create Emulation software that emulates a nintendo Gameboy system.
They claim the rights to all software that does that.
Now...forgive me if I'm wrong, but hasn't emulation been going on in
several forms since the dawn of computing? How can Nintendo get a patent
granted in the US that gives them the rights to software emulating the
GBA that has been around long before?
Does the Patent office just have its head up its ass?
"Nintendo cannot patent a process that has been in existence for several
years.
They certainly cannot patent the rights to ALL emulators which is what
the quoted wording of the patent seems to imply. Someone should read
this with a legal eye and see exactly what is patented. If this is
challenged in court this patent should be overthrown.
WHat companies like Nintendo bank on is
1) the cluelessness of the US Patent Department on analysing technical
patents therefore if they throw enough money and lawyers at the patent
process they WILL get their patent approved.(EOLAS patent anyone?)
2) The inability of the average person or small business, whom these
patents seek to disenfranchise, to fight the legal battle in court.
I wish companies would stop attempting to use litigation to validate
their business practices and instead provide enhanced products. If the
GBA SP is better than the Zodiac Tapwave and provides more enhanced
features than the Tapwave, then no one will want to use a Tapwave to
play GBA games if they can help it.
If copying ROMS that you have already bought to another medium for use
(Copying a DVD that you own to a VHS so you can view it? Reverse
engineering to play DVDs on Linux?) is illegal than prosecute that.
This is why we need organisations such as the EFF to protect the rights
of consumers from the litigious behemoth that corporate America has
become.
Turn this into a freedom of speech issue, and splash it across every
gaming magazine in the states (if any of them have the balls to run an
objective story such as this and perhaps jeopardise their 'relationship'
with Nintendo), try to get your case heard by the larger organisations
that protect Free Speech and you will have a better chance. At the very
least you will make the Tapwave Zodiac extremely popular and give it
lots of free publicity, and may very well hurt Nintendo's PR which has
been floundering to begin with.
While I can understand quite clearly the knee-jerk fear of an unstable
Nintendo that has been loosing third party developers at an
unprecedented rate of this software, the bigger picture is that more
money is made off software. If people are required to purchase the games
at retail, and then convert them to a digital ROM format to play
elsewhere, I don't see the problem. Nintendo makes money twice. From
people that bought the GB SP, and people that bought the Tapwave, or who
own a PC (There are already several GBA emulators for the PC).
A GBA Emulator will not allow you to hook your GBA SP to your Gamecube.
It will not allow you to use any cool accessories that come with the GBA
SP, it does not give you the ease of use and control of playing these
games the way they were meant to be played. In my view it is inferior to
actually owning and using a GBA SP to play GBA games.
I played a few GBA SP games on a PC, and got hooked. And I went out and
bought a GBA SP. Before that I had never been exposed to these games and
would NEVER have considered a game with sprite graphics as being able to
grab my attention. So they gained a customer because of 'emulation'.
This is just one further example why I think that litigation and
grabbing patents is just plain foolish in this case."
HYPERLINK "http://tinyurl.com/2abf4"http://tinyurl.com/2abf4
-Gel
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