News: UK R4 Importer Faces a Year in Prison Page 1

UK R4 Importer Faces a Year in Prison

19.01.2010

UK R4 Importer Faces a Year in Prison on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

British chap Yun Can Meng will be facing a year in prison over importing a huge number of R4 homebrew DS cartridges.

The R4 and similar tools allow players to run community-created software, fan games and media applications on the handheld, however can also be used to illegally run pirated games on the DS.

Our crime unit is pleased with the outcome of this trial and pleased to see the Court of Appeal's copyright judgement is being robustly enforced. Intellectual property (IP) theft is an important issue for the country's videogames industry - as is protecting it.

ELSPA's Michael Ralinson

Meng imported 26,500 units with the intention of flogging them in the UK, and was recently busted by the The Entertainment and Leisure Software Association's Crime Unit and local police.

What do you think of the sentence, do you feel the law is being too strict or not strict enough?

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Wolvesgod 19.01.2010#1

Well hard to say. No, because it is stealing I can see them using it for other things that can be helpful but why steel games, pirate, it's a little stupid to steel games there's no need to buy the game right when it comes out.

( Edited 09.12.2012 04:40 by Guest )

When all is bad don't look for a easy way out. Because you wont know what to do once your out

Alc 19.01.2010#2

hahahahaha

oh man.

E-Dracon 19.01.2010#3

Title is misleading. The guy didn\'t pirate anything, nor did he break any laws as there is nothing illegal about selling an R4 (or even thousands). It\'s like saying you can\'t sell a DVD-R, or thousands of them. Because DVD-Rs can also be used for good and bad things. Seriously, WTF.

EDIT: Thanks for changing the title.

( Edited 19.01.2010 11:02 by edracon )

crackedthesky 19.01.2010#4

Agree with edracon. They aren't smart enough to catch the people pirating the games, so they're taking it out on a guy who hasn't technically broken the law. Seems unfair. It's like arresting people for making CD-Rs or programs like LimeWire. The product or program itself is entirely legal, as are many of the purposes they can serve. The fact that some will choose to do what is illegal with them should never be grounds to punish the provider.

Especially when it comes to non-pirating and homebrew. It's always been my stance that if some kid with a computer can do better than the first party, why stop them? Apple won't let me have a background image on my iPod, but why arrest the guys who developed Winterboard? It isn't their fault Apple FAILED. Same rules apply here; if Nintendo is going to build these systems that have mountains of untapped potential, why should they punish those who work, FOR FREE, to unlock said potential when Nintendo refuses to? These guys who do this stuff have it all ass backwards. Instead of jailing homebrewers and jailbreakers, they should be HIRING them.

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Guest 19.01.2010#5

Ah yes, a very reasonable reaction!

In other news: arms dealers on target to make record profits in 2010?

Darkflame 19.01.2010#6

The problem is a lot of these cards come with software deliberately for getting around the protection on Rom's.
Its hard to say "its for homebrew!" when they do that.

And frankly, as a homebrew-user a lot, it piss's me of a bit. Theres enough perfectly legal homebrew out their not to need to pirate stuff.

http://www.fanficmaker.com <-- Tells some truly terrible tales.
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Trepe 19.01.2010#7

I don't like pirating, BUT I wouldn't mind being able to put all my games on one cartridge. I have so many it's just too impractical to carry them around.

I may look into one of these R4 thingymajigs.

Squidboy 19.01.2010#8

When they seized his computer they also found more than 800 indecent images of boys as young as five being abused and tortured.

3DS Code 2578-3122-0744

Angus 19.01.2010#9

Squidboy said:
When they seized his computer they also found more than 800 indecent images of boys as young as five being abused and tortured.

Yeah, if you're serious about that, they we're probably planted to help the case. The man was just trying to make some money through perfectly legal means. If they want to arrest someone then go after the seeders for DS games torrents.

Why do the police even waste time on crime that's business money related when they never seem to care about crimes that affect society on ground level?

Martin_ 20.01.2010#10

Well, nobody needs 26,500 units of anything. One will suffice. Just get torrenting those ROMs! The Man wants you to believe this:

Go on - illegally download some DS games and whatnot. It's easy, and it's FREE! Despite what the man might tell you, there's pretty much fuck all the authorities can do about it.

Illegally downloading stuff is a lot like masturbation. The vast majority of people do it, they just don't like to own up to it. You ever get arrested for strangling Jean-Luc Picard? I didn't think so. Well maybe you did get arrested if you did it in a public place.

Protip: Cancel any torrent the second it finishes downloading to your computer. Sharing is for hippies. This also puts your paranoid brainwashed mind at ease by assuring yourself that you're less likely to be caught this way.

Squidboy 21.01.2010#11

Angus said:
Squidboy said:
When they seized his computer they also found more than 800 indecent images of boys as young as five being abused and tortured.

Yeah, if you're serious about that, they we're probably planted to help the case. The man was just trying to make some money through perfectly legal means. If they want to arrest someone then go after the seeders for DS games torrents.
Why do the police even waste time on crime that's business money related when they never seem to care about crimes that affect society on ground level?

The police didn't plant a thing, he admitted downloading child pornography and indecent images of children. He was given an additional year on his sentence and forced to sign the child protection register.

3DS Code 2578-3122-0744

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UK R4 Importer Faces a Year in Prison

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