N-Gage Cracked

The importance of this story is what it says about “copy-protection” – there’s no such thing:

The world’s largest mobile phone maker Nokia said on Wednesday hackers have cracked the copy-protection codes for its newly launched N-Gage gaming device, allowing copied games to be downloaded over the Web.

The setback comes just over a month after the Finnish company launched the much-hyped game phone in a bid to gain a foothold in the portable gaming market.

“We take this very, very seriously and have initiated an aggressive program to stop the people that are behind these (intellectual property rights) violations,” Nokia Mobile Phones spokesman Damian Stathonikos told Reuters.

….”We’re working to develop our copy protection mechanisms to make this even more difficult in the future.”

The cracked versions of the games can in principle be installed and played on any phone that uses the same basic operating software, Series 60, used in N-Gage. Other models include Siemens’s SX1. [Reuters]

Did you really think it wouldn’t be cracked? Fools.