# Nintendo files lawsuit against website “blatantly promoting and selling” R4 devices



## Ares (Nov 23, 2009)

*Nintendo files lawsuit against website “blatantly promoting and selling” R4 devices*

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit in the Southern District of Florida against the owner of the website HackYourConsole for “blatantly promoting and selling” unauthorized Nintendo games along with “devices and services that circumvent the security,” in DS and Wii.

According to a notice sent out by Nintendo, the owner of HackYourConsole has developed a “global business focused on selling unauthorized copies of Nintendo games and game-copying R4 devices.”

The website operator, for a fee, also provides services to hack and modify the Wii console and allow the play of illegal software.

“HackYourConsole also claims to be an authorized distributor for the yet-to–be-released 3DS Gateway cards,” Nintendo said in a statement. “The Gateway device is promoted as operating similar to the R4 game copier for the Nintendo DS, which facilitates the play of illegally downloaded games. 

“Game copying devices, such as the R4, severely undermine the sales of video games created by thousands of developers.”

Illegal copying of video game software is an international problem Nintendo has been vigorously fighting and the firm said it plans to continue taking “aggressive steps to prevent the proliferation of these devices on a global scale. “

Source: VG24/7


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## SinCron (Dec 20, 2010)

As they should. That's profiting from illegal activity.


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## PC509 (Nov 15, 2012)

While I'm sure these can have a legitimate purpose (homebrew - still not legal to circumvent the security), I am very confident that the majority of people buying these are using them for pirated games. It has to be 99% of people...


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## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

I think you have to be in the know as to how to circumvent the security and all to play pirated games. Plus, modify the original gaming device at some expense. I guess I don't know any folks who are willing to do the "pirate" option since they all buy the games and don't modify their consoles to play "pirated" games.

But, I am sure there are a lot of folks who do otherwise.. Always, someone trying to break the situation.. lol.


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## PC509 (Nov 15, 2012)

It's not really that difficult, and you don't need to be in the know for some systems (oddly, Nintendo is the easiest). Some of them, and I'll use the R4 as an example since it was mentioned in the article, is VERY easy to use. Just download files from a torrent, move them to a SD card, pop in the R4 and into the DS. Updating firmware is easy, these days too. So, you can keep it up to date. 

Wii is more difficult, but no hardware modifications are necessary. Obtaining the pirated software is easy, again torrents and burn to DVD-R. 

Xbox 360 requires a bit more knowledge, as did the original Xbox... Softmodding was an option, but still required some knowledge. 

That said, I do buy all my own games on all my systems. The only mods I've done to my systems have been all aesthetic. I just enjoy the modding scene (from game consoles to other devices like Android devices, networking equipment, PC's, and a lot more).


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## tripplej (Oct 23, 2011)

Well, I think it is in the companies best interest obviously to stamp out any attempts at modifying their products to ensure revenue growth is seen for the company. Afterall, if everybody modifies and plays pirated games only, the developers and other software companies will go out of business. 

It is in their self interest to stamp out piracy at all costs.


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## PC509 (Nov 15, 2012)

tripplej said:


> Well, I think it is in the companies best interest obviously to stamp out any attempts at modifying their products to ensure revenue growth is seen for the company. Afterall, if everybody modifies and plays pirated games only, the developers and other software companies will go out of business.
> 
> It is in their self interest to stamp out piracy at all costs.


It is. They do need to do something about it, for sure. There are a lot of talented developers and they need support. If they don't get the revenue from the product, they will stop making the product... 

I'm hoping they start going after those people on Craigslist that will 'mod your console for $50 cash'.


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