Selling pre-mod Wii with loaded games illegal?

[HEX1GON]

My friend mentioned that he knew someone's parents that bought their kids a Wii with an external drive (Not a Wode) for $300. Which to me seemed like A LOT of money for a Wii, regardless of the mod. Now the system was "softmodded" with free kits and software, my friend mentioned to me the owners at the store said to the parents "reason for the price, is that it takes a lot of effort and time to do the modifications". I thought about this for a second and I can't seem to see why it'd cost $300 to modify the Wii with Letterbomb, and add "USBLoaderGX" as an app?

The Wii came with a HDD (unknown size, I was never told) with 200 games: I doubt the store even bought one of these games and downloaded all of them, resulting piracy right? I wouldn't of gotten all upset about this if it was 2 games like Wii sports or something else, but 200 games!? That's a lot of money in their pocket and NOTHING to Nintendo. For all I know this could be of been a bricked system or a banner brick something simple they bought off ebay for $20, and it was working maybe $60... We all know how cheap Wiis are today.

Anyway, should I report this place to Nintendo?

[Jamtex]

It is your duty to do so. One thing downloading the odd game to see if it is worth your hard earned dosh and another to sell them blantently...

[HEX1GON]

How I thought, well I reported it anyway.

[subbie]

That's straight up piracy and IMO far worse then just someone personally pirating. I'd very much report them.

[GodofHardcore]

Don't Nintendo will send it's owner to one of their death camps. Report it to local authorities.

[mettleramiel]

Don't Nintendo will send it's owner to one of their death camps. Report it to local authorities.

I can't believe I'm agreeing with GOH, but he is right. It doesn't make sense to report it to Nintendo, the proper place would be the police. That being said, you may want to be careful, because it was also illegal for your friend to pay for such an item full of pirated games

[APE]

Piracy is a civil offense, not criminal. Unless your local police have a policy on what to do they'll likely not care

[GodofHardcore]

I can't believe I'm agreeing with GOH, but he is right. It doesn't make sense to report it to Nintendo, the proper place would be the police. That being said, you may want to be careful, because it was also illegal for your friend to pay for such an item full of pirated games

It depends on the law of that particular country. Australia is pretty strict on piracy so reporting it to authorities is appropriate. Nintendo is way too harsh on pirates and often seek damages that do not fit the crime.

[arnoldlayne]

I wouldn't have reported it - Sure, selling a Wii with 200 games, etc is indeed illegal and wrong but it's not like it's crime of the century.

Besides, at what point do you draw the line? If you google "wii" and "iso" you'll find just about every Wii game ever released - Are you now going to go reporting all those websites to Nintendo as well? Let's be honest, those websites are damaging the big N's profits far more than that small retailer.

A new Wii costs around 140 euros - a hard drive (i'm guessing 1tb) around 130 euros - time and hassle? That small time retailer probably made about 30 euros, and given that they prob spent about an hour or two getting it all together... They're hardly going to be retiring to the Bahamas anytime soon.

I wouldn't do it - and I wouldn't encourage anyone to do it - But I also wouldn't go out of my way to report it. Another word of advice, don't go on holiday to China, you might not like what you see.

[camdman]

It depends on the law of that particular country. Australia is pretty strict on piracy so reporting it to authorities is appropriate. Nintendo is way too harsh on pirates and often seek damages that do not fit the crime.

Well apparantly when New Super Mario Brothers Wii came out some guy in Melbourne got fined $200,000 bucks for downloading the game. they settled out of court so the news said but I still to this day think it was all a PR stunt (advertising the game , scare the pirates).

[HEX1GON]

It's fine to download the game to try it out like Jamtex said, but they were making money and advertising it with 200 games which were downloaded ISOs... THAT is piracy. It's fine if there was only 2 games or so, cause really that couldn't hurt too bad, but 200 is a very large number of licensed software.

arnoldlayne you're completely not understanding what this is about, I don't care about piracy as downloading it for personal use but selling it as part of a bundle in the licensed business with an ABN is just bad. They're making money off Developer's hard work and time which they didn't do. I understand if they charged for labour, but $300 for softmodding is also stupid and just beyond robbing customers. Softmodding tools are free, and it states in the license when you download the package, IT'S NOT TO BE SOLD AS PART OF A BUNDLE...And this was FYI.
Those websites that are hosting ISOs are NOT making money from the share, unlike this business that is licensed is, THAT is where I draw the line.

[rewak]

Actually i agree with arnoldlayne to an extent because, yeah they might stop this guy from selling the consoles and slap him with a fine (which he'll no doubt be able to pay if that's what he's charging) but if they see the problem then chances are they'll also start going after the people who made the homebrew code in the first place, they'll be the ones who get in serious crap and that isn't exactly fair. The guys an ass there's no doubting that, but reporting him could lead to other more innocent people taking the fall for one douches actions.

[HEX1GON]

Actually i agree with arnoldlayne to an extent because, yeah they might stop this guy from selling the consoles and slap him with a fine (which he'll no doubt be able to pay if that's what he's charging) but if they see the problem then chances are they'll also start going after the people who made the homebrew code in the first place, they'll be the ones who get in serious crap and that isn't exactly fair. The guys an ass there's no doubting that, but reporting him could lead to other more innocent people taking the fall for one douches actions.

I doubt they will go for the homebrewers... Nintendo just fine people selling their software. It's not the first time places like these stores got fined for selling modified consoles with games, this is what pisses Nintendo off. A store 10 minutes away from was selling flashcards for the DS pre-loaded with 8GB memory cards full of ROMs, they stopped selling them after while as they got in trouble for it.
I don't see the fact of selling hardware that's modified, that's fine but this store was selling the software as a bundle with the free software that was homebrewed, so the only place making that money is them, not Nintendo, not the developers and not the homebrewers, is my point here.

[Azathoth]

Those websites that are hosting ISOs are NOT making money from the share, unlike this business that is licensed is, THAT is where I draw the line.

Hmm... I don't really think that's true. Torrent tracker sites and file hosting sites are all supported by ad revenue. No illegal torrents > nobody visits the site generating ad revenue > site shuts down. ROM sites that are ad free constantly beg for donations or require donations for "premium" content. Just because TPB isn't coming out and charging for torrents of Wii ISO's doesn't mean they don't indirectly benefit financially from hosting ISO torrent trackers.

And and let's be completely honest, saying that no money exchanges hands for something might make it seem more "moral" but it's still just as illegal. Just because I make my meth in the shed doesn't mean I'm better that the guy that buys it on the street.

[rewak]

A store 10 minutes away from was selling flashcards for the DS pre-loaded with 8GB memory cards full of ROMs, they stopped selling them after while as they got in trouble for it.

Yeah, cause Nintendo went after the flash cards and made them illegal in many countries, they didn't just go out for the people selling them, they outright banned them.

[HEX1GON]

Yeah, cause Nintendo went after the flash cards and made them illegal in many countries, they didn't just go out for the people selling them, they outright banned them.

Sure, that's why middle stalls, and unlicensed shops sell them...

[GaijinPunch]

Piracy is a civil offense, not criminal. Unless your local police have a policy on what to do they'll likely not care

Not sure about in Oz. Copyright Infringement is criminal in the US, and will be in Japan in October (sort of).

[Tokimemofan]

Piracy is a civil offense, not criminal. Unless your local police have a policy on what to do they'll likely not care

Unless the pirated materials exceed a certain value (I believe $1000), it is then "Commercial Piracy" which is a federal crime. Usually though it is more lucrative to sue, so people rarely go to prison unless it is extreme or the feds are trying to score political points at someones expense (see MegaUpload) or they hate you.

[Zer0-2k11]

I can understand the point of view on this. I could see maybe an extra 40$ on the bandwith and time it took to load the games on the hard drive. but 200$ profit off of the "games". I would just laugh and walk away. but try to imagine this. would you really want to slap a heavy fine (possibly a 6 digit fine) on top of a small time mom and pop shop (If im guessing it right) that probly just make enough money to pay their bills or falling behind on them?. personally i wouldnt do it, i have to agree with arnoldlayne on this one.

[HEX1GON]

I can understand the point of view on this. I could see maybe an extra 40$ on the bandwith and time it took to load the games on the hard drive. but 200$ profit off of the "games". I would just laugh and walk away. but try to imagine this. would you really want to slap a heavy fine (possibly a 6 digit fine) on top of a small time mom and pop shop (If im guessing it right) that probly just make enough money to pay their bills or falling behind on them?. personally i wouldnt do it, i have to agree with arnoldlayne on this one.

Still the people who worked on those games, and Nintendo as a business are not being supported. I'd love to steal someone's work and sell it "cause I need to pay bills" I mean come on, that's silly. Copyright is there for a reason. Why don't they download music and burn them or sell them on a HDD for $300? It's unreasonable, 200 games on a HDD is a lot of money Nintendo and the developers have lost don't you think?