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Spanish Court Rules Cracking DS As Legal
As someone who was in college recently and still has many college-age friends, I can safely say that using special software to crack your DS and open it up to homebrew and pirated games is much more popular than the average gamer might realize. If a recent legal ruling from Spain is enough to reach this crowd, they have a whole new justification to point to.
GamePolitics reports that a Spanish judge has tossed out a cased filed by Nintendo against Movilquick Group, a manufacturer of cards that allow users to crack their DS and use them for functions other than approved retail retail games. The judge's reasoning for the decision was that the device could be used "extend [the DS'] utility" for both "legitimate and illegitimate purposes."
According to the judge, since the device can be used for things other than pirating, it's not criminal to distribute it just because it is sometimes used for pirating. Further, the judge said that the question of whether or not only Nintendo should be allowed to create and approve software and hardware additions to Nintendo's device is a question that must be answered by civil courts.
Of course, this single court ruling from Spain is hardly the end of this complex situation, but it does raise some interesting thoughts. Do you think products like this should be allowed to be sold even if they lead to piracy?
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