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Nintendo wins UK high court case to block piracy websites.

mocoworm

mocoworm

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Oct 28, 2017
233
Manchester, UK
Nintendo wins UK high court case to block piracy websites

UK internet providers must block access to websites which enable Switch game piracy, Nintendo has successfully argued in court.

The injunction requires five major UK ISPs - Sky, BT, EE, Talktalk and Virgin Media - to "block, or at least impede access" to four websites which help distribute pirated Switch games, modified hardware, or provide information on how to mod consoles for piracy reasons.

Nintendo has already taken steps to close the loophole used to install custom firmware, though in its claim said it was aware of ongoing attempts to hack the console's current system software. The UK high court upheld Nintendo's claims that the listed websites had infringed on Nintendo trademarks, specifically targeted consumers in the UK and that there was no legal defence for modification of Switch hardware to enable piracy.

A Nintendo spokesperson told Eurogamer this morning:
"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."
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UK video games industry body UKIE also welcomed the decision:
"These circumvention devices, which enable the use of unauthorised copies of video games, jeopardise the businesses of those who uphold and rely upon the sales of legitimate products," UKIE spokesperson George Osborne said.
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The case represents one of multiple industry endeavours to prevent bad actors from infringing upon and exploiting the intellectual property rights associated with games.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...s-uk-high-court-case-to-block-piracy-websites
 
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Deleted member 23381

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Corporations dictating people's access to websites thought court of law is super gross.

Also I feel like anyone who would be into pirating enough to modify a console would know how to use a vpn.

Just take the website down instead.
 
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Dyle

Dyle

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Oct 25, 2017
29,915
How explicitly were they promoting piracy? It doesn't seem like an unreasonable decision if they marketed their products specifically for piracy and not simply for homebrew purposes.

But of course this won't really do anything since anyone interested in doing this will still be able to find this stuff anyway
 
z0m3le

z0m3le

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Oct 25, 2017
5,418
Lant_War said:
Big loss for legit Homebrew.
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There is around twice as many Switch consoles that can be hacked with a paperclip, than there were gamecubes produced. Software can be made via Yuzu Emulators or the leaked SDK for the Switch, it's not really a hit to anyone who wants to do homebrew, it's a hit to the general public who want to consume pirated or homebrew content via the Switch hardware. Sure I'd prefer if I didn't have to pay for software or if game hardware systems had an expiration on their license exclusivity with the company that produced them. I find it hard to worry about homebrewers on this specific device, because of how easy it has become to unlock it and how you can go buy a Nvidia Shield TV with the same hardware inside of it. Homebrew has a wide verity of options to continue to create software for the platform or the hardware in general.
 
test_account

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Oct 25, 2017
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Halation Ablation said:
Corporations dictating people's access to websites thought court of law is super gross.

Also I feel like anyone who would be into pirating enough to modify a console would know how to use a vpn.

Just take the website down instead.
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I think everyone can file a claim like this. It just has to be a follow up on current law, and see if its illegal or not, then take action against it. Taking down the site might not be possible if its located in another country. Then the laws in that country apply instead. Taking down the website or blocking access to it would essentialy net the same result anyway, so would that make any big difference? (Besides the difference that blocking the website would still make it accessible using VPN, as you mention).
 
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Deleted member 32018

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z0m3le said:
There is around twice as many Switch consoles that can be hacked with a paperclip, than there were gamecubes produced. Software can be made via Yuzu Emulators or the leaked SDK for the Switch, it's not really a hit to anyone who wants to do homebrew, it's a hit to the general public who want to consume pirated or homebrew content via the Switch hardware. Sure I'd prefer if I didn't have to pay for software or if game hardware systems had an expiration on their license exclusivity with the company that produced them. I find it hard to worry about homebrewers on this specific device, because of how easy it has become to unlock it and how you can go buy a Nvidia Shield TV with the same hardware inside of it. Homebrew has a wide verity of options to continue to create software for the platform or the hardware in general.
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Yep, pretty much this. It's so easy to find info and programs for homebrew that this isn't an issue.

Brock Reiher said:
they don't even say the websites
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Well obviously. They aren't going to give those websites free advertisement are they?
 
FrakEarth

FrakEarth

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Oct 25, 2017
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A damage limitation strategy at best.. ISPs will block the sites, but they'll sprout up in proxy / mirror form like TBP and other similar sites always do. I can understand the desire to limit the reach of the sites if there's a potential to harm software sales, but I imagine the people likely to do this will just do it anyway.
 
LewieP

LewieP

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Oct 26, 2017
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I'd love to see a citation on the idea that the existence of piracy impact sales. I've never seen any evidence to that effect.
 
asmith906

asmith906

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Oct 27, 2017
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Being able to block websites that just provide information on how to modify your console is disgusting
 

Deleted member 1849

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"modified hardware, or provide information on how to mod consoles for piracy reasons."

Well I don't see this being abused to shut down any attempts to discuss even legitimate Switch mods just like what they did to MVG, at all
 
Lant_War

Lant_War

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FutureLarking said:
If they're hosting the homebrew on the same websites as pirated ROMs, sure. Happily block them. Thankfully this has little effect on legit homebrew at all, because most of those places specifically ban piracy posts.
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Must've misread the article then, I thought they were just hosting how to hack the switch. If they had pirated games yeah, fuck them.
 
Plasma

Plasma

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Oct 25, 2017
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Not sure why anyone would be happy with this, given Nintendo's overzealous approach to copyright law they won't stop at just blocking off pirate websites.
 
cw_sasuke

cw_sasuke

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Oct 27, 2017
26,353
People just dont know how to keep it on the low with this kinda stuff...when you are promoting piracy and trying to make it mainstream companies like Nintendo will do whatever possible to shut that shit down, since it affects their core-business.
Plasma said:
Not sure why anyone would be happy with this, given Nintendo's overzealous approach to copyright law they won't stop at just blocking off pirate websites.
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What gets blocked and not isnt decided by Nintendo though.
 
Bony Manifesto

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Oct 27, 2017
3,586
Yeah the floodgate has long since been opened for this sort of thing in the UK. Lots of big companies and lobbying groups have these open-ended court orders where they hand over lists of sites that they want to be blocked at the ISP level.

The scary thing is that we're still in the proof of concept stage. The whole thing came about because the Conservative government wanted a way of controlling the content accessible by people on the internet, but they didn't want to go through the expense and negative PR of creating a country-wide firewall a la China. This puts the expense of filtering on the ISPs (and hence the public as they pay for it with higher bills) has practically 100% coverage, and keeps the government ostensibly at arms length.
 
Danzflor

Danzflor

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Oct 27, 2017
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As much as I love Nintendo, they have to be delusional to think any of these efforts are actually gonna stop people from pirating and modifying the stuff they bought with their money.
 
ProstatePuncher

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ffvorax

ffvorax

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Oct 27, 2017
3,855
Censorship is bad.
This effort is useless, they will never learn...
I will reconsider my choice to buy a Switch, I really dont like the fact that they arrived to ask a court to block websites.
Note:
I am against piracy, I am only digital by years so I even support the future that will come, but that behaviour is something to really not be happy... a corporation deciding which sites we should be able to visit. Are you serious?
 
sora87

sora87

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Oct 27, 2017
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This will change nothing, good ole proxies and vpns will help make sure of that.
 
ffvorax

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Glio

Glio

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ffvorax said:
I already have one. But it would have been the same if I had to consider to buy one in the near future.
These behaviours are bad for everyone of course. It's not good if Sony or Microsoft do this.

I cant read the article now, so I will guess it's the same thing happened discussed on the op.
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I can't see what's wrong with Sony asking that pages that are illegally offering their games be blocked. Nor do I see how it affects anyone other than wanting to download those games or is the owner of the page.
 
Mirk

Mirk

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Oct 25, 2017
892
Windows-PC said:
Everytime I've to read posts like these I'm even more happy that a company won a fight against piracy!
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Is this just trolling or what I can't tell anymore. Because do you think that this will move the needle on piracy? Like I get Nintendo trying to fight they have to but it's not going to stop piracy at all. It will give them more ammo to shutdown fan projects and legit tinkering so yay I guess. šŸ˜’
 
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