I'VE never had any time for devices that pirate video games.

Maybe it's because I've met and interviewed scores of games developers and playing pirated software felt like sticking a gun in their faces and saying: “Hand it over.”

Strangely it's taken the law a long time to catch up with devices that make it easy to play copied games on one of the world's most popular consoles: the Nintendo DS.

But this morning the London High Court finally ruled that the sale and import of DS copying devices – like the infamous R4 cart – is finally illegal in the UK.

The R4 is a small plastic chip that's made in China. It usually costs around twenty quid and is a passport to illegally downloaded DS software.

It occupies the DS game slot and allows copied games to be transferred and played just like legitimate software.

As the R4 has grown in popularity so the pirates have started offering “incentives” to buy from them. It's not unusual to buy these chips pre-loaded with 20 or 30 popular games – worth nearly £1,000.

Other countries have already taken a tough line against the R4 and similar devices.

As long ago as September 2006 a US court ordered French company Divineo SARL to pay $9 million for selling similar mod chips.

Today's ruling in the High Court was against Playables Ltd, a supplier of electronic gadgets, and ordered defendant Wai Dat Chan to stop selling the R4 immediately.

Playables argued that the chips also allowed budding game designers to create their own software (so-called “homebrew” games) and run them on a DS.

But the court ruled against this defence because the R4 circumvents Nintendo's security software before it runs.

According to Nintendo more than 100,000 copying devices have been seized in the UK alone since 2009.

Last week it won a case in the Hague District Court against 11 retailers caught selling Wii and DS piracy devices.

Of course all this seems rather academic now.

The DS's popularity is starting to wane and Nintendo is readying the 3DS for launch within months – so the R4 chips have probably had their day.

Looks like the horse has already bolted.