Newsbrief: Nintendo has been awarded $12.76 million CAD, roughly $9.5 million USD, by a Canadian court following a legal dispute with Go Cyber Shopping and Jeramie King, who the Mario-maker accused of violating its copyright through the distribution of devices that could copy and store illegally obtained games for Nintendo devices.
The case is the first to test the Canadian Copyright Act’s Anti-Circumvention law in the Canadian judicial system and has as such set a precedent in the country for cases against illicit console hardware and modifications in the future.
According to the court, King facilitated the distribution of devices like flashcarts and modchips through Go Cyber Shopping and other websites in his control. Those hardware mods could then be used to circumvent usual purchasing practices and play illegitimately obtained copies of games on Nintendo hardware.
Nintendo typically doesn’t take the protection of its hardware and intellectual property lightly; just a few months ago another 3DS modification, this time a piece of software, was hit with a DMCA from the company over allegedly infringing on its copyrights by offering a way to bypass the official Nintendo 3DS eShop.