Nintendo wants action on piracy

With the popular image of the average Nintendo DS or Wii users being a jolly family putting in a few rounds of Wii Sports boxing or Brain Training in between croqueting and rounds of bridge, one might expect they wouldn't know a BitTorrent if it bit them on the bottom.

Not so, according to Nintendo of America, which is claiming that the company, together with its publishers and developers, lost some $975 million globally due to piracy in 2007.

According to the report, "While China remains the primary source of manufacturing pirated Nintendo DS and Wii games, Korea has emerged as the leader in distributing illegal game files via the Internet. Despite aggressive antipiracy actions taken by Nintendo, Brazil and Mexico remain saturated with counterfeit Nintendo software. Meanwhile, Paraguay and Hong Kong continue to serve as major transshipment points for global distribution of illegal goods."

Nintendo wants stronger laws in all countries to prevent the circumventing of its technological security measures and has asked the US Trade Representative, who is America's chief trade negotiator and principal advisor to the president, to "encourage" a more aggressive stance on the issue.