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Nintendo DS R4 Cards Now Illegal In UK
Posted by John Kilhefner Categories: Hardware, Mods/Hacks, Nintendo, Nintendo DS, Portable/Mobile
In an attempt to thwart rampant piracy of their Nintendo DS line of video games, Nintendo has been combating the use of the R4 card and other methods of pirating for years. Finally, Nintendo has seen a tremendous victory come about in the form of the banning of R4 cards in the United Kingdom.
Previously, the R4 card was used (or supposed to used at least) to install homebrew games that indie developers would cook up for the DS. However, the R4 could also be loaded with easily accessible retail versions of Nintendo DS titles from major developers posted online. This posed a big problem to not only Nintendo, but to the developers who saw a decline in their sales. With digital downloads of their games available online, and easily transferable to one of these R4 cards, it seemed that their games didn’t stand a chance at retail. Why purchase something when you can get it for free?
In light of this misuse of R4 cards, a UK court has ruled in favor of Nintendo, making the R4 card illegal in the UK. While this comes as a huge victory to Nintendo, we must shed a tear for the indie homebrew developers who actually used the R4 cards for its intended purpose.
Nintendo had this to say:
“In the UK alone, there have been over 100,000 game copying devices seized since 2009. Nintendo initiates these actions not only on its own behalf, but also on behalf of over 1,400 video game development companies that depend on legitimate sales of games for their survival.”
Read More 
| MCV UK
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Apple and ATT being sued over iPad 3G data plan bait-and-switch
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Apple, Cell Phones, Corporate News, Handhelds, Wireless / WiFi
Remember that AT&T iPad 3G data plan bait-and-switch that we were so upset about a few weeks ago? Well, it turns out that many people felt the same way as there’s now a class-action lawsuit filed against Apple and AT&T due to the situation. Specifically, the plaintiffs in the nationwide suit claim that both Apple and AT&T “deceptively promoted” that they could start and stop the iPad 3G plan at any time, and switch between the unlimited plan and the 250MB plan. Now customers who opt for the unlimited plan cannot switch back to a limited plan, or start and stop service at will, as originally promised.
Hit the link below to check out the details from law firm Lieff Cabraser, and if you have thoughts on the issue, you can submit them through their contact form.
Read More | Lieff Cabraser
Inside, Outside Car Camera
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Cameras, Portable Audio / Video, Transportation
The cops will have nothing on you when you get your own Car Camera. Designed for capturing AVI video for insurance or legal reasons, it will record both inside and outside occurrences. The cam supports SD cards up to 2GB and features LED indicators for low power and working status. After capture, you can play your incriminating video on PC or TV with included AV cable. Easily adjustable, it runs on 12V DC or 3 AAA batteries (not included.) At a size of 100 x 46 x 23mm and a weight of 55g, it attaches by a sticker on its mount bottom and has a MSRP of $69.00.
Read More | gadget4all
MPAA Sues Pullmylink
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Editorial, Home Entertainment, Hot Deals, Internet, Movies
The Motion Picture Association of America is suing Pullmylink and says that the site promotes and makes a profit from media that infringes on copyrights. This is the seventh time that the MPAA has done such an action since last year. They have not yet gone after sites such as YouTube. We are thinking that they look at this as free advertising as opposed to serious pirating, which they say has cost them billions of dollars of loss.
Pullmylink claims it has 12,000 visitors a day and more than 39,000 pages of free content. Their Superpass offers 100+ ad-free radio stations, 10 music downloads a month, RealPlayerPlus, and live feeds, such as the one for Big Brother. With their 14 day free trial, you had better hurry, just in case.
Read More | Reuters
Vixta: The Vista of Linux?!
Crazy about the Windows Vista UI, but love Linux? Vixta could be your your thing. Vixta is a new Fedora-based Linux distribution featuring a surprisingly Windows Vista like look and feel. In fact, it’s so surprisingly like Windows Vista that Redmond based lawyers can’t be far behind - it’s a pretty blatant rip of the Aero interface.
While Vixta captures the look of Vista, one wonders if it’s truly as evolved as Vista is. Windows Vista may have it’s flaws, but ove all it is a highly polished operating system with lots of features to make it easy to use for the not so computer literate. No, really. This kind of refinement in a user interface takes a lot of time and energy to develop. The Linux underpinnings might be rock solid, but if Vixta’s stated goal is bringing Linux to the masses, it’s the chrome that will make a difference.
Read More | Vixta via Tux Enclave
Man files $5 billion suit against Google
Citing claims of privacy invasion and terrorisim, a one Dylan Jayne has filed a (handwritten) suit against Google. Mr. Jayne (who gives one of our favorite Firefly characters a bad name) seems a bit off his rocker on this one. He states that not only has Google failed to fight terrorisim, but they also seem to have invaded his privacy as indicated by the following statement: “I, Dylan Stephen Jayne, plaintiff, has [sic] a social security number that when the social security number is turned upside down in its entirety it is a scrambled code that does spell the name Google®.”
Last time I checked Google’s business model didn’t seem to cover stopping terrorism, leaving that job to the ‘professionals’ over at Homeland Security. His claims of privacy invasion also seem a little far fetched - it’s hard to think a fortune 100 company would pick it’s name based soley on the Social Security number of a lone loser from Pennsylvania.
In a way it’s a sad statement about the United States legal system that a case like this will even be heard by a judge. If Mr. Jayne can’t even be bothered to type up his Complaint can he really be considered compentent enough with computers to really even understand what exactly it is that Google does? Check out the Ars Technica article for more information on this weird little case and keep your eyes peeled here late breaking news as it percolates through the Justice system.
Read More | Ars Technica
Save The Internet Campaign: You Have 5 More Days To Act
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Announcements, Internet
We know that just about everyone reading Gear Live loves the Internet - either that, or they happened upon us by typoing their true destination, Dear Love. However, if you are one of those who has enjoyed the Internet for what it is, and don’t want to see it take an immense step back here in the USA, you have five days to let congress know that. Luckily, Save The Internet makes it super easy to do - all you do is fill out a form, and they make sure it gets to where it needs to go. This is crunch time in the battle for Net Neutrality.
Net Neutrality is essential to free speech, equal opportunity and economic innovation in America. Since the FCC removed this basic protection in 2005, the top executives of phone and cable companies have stated their intention to become the Internet’s gatekeepers and to discriminate against Web sites that don’t pay their added tolls.
This fundamental change would end the open Internet as we know it. It would damage my ability to connect with others, share information and participate in our 21st century democracy and economy. The FCC must ensure that broadband providers do not block, interfere with or discriminate against any lawful Internet traffic based on its ownership, source or destination.
Hit the link below to find out more.
Read More | Save The Internet
Vonage Can’t Get Around Verizon Patent - What Now?
Posted by Andru Edwards Categories: Broadband, Corporate News, Internet
So, it looks like things are going from bad to worse for VOIP phone company Vonage. Last week, a judge ruled in favor of Verizon citing that Vonage was infringing upon Verizon’s patented Internet phone technology, which lays out methods for getting calls to go between the Internet and conventional phone networks. The ruling was that Vonage was banned from signing up new customers, while existing customers were unaffected. Vonage asked for, and received, an emergency stay which allows them to conduct business as usual for the time being. They went so far as to tell investors not to worry, because a “workaround” was currently under development.
Unfortunately, today Vonage has changed their tune, and they are now saying that they have no workaround that would moot the need for a stay. Uh oh. We don’t know how much longer Vonage will be around in it’s current form, but for a company that loses 2.5% of it’s customers per month, if they can’t bring in new customers to replace lost ones, it’s fairly obvious what will happen.
Read More | USA Today
YouTube Banned in Thailand
Posted by Lolita Beckwith Categories: Corporate News, Google, Internet
Here we go again. We recently reported on how YouTube was banned in Turkey (for a few days), due to clips deemed insulting to Turkish leader Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. Prior to that it was Brazil, which banned the website after sexy videos of a Brazilian actress were constantly being uploaded. Now it’s Thailand’s turn, which has blocked the popular website because of a short, crude clip mocking their king, Bhumibol Adulyadej—after YouTube owner Google refused to remove the clip. Insulting the king is a criminal offense in Thailand, as a Swiss man discovered the hard way last week, after being sentenced 10 years for defacing images of Thailand’s monarchy. The offending Thai YouTube clip was viewed more than 16,000 times, and was uploaded by someone using the moniker Paddidda, now one of Thailand’s most wanted.
Read More | New York Times
Viacom Sues YouTube for $1 Billion
Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Corporate News, Google, Internet, Videos
In the continuing struggle with YouTube, Viacom, which is owned by Google, has taken YouTube to court for the astounding sum of $1 billion. Viacom claims that the site has shown 160,000 of its videos without express permission.
“Their business model, which is based on building traffic and selling advertising off of unlicensed content, is clearly illegal and is in obvious conflict with copyright laws,” Viacom said.
We’re thinking that this may be the first in a long series of lawsuits to get YouTube to respect the legal rights of copywritten material. The list will probably include such companies as GE and NBC. News Corp and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban have already begun legal proceedings against the media giant.
Read More | MSN
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