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Piracy-related news seems to surface all too often these days, with the phenomenon gone rampant and giving massive headaches to game and console makers across the industry. While Nintendo’s profits are soaring thanks to record numbers of games and consoles sold every month, the company still estimates it lost close to $1 billion worldwide in 2007 due to piracy.

It’s no surprise, then, that following the recent release of a Wii firmware update that prevents owners from playing imported discs, Nintendo is now switching its focus to the DS and has decided to file a lawsuit against five Japanese firms for selling a device that enables illegal game programs to be played on their handhelds.

The device in question, the R4 Revolution, is essentially a firmware override and MicroSD adapter for the Nintendo DS that is used for running both homebrew and pirated games. The lawsuit is led by Nintendo, but supported by over fifty other publishers and developers, and is aimed at stopping the manufacture and sale of this device in Japan – no word on whether Nintendo’s other local subsidiaries will take similar legal action.