Following on from yetserday's news that Nintendo's new handheld console, the 3DS is set to have more complicated anti-piracy measures then the original DS, comes more news in Nintendo's war on the existing scourge of piracy. The original DS has suffered at the hands of piracy since it was released, with a series of cards - such as the R4, M3 and the TTDS - being released, which allowed people to slot in a micro SD card, and play illegally-downloaded games. This means that people could have access to a pretty much limitless library of DS games - without having to pay for a single one.
The offending R4 card.
Needless to say, Nintendo were understandably not too chuffed about this - and a series of court cases and lawsuits later, they've finally managed to get Europe to impose a ban on R4 cards, not only making them illegal to sell or buy, but to own, as well. Europe is not the first to ban the cards - they've been banned in Japan for over a year now, from early 2009. Companies in Japan are looking into banning the other makes of cards - Europe will probably follow suit.
The cards were originally (claimed to be) made to play older Game Boy games and 'homebrew' games - games programmed by people for a hobby, rather than by companies for profit. Playables Ltd., the company responsible for the R4 cards, tried to convince the court of this, but were overruled, as the R4 card only works by bypassing Nintendo's strict security systems in place on the DS console - which, by UK and European law, makes the cards illegal.
