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The legal status of R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC cards
Flash cards such as the R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC have been around since game consoles have been around. People have used them for a lot of purposes: running emulators, loading homebrew apps or playing ROM games (commonly known as pirated games). Whether you accept the legality of them or not, it is an undeniable fact that flash cards like the R4 DS / R4i DS are becoming increasingly popular for use with the Nintendo DS. Since I have written about the convenience of the Nintendo DS R4 card in previous posts, I will now turn to the legal status of them, and what you can use them legally for.

According to a news article in the Times U.K., Nintendo DS flash cards such as the R4 / R4i are not illegal. A representative for Nintendo U.K. tell us in this article that game adaptors (flash cards) like the R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC are not illegal as long as they are used in a lawful manner. Rob Saunders, the Nintendo spokesman mentioned above, states that using an R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC for these purposes is legal:

- Running homebrew applications or games.
- Playing MP3s of songs you have bought.
- Playing movies that you have already purchased and converted yourself.
- Playing backups of games you already own.

The last point is probably the most pertinent one to R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC users. It is absolutely acceptable to make backups of your games and run them on your Nintendo DS R4 card. This means that you can store your entire collection of DS or GBA games (apparently it's possible to convert GBA files to NDS files) on your R4 /R4i flash card. Think about it: with a 32GB Micro SD Card, you could hold up to 1000 games. all in the palm of your hands, available to be played with no legal consequences. What more do you need?

To sum it all up, R4s are legal. So what are you waiting for? Embrace technology, and get your R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC here, today.

The legal status of R4 SDHC / R4i SDHC cards