AfterDawn: News

France rules Nintendo DS flash carts legal

According to Maxconsole, a French court has ruled against Nintendo this week in its case against the Divineo group, a seller of DS flash carts which allow for homebrew, and the playback of music, movies and pirated games.

The court said that Nintendo is "purposely locking out developers" and they should allow anyone to develop applications, especially those that increase the usability of the handheld like flash carts do.



Technically, the case says that flash carts are legal, at least in France and likely for the rest of the EU, and could also lead to Nintendo being forced to open the handheld up to more developers.

Written by: Andre Yoskowitz @ 5 Dec 2009 0:27

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• 6 comments

• KillerBug

  If it were not for the 3 strikes law, I might think France was being run by inteligent people.

  5.12.2009 01:10 #1

• navi1199

  the thing is, france is against piracy but not against an open market. The 3 strike law is to prevent pirates, and the only reason why the flash cart was accepted is because they can be used other than piracy which gives it a legitimate reason. I am sure if all the thing did was play pirated games, and thats the end of it, then... it would probably be outlawed.

  5.12.2009 06:38 #2

• ZippyDSM

  Originally posted by navi1199: the thing is, france is against piracy but not against an open market. The 3 strike law is to prevent pirates, and the only reason why the flash cart was accepted is because they can be used other than piracy which gives it a legitimate reason. I am sure if all the thing did was play pirated games, and thats the end of it, then... it would probably be outlawed.Or the politicians bent over for the media mafia but the courts have not turn to the dark side completely...yet....
  
  A free market needs free distribution and limited monopolies to work right.

  5.12.2009 08:40 #3

• GryphB

  Yay for the consumers!

  5.12.2009 11:57 #4

• KillerBug

  Originally posted by navi1199: the thing is, france is against piracy but not against an open market. The 3 strike law is to prevent pirates, and the only reason why the flash cart was accepted is because they can be used other than piracy which gives it a legitimate reason. I am sure if all the thing did was play pirated games, and thats the end of it, then... it would probably be outlawed.3-Strikes effectivly outlaws free wifi hotspots, a means of attracting and keeping customers at stores, coffee shops, etc... WiFi is also usefull to the users, who often use it for business uses. I would consider these to be legitimate use, and I would think that the tax revenues from these things would outweigh the tax revenues from the tiny sales increase they hope to get for a few days.

  6.12.2009 06:51 #5

• F4ntastic

  the EU just gave a big middle finger to the Big N.
  Hell yes!! open source 4ever

  7.12.2009 14:47 #6