Japan Outlaws R4 Cartridge
One of the biggest concerns Nintendo has is with piracy. They’re always pushing to crack down on those selling fake DSes and pirated cartridges. Unfortunately for the company there are much more easily accessed, technological means for accessing games for free. One method was the R4 cartridge, essentially an adapter to allow DS owners to upload files onto a micro SD card. There are some legitimate uses for the technology: one can download home brewed software that turns the DS into an eBook reader by uploading PDF files; putting music or video files on the card also allows you to use the handheld as a portable media player.
Unfortunately any technological item that has both a legitimate and illegitimate use is much more likely to be used for the latter. As you can imagine, Nintendo doesn’t like this device and now they’ve succeeded in doing something about it. The gaming company must have some excellent lobbyists, because the Japanese government has just banned sales of the R4 cartridge.