The latest update to the ongoing Gary Bowser situation is a rather major one. After being extradited and arrested, the Team Xecuter member was slapped with a $10 million dollar fine, and then taken to trial, where he was sentenced to over 3 years in prison. Bowser, also known online as GaryOPA, was set to serve his 40-month sentence in a US federal prison, but he and his lawyer argued for an early release. As of March 28th, Bowser has indeed been released from prison, though he is still at a detention facility, where he is awaiting transport back to Canada.

A video interview with Bowser offers some insight as to his experiences, including the fact that he has had no contact with any of the other TX members who have evaded capture. Despite having to pay a $10 million fine as a result of a civil suit, on top of another $4.5 million fine for circumventing devices illegally, Bowser has worked while in prison, earning enough to pay $175.00 of that 14,500,000.00 total. As a consequence, any job that Bowser gets after getting back to Canada will garnish his wages and send them to Nintendo, to the tune of about a third of his income, likely for the rest of his life.

Source

 

[CompSciOrBust]

If that was the case, then they could have continued without him as soon as he was arrested. But nope, they went dead silent. Nobody wants to be involved in it anymore. I don't blame them, look at how much he has to pay.

Well that's just not true. https://gbatemp.net/threads/sx-os-r...eta-version-3-1-0-supports-ofw-11-0-0.578345/

Of course SX software is abandoned now, but that update proves without a doubt that Gary was not a developer. Not that Gary being a developer was ever even a question for people in the know. Before the arrests it wasn't hard to find out who the SXOS developers were and even what their home address was. FBI is either incompetent or just don't care and would rather take the PR guy because he's well known. Possibly both. They did claim that SX Save Manager was illegal (and used false unsubstantiated claims from a GBATemp thread as "evidence").

 

[White_Raven_X]

I'm sure he had plenty of Mii time in jail, there was no chance he would Wii-n that court case.

But seriously, think about how much money he probably has squirreled away somewhere in cryptocurrency... He will be fine and I wouldn't be surprised if he starts up something new that might end up getting him in jail again. Re-offenders are normal nowadays!

 

[linuxares]

I'm sure he had plenty of Mii time in jail, there was no chance he would Wii-n that court case.

But seriously, think about how much money he probably has squirreled away somewhere in cryptocurrency... He will be fine and I wouldn't be surprised if he starts up something new that might end up getting him in jail again. Re-offenders are normal nowadays!

He still wasn't the "mastermind" just the mule.
I hoenstly hope he had money somewhere and just keeps living of that. It's not worth his time behind bars just because some people want to pirate video games.

 

[SonicRings]

I always thought it was shitty and ass backwards to have charged money for the OS and resented SX OS because of that, but nobody deserves this fine. Fuck Nintendo. At MOST make it 5 years! 30% of his income for the rest of his life is absolutely insane.

I'd say I hope he's able to get a gofundme or something to help offset the costs, but that would indirectly benefit Nintendo, which I don't want. Seriously glad I stopped supporting them with the Switch. Everything I got was used including the system, minus a single $25 game that cost less new than it did used (the used market is atrocious).

 

[Maximumbeans]

Twitter, lmao.

 

[linuxares]

Well that's just not true. https://gbatemp.net/threads/sx-os-r...eta-version-3-1-0-supports-ofw-11-0-0.578345/

Of course SX software is abandoned now, but that update proves without a doubt that Gary was not a developer. Not that Gary being a developer was ever even a question for people in the know. Before the arrests it wasn't hard to find out who the SXOS developers were and even what their home address was. FBI is either incompetent or just don't care and would rather take the PR guy because he's well known. Possibly both. They did claim that SX Save Manager was illegal (and used false unsubstantiated claims from a GBATemp thread as "evidence").

I mean, stop the "mule" and the rest scattered. Seemed to have worked.

 

[Kioku]

Twitter, lmao.

View attachment 365933

I’m concerned for our future…

 

[Guacaholey]

On that guys channel you can listen to his previous calls with Gary-- he said he's going to go back to his life in another country as soon as he gets his money sorted after release (not US/Canada).

Good for him, a $15M fine and jail time is way too severe for selling mod chips.

 

[Obveron]

What is all this I'm seeing that TX deployed ransomware on Switch? I recall that SXOS was a paid product and had DRM and brick code. Which is dirty coming from a modchip company, but not at deplorable as actual ransomware. Is there any truth to it? Was anyone actually a victim of this?

 

[MarkDarkness]

I’m concerned for our future…

We don't have one. Enjoy the final ride.

 

[Kioku]

What is all this I'm seeing that TX deployed ransomware on Switch? I recall that SXOS was a paid product and had DRM and brick code. Which is dirty coming from a modchip company, but not at deplorable as actual ransomware. Is there any truth to it? Was anyone actually a victim of this?

No… It’s libel as far as the ransomware is concerned.

 

[Nakamichi]

The mans certainly a criminal... but so what?
Who isnt?

 

[G33ksquad]

The mans certainly a criminal... but so what?
Who isnt?

Imagine if they started giving jail time to pirates, might as well lock everyone up. Pretty sure at some point in our lives we have all been a pirate!

 

[SonyUSA]

What is all this I'm seeing that TX deployed ransomware on Switch? I recall that SXOS was a paid product and had DRM and brick code. Which is dirty coming from a modchip company, but not at deplorable as actual ransomware. Is there any truth to it? Was anyone actually a victim of this?

This wasn't a big thing. There was some clone protection code in very very early sxos but it was removed by them soon after

 

[MasterJ360]

The sx modchips were pretty much the last straw for Nintendo considering they made multiple switch models to combat the fusee exploit. It was even more damning when ppl started making YT tutorials on how to install them.

 

[CompSciOrBust]

What is all this I'm seeing that TX deployed ransomware on Switch? I recall that SXOS was a paid product and had DRM and brick code. Which is dirty coming from a modchip company, but not at deplorable as actual ransomware. Is there any truth to it? Was anyone actually a victim of this?

The only person who ever had their Switch bricked was Hexkyz, who was reverse engineering it and then tweeted about how it could supposedly happen to anyone, despite it only ever happening to him and while he was reversing it no less. It's complete FUD but some people who are shall we say a little neuro diverse love to spread stuff they've heard from others to sound more knowledgeable on something they have almost no understanding of. They're the same people who say "well ackchually" to everything STEM related they see because they watched a Veritasium video one time.

Edit: Also ransomware demands that you pay them to get your data back, hence the name "ransom"ware. If you were hacking SXOS and it bricked your console you couldn't pay them to get your stuff back. That was it. It's done. Your data is overwritten and your eMMC is write locked with a randomly generated password. At most it's malware not ransomware. Gotta use big words to sound smart to the internet people though. How will they know I'm a really smart guy if I don't parrot other internet smart guys?

 

[Guacaholey]

This wasn't a big thing. There was some clone protection code in very very early sxos but it was removed by them soon after

They did this with the Gateway 3DS cards too. I can't recall if any actual end users were bricked by the clone cards or not, or if it was people messing around with the cards that got bricked (reverse engineering, or making modifications, etc.).

 

[CompSciOrBust]

They did this with the Gateway 3DS cards too. I can't recall if any actual end users were bricked by the clone cards or not, or if it was people messing around with the cards that got bricked (reverse engineering, or making modifications, etc.).

Gateway software definitely bricked a few 3DS consoles. Even people who bought the software legitimately. That never happened under the SX brand though. I doubt the person they hired for that was brought back for Switch stuff. The only thing that stays constant in TX's structure is the management people. Whenever they spin up a new company on a new console they just hire existing developers from that scene as freelance workers. A lot of people you wouldn't expect to be willing to work for them as well. I have juicy info about people who condemned TX's business practices and then worked for them in secret. I'm not going to be the person to leak who was and wasn't secretly working for team red though.

 

[Nakamichi]

@G33ksquad exactly what i was thinking

 

[RandomTask37]

could be worse. I heard the DS/3DS flash cart makers got execution.