flash cards are actually legal. Moreover, it could have bigger implications for developers and the like because 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.

This may be a globally relevant court case and seems likely to be relevant to the whole of Europe. Essentially, France has allowed a legal window for pirating on the Nintendo DS. According to their laws it is all fine because Nintendo has left them with little other choice.

Full court documents will be available soon.

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Dowe Keller

That's what it sounds like to me.

Torinir

I think the title and the contents of the article are too strongly skewed. Choose your wording more carefully.

Otherwise, I'd think that GameDibs was calling everyone thieves.

And that would be a very bad thing.

Koru

Hey now i just deliver the news i get from my outside sources. Not my opinion or my words in the slightest.

Torinir

Source? :o

Koru

A France gaming board i occasionally visit. Why so surprised?

Torinir

More surprised by the tone of the article, than the content.

Koru

As i said, I'm merely the messenger here. You'll have to take it up with the French, i suppose.

Torinir

There's a joke in there somewhere, crying to be released. :P

Koru

Then it is your duty to release said joke. ;)

Torinir

Google French military victories :P

And if you're Canadian, you'll understand this paraphrase. "Vive le DS libre!"

Koru

LMFAO. "Your search - french military victories - did not match any documents" I seem to recall a parody a long time ago that said something like "Did you mean: French Military Defeats?" hahaha.

Torinir

Hit the I Feel Lucky button. :P

Koru

AH! There it is. hahahah.

mscelia

Will this affect us in the U.S.?

Torinir

Perhaps not immediately, but in the future it might.

This is not a cut and dried anti-piracy loss, since there's also anti-competition issues regarding the flash card lockout. France considered the anti-competition issues more serious than the piracy issues in this case. It does not mean other countries will see the balance the same way.