Hot off the back of their $1.5 million out of court settlement for Wii piracy earlier this month, Nintendo Australia has started targeting piracy on the DS.
Online retailer Gadgetgear.com.au has been ordered by the Australian Federal Court to pay Nintendo Australia $520,000 in damages, as a result of selling the R4 flash card, and to cease selling the product. Gadget Gear's affiliated respondents, Patrick Li and James Li, were ordered to pay an additional $100,000 in damages.
Flash cards allow users to play games, music and movies off of a single card. Users upload content to an SD card and connect it to a flash card, such as the R4. Prior to this case the cards themselves were technically legal in Australia; however, a majority of gamers used them for illegal means - by using them to play downloaded commercial games.
The verdict has led us to believe that the R4 and other flash cards are now illegal in Australia. However, we do not yet have confirmation on this. At the time of writing other flash card distributors, such as Ozmodchips.com, appear to be operational due to disclaimers that request consumers only use the device for legal means, such as playing homebrew. We'll update you on the status of flash cards in Australia when we have 100% confirmation.