R4 Cards Outlawed In The UK

The London High Court has outlawed the importing, advertising or sale of the R4 device that lets users play illegally pirated software on DS.

The ruling was made against toy and gadget seller Playables Ltd and defendant Wai Dat Chan, who had argued that the R4 is legal because it enables the use of homebrew applications.

The court dismissed the defendant’s claims and ruled the device to be illegal because it has to circumvent Nintendo’s security systems before it can work, MCV reports.

“In the UK alone, there have been over 100,000 game copying devices seized since 2009,” Nintendo said in a statement. “Nintendo initiates these actions not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of over 1,400 video game development companies that depend on legitimate sales of games for their survival.”

Last week a Dutch court convicted 11 retailers of acting unlawfully by trading in DS R4 cards and Wii mod chips.