Editorial

Last December, in France, Nintendo started prosecutions against salers, retailers and e-trade websites for possesion, distribution and sale of illegal copying devices and counterfeit video games, also known as "linkers".

A detective division of the French police investigation (BCRCIA) has lead to the seize of thousands of products on the territory. The Parquet of Paris pole fighting against economic and social crimes decided to send the main responsibles of the case to the criminal court of Paris for trial.

Nintendo reminds people that counterfeitting its intellectual and indutrial rights, including trademarks, software products, technical protection measures and game contents, seriously harms the entire video game chain value, manufacturers, independent companies - editors and development studios - and Nintendo video games distributors.

The specificity and purpose ot those devices are to permit the loading of counterfeitted games on Nintendo DS (called ROMs) obtained on Internet by avoiding the game console technical protection measures. Such a "game copier" can contain dozens of ROMs.

As plaintiff, Nintendo will claim for injuries caused by the marketizing of those devices. Counterfeitting is a crime, and related penalty can include up to 4 years imprisonment and a 400,000 euros fine. The losses due to couterfeitting in 2007 are estimated to over 770 millions euros for Nintendo, third party editors and developers across the world.

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