UK Man Gets Jailed for Importing R4 Cartridges

The Nintendo DS is easily one of the most pirated systems available today, thanks to the R4 cartridge and the industry it spawned with competing cards like the AceKard, M3 and CycloDS.

While these devices are often sold advertising their ability to run homebrew applications, the reality is that they’re largely used to play illegal roms of DS games. Their illegality has been highlighted in the UK this week, where a resident, Yun Can Meng, was sentenced to a year in prison after admitting to importing over 25 thousand of the devices for resale.

The Entertainment and Leisure Software Association’s (ELSPA) Crime Unit Boss had this to say :

Our crime unit is pleased with the outcome of this trial and pleased to see the Court of Appeal’s copyright judgement is being robustly enforced. Intellectual property (IP) theft is an important issue for the country’s videogames industry – as is protecting it.

While piracy in the videogame industry is a scourge that needs to be eradicated, I’m don’t really think a year’s worth of being bubba’s bitch for enabling a bit of free Mario is really a suitable punishment. Being subjected to struggle-cuddles is a bit harsh for selling a device that would PROBABLY be used for piracy. In truth, devices like the R4 make the DS come alive as a personal media player.

Source : Gamepolitics

Last Updated: January 19, 2010