eBay & Amazon Stop Sales of DS Flash Carts
Author: Vince | Date: May 25, 2009
In a major move to reduce the rampant piracy on the Nintendo DS the big N has reached a global agreement with Amazon and eBay to prohibit the sales of flash carts over their user marketplace service. Since the uprising against the R4 last July most independent retails stopped stocking the cards with eBay & Amazon Marketplace being the last bastion of hope for would-be pirates.
The devices allow users to download DS games illegally from the internet and play them on their DS which has crippled the sales of many DS titles and hurt many indie developers. Nintendo have been pushing hard for a long time to get these devices banned and this agreement marks a mojor step forawrd in their plans.
Read what Nintendo, Amazon and eBay reps had to say on the issue after the break.
“Nintendo is pleased with the co-operation it has received from both eBay and Amazon to prevent the sales of game copying devices,” Nintendo of America’s global head of anti-piracy Jodie Daughtery told MCV this week.
“Nintendo has been aggressive in curtailing the sales of these devices on a global scale, from manufacturers in Asia to internet webshops and retail operations across Europe and the UK.
“Since January 2008, Nintendo has coordinated over 560 actions and confiscated approximately 411,000 game copiers. In the UK, Nintendo collaborates with ELSPA and takes independent actions. Over 225,000 devices have been seized by authorities in 170 actions since 2008.”
An eBay spokesperson added: “eBay prohibits sellers from listing any hardware or software that allows people to make unauthorised copies of copyrighted games, including the R4 DS cards, and we are taking steps to remove the few listings found on the site.”
And Amazon UK’s games director Chris Poad commented: “As you know, Marketplace items are sold by third parties. We have a ‘notice and take down’ process at Amazon. So where a third party believes that their IP has been infringed, they can highlight it and we can take it down. This is what happened in the case of the R4.”
(via)
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I thought eBay already did this. I have a GBA flash cart sitting upstairs that I was trying to sell, but it got de-listed as a “piracy-enabling device” !
I find this type of gesture to be quite hollow as many people who own one of these probably bought it from another (cheaper) source where they will no doubt continue to be sold.
Plus it all seems too little too late… These things have been around for years and I’m pretty sure most of the people who want one have one by now! And as they don’t work on the DSi, which will slowly replace the DS Lite on shop shelves this year, it seems to me that the damage has already been done.