Nintendo has taken another positive step towards fighting the piracy of Switch games, with the UK High Court employing an injunction which will block access to offending websites.
Five of the UK's top internet service providers - BT, EE, Sky, Talktalk and Virgin Media - will be required to "block, or at least impede access" to four sites which help visitors pirate Switch games through specialised information or distribution, Eurogamer reports. Nintendo has claimed that the sites in question are infringing upon its trademarks.
The UK High Court has agreed with the claim, issuing the following statement to Eurogamer:
"Today, the UK High Court found the sale and distribution of 'circumvention' devices for the Nintendo Switch unlawful. Nintendo is pleased that the UK High Court has confirmed that dealing in devices or software that enable piracy on Nintendo Switch systems is unlawful.
"This decision will help protect the UK games industry and the more than 1800 developers worldwide that create games for the Nintendo Switch platform, and who rely on legitimate sales of games for their livelihood and to keep bringing quality content to gamers."
The sites reportedly targeted a UK audience, hence the UK-based injunction, and George Osborn of UK video games industry body UKIE also weighed in on the news, saying, "UKIE fully supports the ruling and wishes to reiterate the strong stance of the UK video games industry against illegitimate operators".
[source eurogamer.net]
Comments 61
Good. Scum is who they are
1 Down, Another numbers to go !
‘Targeting a UK audience’? Please tell me the entire website was in Cockney rhyming slang.
Thought this was about emulation, i was sharpening my pitchforks for a second there
@nessisonett That would've been fantastic actually.
@Optimusultimus I just put out all my torches. Close call!
These measures tend to not be very effective, as people wanting to access these sites can circumvent these blocks, or an entirely new site can be launched at any time.
You have to actually stop the site from operating to make a meaningful impact, which is not easy.
Seems like Nintedo Life visitors are very anti-piracy. 🤔
People that own the websites for illegal nintendo games should be put in prison and they should be forced to play playstation games. Oh the humanity!
@RupeeClock I guess the point is that if there is a law in place and you break it by circumventing it through a different website or something, the punishment will be worse.
@veesonic I always get a good laugh about that. I imagine they think they are standing up against some great evil, lol
@Mr_Muscle
By the power of everyone on earth, we save the world from minor inconveniences! Together we can complain about things already taken care of!
@Mr_Muscle
Fair point entirely, you already shouldn't be pirating the games, taking further actions to circumvent protections maybe only be getting yourself in deeper trouble.
If there already Switch sites in the open, it is a bonanza behind the curtains.
Wonder if the Switch LITE plugs this hole 🤔
@PBandSmelly LOL Thank you for that.
@RupeeClock Yep!
I wasn't even aware of the fact that the Switch was already a platform that has fallen victim to rampant piracy. Either way, I'm not even interested. The only console I ever soft-modded was my Wii, and that was several years after I bought it. I've mostly got my Wii games installed on there, and my entire GameCube collection, and other than that, all of my retro ROM collections, most of which I actually also own, and the ones that I don't are so old or are completely unavailable otherwise, so I couldn't care less about what someone else thinks about that.
I've never done anything regarding to ROMs for financial gain or anything, just for personal use, and sometimes for friends or family.
I can let this stuff slide in regards to retro consoles and games due to various reasons, but with current-gen systems where the games are still widely available in the vast majority of cases? Is it really that hard to buy a console and games secondhand if money is an issue?
Just because you technically CAN do something doesn't give you a license to do it...particularly if it's illegal to begin with.
Nintendo doesn't want another R4 situation on their hands, I guess. I mean, literally most people who modded their Wii, Wii U or used Flash Carts on DS did it to pirate games, not for emulation or other niche homebrew stuff.
If you want a homebrew portable, stick to Android device + telescopic controller or get something like a GPD Win or Smach Z.
@ThanosReXXX sounds like you are preparing a legal statement!
@ThanosReXXX Switch piracy started since July 2018. The Nvidia Tegra chip's exploit was leaked in March of that year.
This is the first time Nintendo use an off-the-shelf chip for their console, and like they said: "you get what you paid for".
If only Nintendo was equally as responsive to their supply chain sources. They could stand to take more action there as part of their routine to “vigorously defend” their company
I don't pirate but this is bad.
@Xylnox How is playing Playstation games a punishment? Unless its the bad games on the system, there's no real punishment in playing Playstation games.
I always wait with jailbreak a console until it's no longer current,as I do want to support the industry. But I also want to run gamecube games via hdmi on my wii u so... Yeah.
@Caryslan Was joking around. ;P
What war? It's at best a battle won, there's a world out there to get this stuff from and ISP blocks can be circumvented. Nintendo gonna have to work harder than that and even then they'll never be able to eliminate this stuff fully.
Also, they mention dealing, does this mean making software for hacking the Switch available for free is still good?
Cya
Raziel-chan
I often report fake games on eBay but I’ve no idea if they are illegal or not. Like Chinese reproductions 🤷♂️
They should really, really, REALLY stop publishing articles on this site regarding piracy. There's already been one member stating they had no idea that the Switch had been hacked, now they know. Other readers may not share that member's scruples and so now may well be searching for ways to hack their Switch. The less people know about this the better.
@quinnyboy58 Haha, yeah, I guess. Was actually more meant like something of a "allow me to explain myself" kinda statement.
@nintendolie I knew there was piracy on the Switch, but there's a difference between there being some instances of it, and it being so rampant (apparently), that a company decides to take legal action against it.
In the case of any of their other consoles and/or handhelds, it took them far longer to take such measures.
Piracy on the switch.
Where.
I need links
@RupeeClock and even if legal matters are take it's not going to stop people from making clone sites or having someone else revive it. pirate bay's original owners for example, already got hit with all the legal stuff and the site is still kicking, albeit under different ownership and has even evolved into a religion. there's no getting rid of it at this point.
tbh it's hilarious that the site has pissed off large companies, various governments and even a bunch of Christians(though that's not really that hard, a lot of Christianity has a history of being volatile towards other religions) and is still going strong.
the only way to stop piracy at this point would either be to arrest or kill everyone who has ever used a pirate site or to just outright purge all the anti-piracy laws. the later would be only one that could reasonably work as piracy is only considered as such due to the laws, otherwise its something that's never going away.
anti-piracy laws due as much to stop it as the 18th Amendment did to stop alcohol
This what happens if you fight the leader of gods nintendo they should of never fought nintendo..
@nessisonett not everyone in the UK lives in London you know? xD
@ReaperExTenebris In some cases with older games it even means the difference from finding a game and literally never finding it anywhere
Take thrill kill for the PS1 for example.. The game never got officially released, but thanks to the emulation and rom scene, people can play it!
Also if they're old games that are only available to either buy 2nd hand, or download a rom.. Either way the company won't loose out on any money, but with modern games like Switch games then yeah it will eat into their profits.
Tbf though, I do have some Switch roms.. For games I already own, on my switch, physically.. And they're like "back ups" to me.. Because one day the Switch won't be getting produced anymore, or its games.
@Doktor-Mandrake It would be even less legible written by one of us up in Scotland. ‘Awright bawbags, get your ROMs here’
Tbf, I have a hacked Wii but I didn't do that until well into the Wii U's release. It's great, made it a dvd player when I needed it, allowed me to play some NTSC games I had and now hosts my GC library. There a bunch of other custom Wii Channels that were good too that I can't recall off the top of my head. I guess what I'm saying is I like Homebrew, even on Switch I'm sure it's given it some awesome extra features but pirated games are not ok if they can be purchased for current gen.
@RupeeClock Most of these sites are operating in countries like Russia who laugh when some western country suggests to them what to do.
@ReaperExTenebris Yeah I am all for backups of old games, but pirating new games is just for cheapos and thieves.
@JayJ There are advantages for pirates besides the games being free. The FE:3H DLC bug was fixed by Pirates/Homebrewers a few days before the game was launched. It took Nintendo until today to fix it through the new firmware.
I wish Nintendo would only target the piracy on current gen consoles and leave emulation alone.
George Osborn now works in the games industry????
The George Osborn?
Surely not... need to google this
@Crono1973 agreed
@veesonic Against emulation too it seems.
Well if Nintendo offers us a better system with higher setting maybe people won't feel to emulate at all. Deliver Nintendo. Instead fighting piracy.. how about you improve your hardware! And make sure you release all games even outside Japan so people won't be feeling the need to pirate. It goes both ways. You don't see money in releasing in West? well good for you people will find other way and still be able to play it. You're couraging people to do stuff like. This also counts to DVD/blu ray movies... not releasing movies/series in other parts of the world. not everyone has a credit card. Well whatever...
By the wording were they selling jigs?
I'm torn on this.
Thing is, I'm against piracy for any games that there is reasonable access to, meaning that the publisher of the game has put it somewhere so it's available, be it digital or physical.
The problem is, due to so many different variables such as mixed publishing rights, general licensing issues and studio closers, or even just lack of interest from the developer/publisher many older titles simply aren't available now.
For many of these titles the only possible way to buy them is 2nd hand, if you can find them at all, and when you can oftentimes they're stupidly over-priced too, and none of that even reaches the devs or publisher so at this point, if they're not giving us a way to buy these games in a way that supports them, why does it really matter what way we play them?
It should also be pointed out how much more difficult it's becoming to even play many of these titles outside of emulation even if you can buy them. Most modern TVs can't display many older consoles, as they simply don't have outputs needed and modding the system to be able to actually do it is risky where as playing on PC via emulation bypasses that headache.
Good, but what's to keep these guys from just buying a different web address, reposting their web sites with slightly different names, and spreading the word on social media?
@veesonic Decent people are anti-piracy. We're not thieves.
VPN is the key
lol Nintendo is wasting their time they will never stop this. In the time they took to block these sites dozens more just pop right back up, and most of them they will probably never even know exits.
@diwdiws ya know is is meganz, but that's another topic.
I think the most effective way to fight piracy is to involve the authority. But this is not an easy job as you will need to do this in every country you are selling your stuffs. I lived in a country where piracy is all too common, but I go against it. I am happy that people here are starting to appreciate IPs, mostly notable during the emergence of the Nintendo Switch and PlayStation 4, because these times most games sold are genuine.
I think this also has a big impact in a good way. We used to be left alone in the gaming area, no support and no warranty of whatsoever. Now, at least Sony is already taking a step further by providing us service centers, support and warranty for PlayStation 4, but sadly Nintendo hasn't done the same here.
I live in a third world country, and I don’t see the need to hack my Switch, since I work, and I can buy the games. Besides, this way, you truly enjoyed the games, when you pirate them, you get lots of them, and don’t really appreciate any of them.
@siebenzehn No, the only effective counter measures against piracy is game streaming. No one has the game, it's all running from the cloud servers streaming to you.
Piracy will end in the future. As long as no one can buy the game, then no one can pirate the game.
@nintendolie
Good point. But that way, people who are living in the countries where internet is not as fast will end up not playing games. And I happened to live in one of those countries.
@BulbasaurusRex nothing to stop them opening a new site, but as with sites like The Pirate Bay once the court has ruled Nintendo probably won't need to go to the court each time to take them down, they simply contact the big ISPs directly and get them added to the block list.
Not perfect but would likely stop a lot of "regular" people accessing this information and tools.
Those who really want the information, cracking tools and ROMs will find a way, but if you can reduce it significantly that can only be a good thing for the developers.
@nintendolie Microsoft kinda tried this with the Xbox One before launch, not streaming but basically saying you were only renting the game, even if you had the box on a shelf at home.
https://eurogamer-20.netlify.com/2013/index.html
@KraniX Google's Stadia is launching this November.
@nintendolie good point.
I just had a Google on this, they've said they will continue to support a game you've purchased on Stadia even if the publisher pulls it later, but it doesn't say what you can do if Google shutters the service in 2 years if not enough people buy it... But I think we all know.
I don't even like buying digital with Nintendo really as they have such a poor history, tying purchases to a particular machine and having so many hoops to jump through to get access to what I own is infuriating. I buy a new phone I just download my apps, same with PS4, Xbox etc.
@Stocksy do you mean THE George OsbornE? Not the same guy.
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