Nintendo DS ‘game copier’ chips fall foul of copyright law

The High Court in London has held that devices allowing users to run pirated games on Nintendo DS consoles are illegal in Britain. The storage devices, which slot into a Nintendo DS like a game card, contain either a built-in memory, or a slot for a micro-SD flash card. Using circuitry, software and data, the devices are able to circumvent the copy-right protection measures installed onto Nintendo consoles.

Games which have been illegally downloaded from the internet may then be stored on the memory card and played on the DS.

Finding against the defendants, Playable Ltd - a company which imports and sells the devices - and its sole director and share holder, Mr Wai Dat Chan, the Court held that they were guilty of circumventing copyright protection technology under s.296ZD of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act. The Court was unwilling to accept the defence that the devices can also be used for lawful activities, such as playing home-made games. Even if this were the primary use, in order to enable such games to be played on the console, the device would still have to circumvent the effective technological measures (ETM) used by Nintendo.

The Judgment highlighted that HMRC and Trading Standards had seized over 165,000 game copiers intended for use by Playable Ltd. With devices available for as little as £10, and since each device is capable of storing multiple games (which would otherwise retail individually for as much as £20-£30 on release), the Court noted the “substantial” economic effect that the trading of these devices would have on Nintendo.



Sources:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/technology/gamesblog/2010/jul/28/games-controversy
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-10790835
Nintendo Co Ltd v Playables Ltd [2010] EWHC 1932 (Ch)