<metaname="description"content="RiiConnect24 is not what it seems. Most Nintendo Wii hackers sort of look up to the RiiConnect24 team and why not? They're the face of many modern Wii projects. They however are doing some pretty sketchy things such as violating copyleft free software licenses.">
<p>Asyoumaybefamiliarwithifyou've been following me for a while, I usually cover free software and/or minimalism. Today however, it'sgoingtobealittledifferent.Thistimeit's Nintendo Wii related. If you'reonlyhereforfreesoftware,youcanjustskipthispostbutforpeoplewhoareapartof<ahref="/ff.html">ForwarderFactory</a>orsimplyfoundmypostelsewhere,thisisprobablyworththeread.</p>
<p>Forthosewhoaren't into Wii but still wanna follow along for.. some reason, RiiConnect24 is a team of people behind Wii restoration, preservation and other popular projects. This blog post of mine explains why I'magainstthemanddisliketheiractions.</p>
<h4>Disclaimer</h4>
<p>Iwouldalsoliketoadd,justincasethisblogpostofminebecomesremotelypopular,pleasedoNOTgoaheadandhateonRiiConnect24.Despitetheethicalflawsthatwillbeshown,theyreallydonotdeserveitandyou're not helping me by doing so. Please DO contact them and try to help them fix the mentioned issues however. Despite the claims I'mabouttomakeandthefacts,RiiConnect24isbehindgreatprojectsliketherevivedNintendoChannelsbutthisdoesNOTallowthemtoviolatefreesoftwarecopyleftlicensesamongotherthings.</p>
<p>RiiConnect24isnotwhatitseems.MostNintendoWiihackerssortoflookuptotheRiiConnect24teamandwhynot?They're the face of many modern Wii projects such as the revived official Nintendo channels, WiiMod Lite, and the 'wii.guide' website which at first seems fairly innocent. In fact, I'vehadthatexactsameopiniononthemforalongtime.Isimplysawthemas'modern'Wiihackers.</p>
<h5>larsenv:We've tried to get ahold of the original author (who is Chinese) to no avail. I even asked someone from China to help contact them on the forum that they visit (tvgzone), but they couldn'tregisterbecausetheycouldn't get a confirmation email for their account. I wanted the source code, but it'snotmyfaultthattheydidn'tsharethesourcecode.</h5>
<p>Ithinkit's pretty clear what they'redoing.They're trying to repost this old but according to them 'great' WAD manager while POSSIBLY knowing that the developer isn'tgonnacareiftheydon'tfollowthelicense.Andsincethedeveloperofthesoftwareisnolongeraround,RiiConnectgetsALLthecreditbecauseofcoursetheyuploadedthebinarytotheirGitHub.Areyougettingityet?</p>
<p>Finally,Theirexcusefordoingthisisessentially'we couldn'tfindthesourcecodeandcanthereforedowhateverwewantwiththisproject'. Not having source code is not an excuse and if you don'thavethesourcecode,youshouldn't be recommending it. Don'tyouthinkit's ironic how RiiConnect is all about using modern software that'sactivelybeingmaintainedyettheyrecommendaWADmanagerwhichhasn't and won'tbeupdatedinyears.Infact,lookingattheclosedIssuesfortheRC24WMLrepo,youcanseemostissueswereclosedwitha'We or anyone can'tdoXbecausethesourcecodeismissing'notice.</p>
<p>Ireallydislikeguideslikethisbecomingpopularbecausesure,itdoesmeanthere's <i>one guide that you can rely on that will be updated</i> but it also means that you can get a lot of people to use certain software for any reason. This is exactly what has happened with WiiMod Lite. The only reason I can think of as for why people use WiiMod Lite is that it'srecommendedbytheguideandmostnewpeoplereadwii.guideanyway.</p>
<p>SinceIhackedmyWiibeforewii.guidewasevenathing,Ididn't even know this WAD manager existed before I actually read wii.guide years after hacking Wii consoles. I guess saying this is also sort of biased because it'smyownexperiencehowevermypointisthatmostpeoplewouldn't be using WiiMod Lite if wii.guide wasn'trecommendingit.</p>
<p>Now,beforeyouthinkI'm just 'hating' to hate, I would like to mention that wii.guide existing is great. No longer do users have to worry about bricking their Wii because of a guide that hasn'tbeenupdatedin12yearstellingyoutoinstall20coolawesomewadsw/oPriiloader/BootMii@Boot2butIwishwii.guidewaslessbiasedandofferedalternativestoTHEIRsoftwaresoforexampleYAWWMinsteadofWiiModLite.</p>
<p>Well,IreallylikewhatRiiConnectisdoingintermsofpreservationandkeepingNintendoservicesupandrunning.ThishasgivenyoualotofrespectamongWiiusersincludingmyself.Theproblemisthatthisstilldoesn't allow you to completely ignore a license. It doesn'tmatterifthedeveloperofXsoftwareisgone.Ifyoudon't have the source code, you'reviolatingthelicenseandshouldthereforenotcontinuehostingXsoftware.</p>
<p>Finally,doIhateRiiConnect24?No,IbelievethepeoplewhoareworkingontheirprojectssimplywantthebestforushoweverlikeIsaid,they've been doing some <i>sketchy</i> stuff so that'swhatthispostwasmadefor.</p>
<p>Ifyouwannamakeachange,considersharingthispostwiththeRiiConnect24peoplesothattheycanimprovetheproblemsI've discussed. If you have any more problems with RiiConnect24 and/or the people behind it that you'dliketosharethenpleasedosoby<ahref="mailto:speedie@speedie.site">sendingmeanemail</a>.</p>