Nintendo Leak Reveals Extreme Measures Taken To Track Hackers (techraptor.net) 54
An internal Nintendo leak has revealed measures the company took when approaching a 3DS homebrew hacker. The measures are rather extreme and apparently include surveillance of the individual in question, as well as internal presentations and instructions on how to approach him. From a report: This comes courtesy of prominent Twitter Nintendo leaker Eclipse. According to documents unearthed by Eclipse -- which also include a Switch software development kit and console security documents, among other things -- the company conducted surveillance on Neimod, a hacker who cracked the 3DS, in 2013. Online Nintendo historian Forest of Illusion corroborates this with an internal document showing findings about Neimod's personal life including where he lived and his average work week. In addition to the surveillance, Nintendo also created detailed plans on how to approach Neimod in order to get him to back down from hacking the 3DS. In the documents, IRC chats involving Neimod are included, showing Nintendo covertly extracting information from Neimod and altering its response to the issue based on what he says. The details of Nintendo's plan to approach Neimod are remarkably detailed, with multiple stages and potential outcomes mapped out in a flowchart.
Just have better sales (Score:4, Interesting)
For real, Nintendo seems to put the most effort into their anti-piracy I assume to maintain their high margins. Whereas one can find first year games for PS4/XB1 for a fraction of the cost Nintendo will hold fast their $60 charge for games such as Breath of the Wild, nearly 4 years old and "on sale" it will be at most $10-15 off.
I assume their bean counters have found this worth it but how much goodwill would they gain and decrease in the effort of piracy if one could just buy that game now for $20 instead? I suppose they don't have to, their IP is too strong but for real guys, just have better sales.
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how much goodwill would they gain and decrease in the effort of piracy if one could just buy that game now for $20 instead?
It sounds like you’re either unaware of or forgot about Nintendo Selects [wikipedia.org], since it’s pretty much exactly what you’re asking for: their best titles at a cheaper price point. You just need to be willing to wait until mid-generation for it to show up, which, coincidentally, Nintendo just mentioned in the last week that the Switch has reached. Also coincidentally, the price for Nintendo Selects games was $20 for the last two generations of consoles, just like you wanted, if memory serves me co
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I’m not sure what platform or games you’re talking about. The last generation of Nintendo Selects was almost entirely first-party titles, not the Calls of Duty or battle royale of the week that suffers from the sort of problem you’re talking about. Moreover, the sorts of titles you’re talking about already go on sale anyway, so the problem that Nintendo Selects solves isn’t applicable to them in the first place.
Equipment is yours (Score:5, Insightful)
There really do need to be government protections in place that separate hardware and software. This should be illegal and not just the surveillance of regular person by a corporation. But once you buy hardware, it should be illegal there to be blocks in place for you to use the hardware as you see fit. There are already laws against piracy. Enforce those, but leave people alone who want to use their hardware outside of your walled garden and pay to play schemes.
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Keep in mind the picture you paint can be argued to be a bit misleading. Yes, the hardware is yours to do as you see fit. Most everyone agrees with that. The problem is they crack the 3DS and other consoles and then SELL kits to do this to your own so they are making money off of the IP. That is totally different than modding your own property for your own enjoyment.
Re:Equipment is yours (Score:4, Informative)
Even that should not be illegal. I can buy an aftermarket item for my car. I can modify and buy products that other people produce for anything except electronic hardware. Hardware is not IP and should be protected as such.
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No, I believe the individual's right to modify their own property in their own home comes above the copyright holder's ability to prohibit this. We are talking about information here, not physical lives. Controlling our ability to process information in certain ways that are not authorized by Nintendo, it's like trying to control our thoughts. In the last 20 years or so our individual rights are being taken away systematically with this kind of reasoning. You can use the same kind of reasoning to justify au
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To elaborate further: In my opinion Nintendo has no right to control what we are doing in our own homes. They can only control what we do in the wider society, e.g. the distribution of Nintendo's copyrighted ROMs on the Internet. But they have absolutely NO RIGHT TO POLICE OUR OWN HOMES AND TELL US WHAT WE CAN OR CAN'T DO THERE. These anti-cirumvention laws are an abomination and should never have been allowed to pass in the first place.
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You are talking about what you do to your hardware in your home and that never leaves your home, nor affects others. If this hacker did what you say, how would Nintendo even know about him in the first place?
He (the AC) is talking about when someone sells modified hardware to others, and modifications that leaves your home and/or affecting others.
Stop being upset about a case that hasn't happened and no-one cares about.
Re: Equipment is yours (Score:2)
Yes, and?
Are you seriously arguing selling a box of wrenches to fix cars is somehow wrong?
You know who sells these tools to me in the case of my phone? MY PHONE MANUFACTURER.
The disassembly video on YouTube was uploaded by them too.
Everything else is a shit product, and if the above is actively blocked, criminal insanity that deserves prison for the mere atempt.
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SELL kits to do this to your own so they are making money off of the IP.
The kit is the hacker's IP, not even a derivative work but an original work. Even if it works against Nintendo hardware. Sure, Nintendo and their shitty practices enable this guy to make a buck, and I am sure that Nintendo execs are gnashing teeth about not getting their cut, but they have no moral claim here.
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Wow, you must really love the DMCA. Before that this wasn't illegal at all. Now basic key sequences become contraband ideas that are not copyright, patent or really even trade secret. (You can't both give away a trade secret and claim it is secret)
Also, now you can be put in jail for sharing these extra-IP secrets whereas in the past all copyright redress was monetary.
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Controlling the hardware won't help much these days. Most games have an online component, or are online only multiplayer. Consoles are going disc free, download only.
The hardware is pretty much a brick without those services.
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While I agree that there needs to be something done to ensure our right to repair, it mustn’t come at the cost of precluding the existence of products that provide the sort of security you can only achieve with trusted hardware and software.
I know, I know, but hear me out.
I don’t want it forced on me either, but I recognize that there are valid use cases where having hardware that can’t be swapped out is a feature, not a bug, and where being locked into a particular OS is a desirable trait
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But argument is still not valid. The OWNER of the device should have ultimate control of both hardware and software. That owner could be an individual or a corporation assigning that device to one of their employees. Walled gardens where the manufacturer has more control that the owner provide the illusion of security, but not real security and in many cases are the SOURCE of breaches either from rogue employees or selling data or access. Owners should be the ones responsible for the security of their devic
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Without the owner having access and ability to maintain, how can the hardware and software ever become trusted? If you need trust, them you need right to repair as a direct, logical consequence.
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Without the owner having access and ability to maintain, how can the hardware and software ever become trusted? If you need trust, them you need right to repair as a direct, logical consequence.
What does the owner having access and ability to maintain to do with software being trusted?
Most consumer electronics running some kind of software does not release the source code, so how can you trust it? Most people don't know how to disassemble machine code and interpret it.
Vote with your wallet. (Score:3)
Toys are fun but games are toys, frivolities, and nothing but ways to waste time amusingly. There is no reason to crave those particular toys (unless you sperged so hard it's now a wired compulsion beyond remedy) vs other toys offering mind and skill expanding interactions vs. silly fantasy.
It's difficult for people to vote with their wallet so most don't but anyone can make the adult choice to be an exception. I evaluated gaming and chose to exclude it from my life, and not out of being a Luddite which I'm not. A dopamine hit feedback loop time sink is fine but the counterproductive sort isn't healthy. Nintendo get rich from cravings I choose never to have. Just say no.
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vs other toys offering mind and skill expanding interactions
Are you talking about going outside? Because this is Slashdot, you know.
Re: Vote with your wallet. (Score:2)
s/is/was/
Look at the stories. This is not the Slashdot that deserves the name.
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Toys are a waste of time, unlike giving lectures about how to live their lives to a group of people who didn't asked.
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I evaluated gaming and chose to exclude it from my life, and not out of being a Luddite which I'm not. A dopamine hit feedback loop time sink is fine but the counterproductive sort isn't healthy.
Is that not an apt description for all fictional media, including books? Video games are by and large, interactive, CG-driven motion pictures with differing rulesets and mechanisms to help deliver dopamine hits.
Is anything really worthwhile beyond doing things to enhance our hard wired life goals of comfortably surviving and replicating; or to live long and prosper?
Honestly, the problem here is not toys or gaming or what is or is not worthwhile, the problem is that corporations think that we do not o
Re:Vote with your wallet. (Score:5, Interesting)
Toys are fun but games are toys, frivolities, and nothing but ways to waste time amusingly.
Generations are easy, but rarely accurate.
Softmodding the original Xbox taught me about hardware security, the difference between RAM and ROM, different filesystems, basic computer hardware, and light hardware hacking. All in the pursuit of XBMC- which also led to FTP, codecs, compression, and advanced home networking. Later came hardware and software emulation, Linux interest, basic coding and scripting, and all of the hardware and software troubleshooting and research skills that come with those things.
My experience working with the original XBOX led to a strong interest in electronics hardware, software, and networking. I've made a career out of that interest, and today I own my home, own my car, and am on track for an early retirement. I've forgotten more about electronics and computer hardware then most people will ever learn- and I don't think any of that would have been possible without overcoming my fathers distaste for video-games.
My father felt much the same as you, gaming is a waste of time, and that time is better spent actually learning something. My father is a wise man, but much like you, his interest was elsewhere- He failed to see the value in electronic gaming, and hardware hacking in general.
He damn sure sees it now though. I'm surprised you still can't.
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Generations = Generalizations.
( I've still learned nothing about proofreading before I post. )
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>I evaluated gaming and chose to exclude it from my life, and not out of being a Luddite which I'm not. A dopamine hit feedback loop time sink is fine but the counterproductive sort isn't healthy.
Instead you occupy your time with something more fulfilling - low effort trolling on social media websites.
Seriously man, at least put some effort into it.
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games are toys, frivolities, and nothing but ways to waste time amusingly. There is no reason to crave those particular toys (unless you sperged so hard it's now a wired compulsion beyond remedy) vs other toys offering mind and skill expanding interactions vs. silly fantasy.
You just dismissed an entire body of work on the basis of its medium, which is utter nonsense.
You may as well have said, “Literature is a waste of time and the only people interested in it are those enflamed by lusts and prurient interests” after having read a few romance novels. Or opined that, “Oil on canvas is nothing but banal reproductions of everyday items” because you once saw some pop art for which you didn’t particularly care.
Sure, much of video gaming consists of what
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"To track HACKERS" (Score:1)
So weird Nintendo controls are probably DRM (Score:2)
Since at least the days of the DS and Wii, I've suspected that Nintendo's unorthodox controller types are primarily intended to increase the difficulty of emulating their games on a PC - and if they're willing to have an in-house spycraft division dedicated to thwarting console hackers, it's probably safe to say that my suspicions were correct.
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It's not really a secret. Nintendo has always been open about the fact that they strategically value creating product differentiators that reduce the amount of direct competition they're up against. When you're trying to make mostly the same thing as the next company, you will both have stronger pressure to compete on price and your margins suffer for it. That's not really the market Nintendo wants to be in.
It's a risky approach by some measures, but a rewarding one by others. I'd say with the benefit of hi
This needs to stop, Nintendo should be prosecuted (Score:1)
Re: This needs to stop, Nintendo should be prosecu (Score:2)
By their logic, the money we paid them doesn't belong to them either.
I want a federal judge to decide that. In the US, unthinkable, I know. In the EU, I'm not so sure anymore with tue recent develoments. :)
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Unfortunately, while "jailbreaking" nearly any device is perfectly within limits, at least in the US, exceptions have been made, and continue to be enforced for "consoles" and some other entertainment devices. It seems that in the eyes of lawmakers, the notion that people will primarily jailbreak their consoles for piracy, is not completely unfounded.
It is however specious in the context of preserving certain freedoms, even if it does result in what will likely be rather trivial losses in the loss leader bu
... for the person accessing his own device! (Score:2)
Extreme measures for the "hacker" ... who accessed his own damn freaking device that he bought!!
We seriously live in a world, where organized crime took over and make the rules, now.
Hey Nintendo! My money came with a license like that too! It says you are never allowed to use it except for traveling to a third world prison to "offer" yourself to bubba! Oh, you clicked "I agree" on the large text with the tiny star that said there's a document at the basement of that Siberian hut with all te strings attached
P.S.: For online games ... (Score:2)
... the rules always go behind the server API, NOT inside the user device!
Sickening beyond belief (Score:4, Informative)
From the Documents.7z file, Nintendo tried to prosecute a Belgian 'hacker' for modifying his own console, one of the things they claimed was that OPENING THE CONSOLE WAS A CRIME.
"Moreover, the access to the inside of the console is blocked by a closed outer shell."
Begin excerpt from Nintendo Document:
2. Hacking, modifying or accessing the hardware or software of the 3DS game console or 3DS games is not authorized by Nintendo.
This clearly follows from, inter alia, the information on the 3DS Service User Agreement and Privacy Policy (“EULA”), the 3DS’s Hardware Packaging, Hardware Operation Manual and Software Packaging. The EULA states:
“Your use of the Nintendo 3DS Services is subject to your full compliance with this Nintendo 3DS Code of Conduct (). The Nintendo 3DS Code of Conduct prohibits all harmful, illegal or otherwise offensive conduct, including, but not limited to the following: () Hosting, intercepting, emulating, reverse engineering any part of the Nintendo 3DS System or the Nintendo 3DS Services or redirecting the communication protocols used by Nintendo as part of the Nintendo 3DS Services, regardless of the method used to do so.”
Moreover, the access to the inside of the console is blocked by a closed outer shell.
This is finally confirmed by the presence of technological protection measures implemented on the 3DS and authentic 3DS games (see further below in this regard).
3. Nintendo has made considerable investments in order to conceive, develop and market the 3DS. It has also made such investments, as have done independent game developers, with regards to the 3DS games.
As follows from the above, security is a crucial issue for Nintendo when developing its consoles. The measures developed by Nintendo are, among other, aimed to prevent the playing of unauthorized copies of Nintendo games (and thus to fight piracy), to prevent users from breaching warranties on the 3DS console, and to prevent consumers from opening up the console and the hazards inherent in doing so with a highly technical electronic device.
End excerpt from Nintendo Document.
THIS IS SICKENING BEYOND BELIEF.
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This needs to be taken to the ECHR, and THE STAFF RESPONSIBLE at Nintendo, not the company should be brought to trial for these offences. They should not be allowed to hide behind a corporation. They personally need to go to jail.
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From the Nintendo document:
10. Article 550bis of the Criminal Code punishes any (attempt) of external hacking, i.e. any attempt to gain access to a computer systems or to maintain such access, by someone who knows he/she is not authorized to gain such access.
The preparatory documents to the Act of 28 November 2000, introducing Article 550bis into the Criminal Code, as well as the other provisions on computer criminality, define “computer system” as: “any system
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More from the Nintendo doc, wow this keeps getting worse and worse:
Further, as explained above, it follows from the notifications made by Nintendo to the users, as well as from the 3DSâ(TM)s shell and protection measures, that users are not authorized to access the 3DS.
âoeNeimodââ(TM)s statements in the IRC conversations and in relation to the photographs posted on the Internet sufficiently evidence that the defendant has accessed (or at least, has been trying to access) the 3DS. The mer
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FUCK YOU NINTENDO
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Final Enforcement Proposal Neimod 4 5 13.doc
Lifestyle and Activities.
~26 year old male living with parents in -redacted-, Belgium.
Typical week includes work 9am-5pm Monday through Thursday.
Evenings and weekends are primarily spent at home.
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https://www.timelex.eu/en/blog... [timelex.eu]
Re: Sickening beyond belief (Score:2)
Unsurprisingly stalking is a criminal offence. Nintendo need prosecuting to the full extent of the law.
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From the Documents.7z file, Nintendo tried to prosecute a Belgian 'hacker' for modifying his own console, one of the things they claimed was that OPENING THE CONSOLE WAS A CRIME.
Why are you surprised? Isn't that what DMCA was made for? Lots of people had already warned that something like this would happen if DMCA was passed. Voila, this happened.
Imagine if this was a Blu-ray player instead, and the kit was to allow the customer to modify the player to play pirated movies. Don't you think the exact same argument would be made to claim that was bypassing copyright protection and thus illegal?
Doesn't automatically mean the courts would rule in their favor (see DVD Jon), but there
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The DMCA only prevents sharing knowledge with others so that they can also break the protection mechanisms. Even the DMCA doesn't try to prevent you from disassembling your own stuff. Of course, without sharing, fewer and fewer people actually bother.
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IANAL but I think the main point is the Belgian hacker is found some way to bypass some security measures that ultimately helped software piracy. This is illegal in many countries.
However, in order to make a case, you have to prove that you actually implemented security measures. In the same way that it is harder to accuse someone of burglary if you left your door wide open. And so, they are listing everything they did in order to prevent access, including a closed shell.
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Just because something is illegal doesn't immediately mean that it is immoral. In fact I think it is morally wrong to make modifying your own equipment in your own home to run software you wrote yourself (homebrew) illegal. I feel it is a violation of our natural property rights. Nintendo should be prosecuting those distributing pirated ROMs out on the Internet. But they have no moral right to go into our homes and tell us that we can't do certain things with our own property, that we bought outright, anti
Nintendo customer services needs stalking (Score:1)
.
Nintendo's own Facebook feed's PR mouthpiece posts are awash with comments on payments taken, good not delivered or broken, no responses or waits of months, and just rude staff on live chat who advise people to email.
I've been waiting over 2 months for a refund, all I ever received was an auto response email despite my 5 requests for follow up and live chat refus
Spread the word: don't work for Nintendo (Score:1)
We can fight this by making potential Nintendo employees aware of the company's tactic of stalking and intimidating modders. At least for the Europe and America offices.
I am (Score:2)
I am trying to hack into my nintendo.
(Linux C++ professional developer)