Duo arrested for Nintendo circumvention

A man and a woman from Kidderminster, UK have been arrested for selling circumvention devices that allow users to illegally access hundreds of pirate copies of Nintendo games.

Both were arrested following an operation by the City of London Police’s Intellectual Property Crime Unit (PIPCU) for offences under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. The investigation is ongoing.

PIPCU followed up on a report from Nintendo, which showed evidence that the devices were being sold on an unnamed social media website.

Detective sergeant Gary Brown explained: “We work closely with our industry partners to understand the threat of piracy and ensure that any illegal products are taken out of circulation.”

He added: “We have worked with Nintendo on this operation and we would like to thank them for their co-operation.”

Christopher Parent, Nintendo’s director of intellectual property enforcement, said: “Nintendo would like to thank PIPCU for all its efforts in this investigation.”

In September, the UK Intellectual Property Office (IPO) said that Facebook represented the most exposed location for communication about potentially infringing goods, including counterfeits.

An IPO study showed that counterfeiters were actively using open and closed group pages, as well as likes and retweets, to sell infringing products, with the majority of communication taking place in closed Facebook groups.

In closed groups, 80 percent of the suspect communication was generated by 6.2 percent of promoters. Around 88 percent of infringing activity involved complicit consumers.