The Dawn of Games Piracy – Nintendo

January 28, 2011 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues 

Nintendo has done it. The 3DS is now the most sophisticated anti-piracy technology in their history, as David Yarnton declares to CVG.

Last week in Amsterdam an event about 3DS was held by Yarnton and James Honeywell – the UK marketing manager. Here they declared that thanks to the new and improved security system, backed-up by international laws, piracy is now in the past.

As a response for Ian Curran’s (THQ boss) comments on 3DS, Yarnton replied:
“It’s always like a red rag to a bull isn’t it? I almost don’t want to comment on that sort of thing,”

“We can’t divulge any technical details on that but needless to say this is probably one of our best pieces of equipment in that respect. There are a lot of things we’ve learnt over time to try and improve the security and protection – not only of our IP but of our third-party publishers’ IP as well.”

Honeywell seconded Yarnton’s comments by telling to CVG that the era of game piracy will not be viable anymore.
“People are aware that video games, music and movies make massive contributions to the economies of countries. They need to make sure they start protecting those things.”

Yarnton added:

“Recently there’s been some quite significant cases where there were some grey areas as far as IP protection goes. Recently there have been a couple of rulings with R4s where people have been found guilty and had quite significant sentences against them.”

The dynamic duo, in the same interview given to CVG, closed up by guaranteeing that 3DS is definitely worth the money.

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RIAA Lawyer Nominated for Solicitor General

January 28, 2011 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues 

Donald Verrilli Jr.

Donald Verrilli Jr. – former lawyer for Recording Industry Association of America – was nominated by president Barack Obama to serve as the nation’s solicitor general.

All that Donald needs now, before occupying the empty chair once resided by Elena Kagan – who was promoted to the Supreme Court -, is the confirmation of the Senate. His job would be to defend the government before the Supreme Court, and files friend-of-the court briefs in cases in which the government believes there is a significant legal issue. The office also determines which cases it will bring to the Supreme Court for review.

Verrilli’s fierce reputation consists in leading of the recording industry’s legal charge against music and the victory against the late movie-sharing website Grokster. Not long ago, he was also in charge of Viacom’s $1 billion copyright-infringement fight against YouTube. However, the case was dismissed last year, but Viacom is not giving up. Viacom believes that YouTube did not bother to police uploads made by their users, in order to avoid the sharing of copyright materials.

In 2008, Verrilli told a federal judge in Minnesota that uploading copyright materials on sharing networks is itself a copyright infringement and that no proof of someone downloading those files is required.

This argument was also used in the Jamie Thomas’s file-sharing case. The judge declared a mistrial of the first jury’s $220.000 civil judgment for sharing 24 songs on Kazaa. It took two more trials and a third jury for a verdict of almost $2 million to be rendered against Thomas. Justice is blind.

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New Milestone for Nintendo’s Wii: 30 Million Units Sold in the U.S.

August 12, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Movies, MP3, Digital Audio & Games 

The popularity of Wii is becoming monstrous. Nintendo’s game console has reached 30 million units sold in the U.S.

While Sony’s PS2 sold this amount of units in 60 months, Wii accomplished this performance in about 45 months which propels it as the fastest-selling video game console in history.

“More than any other video game system in history, Wii has expanded the world of video games to new audiences,” commented Cammie Dunaway, Nintendo of America’s executive vice president of sales and marketing. “This milestone is another reminder that people want fun games they can play with others – all at a value-minded price.”

Wii sales across the globe are estimated at around 72 million making the 41 million number for the Xbox 360 and the 36 million for the PS3 afde by comparison.

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Sad Day for UK Gamers: R4 Cards Declared Illegal

July 30, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Legal P2P News & Issues 

The British High Court has banned a popular copying device used by many gamers to play illegally copied games on the Nintendo DS

Now illegal to sell and market in the UK, the R4 cards, are storage devices that fit into the DS cartridge slot, circumvent security systems and allow people to play pirated games that had grabbed using file-sharing sites.

While the cards were advertised as ‘backup’ devices, Nintendo’s claims that they were mainly used in copyright infringement acts have been seen by the High Court as justified and the legal uses of the devices labeled as secondary and irrelevant.

Some months ago the game producer pointed to piracy as the main culprit for the loss in sales of the company saying that the increasing popularity (and low prices) of Iphone games is not at all accountable for the decline of Nintendo DS software purchases.

The precedent was created by a Dutch ruling according to which online retailers are legally liable for importing R4 cards as well as Wii modification chips.The popular devices favored by pirates everywhere were also banned in Japan last year.

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Piracy Leaves a $41.6 Billion Hole in Game Industry’s Pocket, Says Report

June 10, 2010 by · Comments Off
Filed under: Announcements & Events, Entertainment Industry, Legal P2P News & Issues 

New figures are set to confirm the great financial losses piracy causes game producers, the most affected countries in the world being, supposedly, the U.S. Japan and China.

Japan’s Computer Entertainment Suppliers Association (CESA) has made public a study revealing the rate of piracy on the Nintendo DS console and Sony PSP which, it claims, is accountable for revenue losses of about $41.6 billion USD for the last six years.

The reports cover a period between June 2004 and late 2009 and are based on tracking the downloads involving the top 20 software titles in Japan from 114 websites that facilitate illegal file sharing.

According to the report says P2P networks such as Gnutella were left aside in the research, which means the damage in number $41.6 billion could exceed $41.6 billion.

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