Nintendo: 'You shouldn't really be doing that!'

In proceedings before the Federal Court (BGH) in Karlsruhe, Germany, the judges indicated on several occasions that the technical device serves primarily to download pirated copies of video games - to be used on the Nintendo DS. The Nintendo DS uses special memory cards to load its games. Using specifically designed connectors to prevent foreign storage media and third-party developed games to be activated on the device. The defendant has now made it possible - with an adaptor system – to connect a conventional memory card to the device. As such, it would be possible to load pirated copies and computer programs onto the game console. And here - Nintendo argues - their copyright is being violated. The copyright not only includes the game's content, but also technologies that relate to the protection of such content. And with the development of the adapter, the defendant has broken the protection technology and thus makes it possible to play copyrighted games on the console. The counter-argument - that the games had already been copied and that the adapter had (therefore) nothing to do with the infringement of the copyright - did not succeed in court. The Federal Court will refer the matter to the European Court of Justice (ECJ).