Today's a grim day for homebrewers and those who like to, uh, "sample" DS ROMs. Tokyo District Court has ruled against the makers of the R4 Revolution flash cart for DS, making the product effectively illegal in Japan.
What's important about this trial is that it sets a legal precedent for ruling such devices completely illegal, one that Nintendo could cite in trying to stop the sale of R4 in other piracy-prone countries like the United Kingdom and Korea. While piracy isn't a huge problem in the North American market right now, you can bet Nintendo would like to see sale of the R4 banned over here, too.
It just sucks that in the course of quashing piracy - which Nintendo has every right to do - the company inevitably quashes the creativity of amateur developers who like to publish homebrew for the DS. A lot of truly clever programs have made their way to the DS this way, but without flash carts we'll have no way to run 'em.
