Press Release
July 11, 2008
ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF PRESS RELEASE ISSUED BY NINTENDO OF KOREA CO.,
LTD., AS SET FORTH BELOW.
Court's Judgment of Illegality of Device, Such as R4, etc.
Nintendo of Korea Co., Ltd. (http://www.nintendo.co.kr) made its official statement on July
11, stating that the criminal sanction (summary order of fine) based on a violation of the
Computer Program Protection Act has become final and conclusive against business entities for importing and selling the illegal devices, such as R4, DSTT, etc. (called "Doctor Tool"
and referred hereafter as "Illegal Devices, such as R4, etc."), which circumvent the technical protection measures of Nintendo DS Lite.
Numerous illegal copies of game programs have been uploaded to the Internet, such as to webhard, P2P or portal site, etc., for easy download, but, due to the effect of the technical protection measures which have been implemented in Nintendo DS Lite, these illegal copies of game programs cannot be played on it. However, these Illegal Devices, such as R4, etc.
enable the users to play these illegal copies of game programs on Nintendo DS Lite by invalidating the effect of the technical protection measures. Those business entities have tried to import the illegal devices, which are represented by such as R4, DSTT, etc., from overseas and sell it in Korea. Upon receiving requests from Nintendo of Korea, the Korean Customs offices suspended customs clearance of importation shipments of such business entities,
investigated the imported items and filed summary indictments with the court through the prosecutors office for violating the Computer Program Protection Act.
Article 30 Clause 2 of the Computer Program Protection Act stipulates that "no one shall be allowed to manufacture, import, transfer, lend or distribute a machinery, device, parts, etc.
which immobilizes a technical protection measure (snip)." In this regard, the Seoul
Southern District Court has held that importation of the Illegal Devices, such as R4, etc., is a violation of the Computer Program Protection Act and thus has issued the above summary order of fine against the importer of the Illegal Devices, such as R4, etc.
Koda Mineo, the CEO of Nintendo of Korea, stated that The importation and sale of the
Illegal Devices, such as R4, etc., premise the existence of illegal copies of game software which are illegally uploaded to the Internet. By banning the distribution of the Illegal
Devices, such as R4, etc., Nintendo is attempting to stop the widespread use of illegal copies of games." Further, he stated that "Nintendo will continue to take aggressive legal measures against all types of unlawful activities, including the importation and sale of the
Illegal Devices, such as R4, etc.
The rampant distribution of Illegal Devices, such as R4, etc. encourages the copying and distribution of illegal software and at the same time hinders the sales of genuine software at regular price. As a result, the profitability of all package game developers, including top
Korean game developers, and its sales companies, etc., suffer. Further, the business environment of the Korean marketplace declines, as do the incentives to develop and the product sales opportunities, Korean consumers may suffer because they will not be able to enjoy the good quality of package games in their native language.
Korea Game Industry Agency ("KOGIA") has stated that "it hopes that the present measure would successfully eliminate the hindering of game industry's growth, which has been mainly caused by the illegal use of copyrighted materials, and would create an opportunity of taking a step to promote a healthy game culture."
