The Entertainment & Leisure Software Publishers Association (ELSPA) and Nintendo will be happy to learn that an R4 flash cartridge dealer arrested in December last year has now been sentenced to a significant time behind bars.

The R4 cartridge, the chip that allows users to download and play pirated software illegally, can currently be bought freely on the Internet from sites such as NDS-Gear, but ELSPA and Nintendo has been waging a war on traders and trying to do everything in their power to get them removed from public sale.

With the help of the anti-piracy police, ELSPA, UK-based Yun Can Meng has become the first significant scalp in Nintendo's battle as he was issued with a twelve month sentence at Hull Crown Court following his arrest for importing 26,500 cartridges that were apparently heading for public sale.

In a press release the Director General of ELSPA said: “Our crime unit is pleased with the outcome of this trial and pleased to see the Court of Appeal’s copyright judgement is being robustly enforced. Intellectual property (IP) theft is an important issue for the country’s videogames industry – as is protecting it.”

Though the ruling does send out loud warning signals to other dealers we can think of better ways to spend tax payer's money then lock up these people. Make them play Cooking Mama for 3 hours solid while locked up in a room with the same J-Pop music track looping in the background, now that's a proper punishment.