Can Nintendo or the Console Manufacturers sue you for mods?

[Haunted360]

Hey everyone,

Just curious that if you were to sell 100 000 modded (In a new case, backlight etc) Gameboys on the street, would Nintendo sue you?

100 000 is being excessive, but just to explain that situation...


If your a lawyer, this is the case for you.

Thanks.

[eagle5953]

I don't think so. The only types of mods that could even conceivably get you into trouble are those that allow pirated games to be played, and possibly paint mods that use copyrighted characters or logos.

For either, you'd probably have to be doing a lot of it for them to care.

Short answer: No, modding/portablizing will not cause a hardware manufacturer to sue you.

[Donalbain619]

I would think if it was illegal, some lawsuit would have arisen by now. Modding has been going on for years.

[hailrazer]

No they can't. When you buy a piece of equipment you have the right to modify it break it paint it do anything with it including sell it as long as you dont use it to circumvent copyright protection.

[Haunted360]

Ah, thanks for the replies

Marshall better be careful then

Another issue is Kibble. Is it illegal to modify their board like that, a re-design it?

[nevermind1534]

Another issue is Kibble. Is it illegal to modify their board like that, a re-design it?

Since he's not mass-producing them to sell, I think he's ok. Even if he was, I don't know if nintendo would bother, but that would be in a grey/possibly unlawful area. But the type of people buying them wouldn't do it to produce new N64 from nothing, as you'd have to take all of the parts from an existing one, which I'm not sure nintendo would even care. There wouldn't be a HUGE market for it, anyway.

[eagle5953]

Yeah, if he were mass-producing them, it might be a problem. That's one I forgot - mass-producing their console design after reverse-engineering it.

[robsterxd]

no. as eagle5953 says, if you mass produce like selling them to a company, its ileagal but mods no you wont get sued

[Haunted360]

Awesome. Thanks for the kind and usefull comments

[Skyone]

I would think if it was illegal, some lawsuit would have arisen by now. Modding has been going on for years.

Lawsuits do arise from violations of the DMCA because of copyright circumvention all of the time. However, most of the violations that are being discussed here are not worthy of anything more than a civil case.

[CronoTriggerfan]

Honestly, I highly doubt Nintendo cares about the modification and reselling of their older machines by personal users; if they cared, they wouldn't be letting companies produce pirate GameBoys, Retro Duos, NOACs, etc. I don't even think console mods that aren't designed to break copyright are illegal at all, they just break corporate retail policy with warranty violations.

[iHackedit]

As long as you don't sell an item that you have modded with logos and stuff then your good

[iHackedit]

As long as you don't sell an item that you have modded with logos and stuff then your good

Are you sure? (seriously asking)....cuz half the ppl of this site sell portables with official company logos and what not.

Well if they're copyrighte dthen yes, but I reckon nintendo appreciate the fact that we're using they're older systems and turning them into something great. And You would probably only get fined if you sell large amounts as nintendo wouldent get money for their consoles that they build.

[hackmodford]

This is like asking...

Can I change "insert something here" on my car? Will "insert car manufacturer" sue me?

Think about it