Nintendo to make Wii harder to mod

All console enthusiasts are probably aware of modchips. Most often used to enable a console to play copied games, modchips have been made increasingly popular since optical media took over carts as the preferred medium. This has been a bone of contention among the big console companies such as Microsoft, Sony and Nintendo. Nintendo will be fighting the modchip community, as they have implemented changes in the design of the Wii. These changes are designed specifically to make it more difficult or impossible to install modchips:

The new Wiis, which are part of new shipments of the console, have an altered circuit layout that makes modification more difficult than in earlier versions. Users attempting to mod the new consoles using current modchips are very likely to damage the system, the sources pointed out.
Interestingly enough, they aren't actually saying it'll be completely impossible – just much more difficult, and take more time. At least they are being realistic. Is Wii piracy already that much of an issue that only a few months after release they want to attack modchips?