Topic: Nintendo Appeals French Court Ruling

[NWR_DrewMG]

Not Guilty ruling for DS flash card maker Divineo will be appealed.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=20516

 Nintendo announced that they intend to support the appeal of a ruling in favor of Divineo, a company that develops flash cards for use in the Nintendo DS.      

The rulingwas handed down December 4 with comments from the judge that Nintendo should allow a more open development policy with its systems, much like Microsoft has done with Windows where anyone can develop for the OS.      

Nintendo sent a statement to MCV stating the following: "Nintendo is extremely disappointed with the decision by ParisÂ’ Criminal Court to find Max Louarn, his company, Divineo, and other co-defendants not guilty in the criminal case involving the sale and distribution of game copying devices.  Nintendo welcomes the ProsecutorÂ’s decision to Appeal the Judgment. As a victim Nintendo will join his Appeal. Nintendo supports action against the distributors of such devices."    

Divineo already lost a similar case in Hong Kong, and was ordered to pay Nintendo $66 million in damages.  In 2006, a California judge made a similar ruling and ordered $9 million in damages to be paid.

[that Baby guy]

$9 million in damages?  Anyone got a link to that California story?  I'd like to read about it.

[TJ Spyke]

France is a messed up country. Their courts have a tendency to rule in favor of pirates and against big companies. Thankfully most countries aren't this bad.

There's no need to bring religious discussion into this thread.  Thanks.  ~vudu

[BranDonk Kong]

Divineo doesn't owe Nintendo anything. They didn't steal any games, nor did they provide download links. This is like suing a knife company because someone stabbed you.

[TJ Spyke]

They are promoting piracy, this is not at all like that knife example. There is a reason every intelligent court has ruled against the makers of flash carts. I won't go into details since I don't want vudu messing with my posts again, but electronics aren't the only areas that the French legal system is behind the rest of the civilized world.

[Plugabugz]

I'm not sure. Nintendo like to control anything that related to them.

And don't mind vudu, TJ, he just likes to edit anything that can be edited.

Fixed a typo.  ~vudu

[TJ Spyke]

France has a history of ruling against big companies. Nintendo has already won similar lawsuits both in the United States and Hong Kong. Also, Nintendo and several other game publishers are currently filing a similar lawsuit in Japan. The judge in France wants to make it so companies don't have to bother become licensees or paying Nintendo any fees to release games. I think Nintendo should just keep suing Divneo in other countries until they go bankrupt from legal fees. The French judge can't force Nintendo to make their systems open-source, all he can do is what he did here ("urge" Nintendo to do it).

[MegaByte]

Spain has ruled flash carts legal.  Australia, the UK, Italy, Spain have ruled mod chips legal.  Are you going to pick and choose which courts are intelligent?

[TJ Spyke]

Yes.

Seriously though, this is not the only reason French courts are a joke. It just adds to them. Any court that thinks flash carts should be legal loses credibility, almost no one who buys them does so for legal reasons. It's been said before, but this is like bongs in that almost no one who buys a bong does so for legal uses. Hell, European courts in general look foolish every time they unfairly attack Microsoft (if I was Microsoft, I would just say "F*** You European Union, we'll just sell our stuff the way WE want to online. Say something and we'll fire all of our European employees and providing products to Europe").