Nintendo teams up with customs to crack down on Wii modders

[wraggster]

via engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/02/nintendo-teams-up-with-customs-to-crack-down-on-wii-modders/)

Hide away that soldering iron, Nintendo is on to you crazy kids. The company has issued a press release "in support of" recent raids by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, which executed 32 search warrants in 16 states to weed out those responsible for the distribution of "illegal modification chips." Apparently this is the largest enforcement action taken against video game piracy, and Nintendo has been working hand in hand with the Department of Homeland Security to pull it off. Since April, Nintendo claims to have seized more than 91,000 counterfeit (er, "backup") Wii discs globally. Of course, the whole issue of whether mod chips, when used harmlessly to enable homebrew and backups, should be illegal in the first place is still a sticky issue (the DMCA seems to frown on the idea), but it looks like if you are indeed trading in the illicit stuff, Nintendo and the fuzz are hoping to track you down for a little chat.

[VampDude]

via engadget (http://www.engadget.com/2007/08/02/nintendo-teams-up-with-customs-to-crack-down-on-wii-modders/)

Hide away that soldering iron, Nintendo is on to you crazy kids. The company has issued a press release "in support of" recent raids by US Immigrations and Customs Enforcement agents, which executed 32 search warrants in 16 states to weed out those responsible for the distribution of "illegal modification chips." Apparently this is the largest enforcement action taken against video game piracy, and Nintendo has been working hand in hand with the Department of Homeland Security to pull it off. Since April, Nintendo claims to have seized more than 91,000 counterfeit (er, "backup") Wii discs globally. Of course, the whole issue of whether mod chips, when used harmlessly to enable homebrew and backups, should be illegal in the first place is still a sticky issue (the DMCA seems to frown on the idea), but it looks like if you are indeed trading in the illicit stuff, Nintendo and the fuzz are hoping to track you down for a little chat.

91,000 is not that many, not if you consider that if people actually wanted a game and they had a mod chip they could just download it. Nintendo should crack down on sites too, cause the internet is the main problem thesedays with VideoGame piracy!

[bmemike]

Nintendo shouldn't be attacking the people making mod chips. They should be going after those that are putting up torrents of games.

When I buy a car, they don't weld the hood shut. And if I wanted to swap out a new engine or put a supercharger in it, that's my right because it's my property. Even if I could then use that car as a getaway vehicle in a bank robbery, I should still be allowed to mod my car because modding, in-and-of-itself isn't a crime. Not all gun owners are criminals, even though guns are sometimes used to commit crimes.

Now, I know I'll void my manufacturer's warranty, but that should be my right.

The same thing applies to consoles. Just because you mod a console doesn't mean you're downloading illegal copies of games and breaking the law. It's your hardware now and you should be allowed to do with it as you please.

Go after the people distributing the illegal content - they're the ones explicitly breaking the law.

[BlueCrab]

Unfortunately though, the Wii modchips do nothing that can't be done without modding the systems, save for one thing: Booting illegal copies of games.

Therefore, they have no real LEGAL purpose, and I personally applaud Nintendo for this move. If they aren't gonna fight back against the people who enable piracy on their machine, who else will.

I don't want to see the same fate befall the Wii as did the Dreamcast. Starting off strong, but losing any place due to piracy...

[Cap'n 1time]

Unfortunately though, the Wii modchips do nothing that can't be done without modding the systems, save for one thing: Booting illegal copies of games.


That's what I was thinking. Sorry guys but nintendo is in the right in this situation.

[bmemike]

That's what I was thinking. Sorry guys but nintendo is in the right in this situation.
I strongly disagree.

You're still in your legal right to create your own backups of media you purchase. There's nothing that should prevent you from running disks from other regions either.

If you purchase these disks, then there's nothing that should prevent you from doing whatever you want with them - and modchips allow this.

Once again, just because a modchip _can_ be used for ill purposes, doesn't mean that all are and that they should be, in and of themselves, illegal.

The real target should be people distributing copyrighted material. Those are people that are actually breaking the law - not the people producing the modchips.

I think Nintendo is lazy and misguided to go after these people just because they're "easy targets" and Nintendo doesn't have to expend the amount of energy needed to investigate torrent distribution.

[wiggy fuzz]

hold on, there is some mod chips which wholey support the purpose of homebrew, and dissalowing the opportunity to create your own games for your own console is against my rights. maybe if these mod chips didn't go about touting it's ability to *cough* playillegallydownloadedgames *cough* then nintendo wouldn't come down so hard on them. go for the toerrent sites and all, i say, don't deny people the opportunity to modify their consoles if their sole purpose is to create/run homebrew

opps... i was on about the ds...

anyway, it's not only nintendo, microsoft are targetting modchip distributers for xbox and xbox 360's.

[Man]

Ha HA canadas so easy on this stuff, i havent heard of anything like "video game raids" but shouldnt our/your government officals be trying to focus on somthing more important, so what a multi-billion dollar corporation looses a couple million at the most, you dont see them giving back to the people, every system i have is modded, exept my xbox, because it sits in a corner and collects dust. And they cant tell me what i can/ cant do with my property. Btw, i dont sympathize with these big companies at all.