Just about a year ago, Nintendo sought legal action against a streamer who was garnering popularity by playing Nintendo games prior to their official release date. The streamer, Jesse Keighin, who goes by the handle of Every Game Guru, bragged about playing pirated copies of games on Nintendo Switch emulators. According to last year's lawsuit, Nintendo's legal team had reached out to Keighin, who responded by writing a letter claiming that they had a thousand burner channels, and would keep up streaming the pirated games no matter what.

Nintendo was unable to physically get in contact with Keighin, and was eventually forced to reach out via email and attempted visits to Keighin's family. As there was no response by the defendant, a Colorado judge ruled in favor of Nintendo. The defendant now owes Nintendo $17,500 in damages, though Nintendo's request for a permanent injunction and for the defendant to destroy all circumvention devices was denied, as it was too broad of a subject to apply to just emulators on a computer.

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[VinsCool]

How could they even lose with their army of lawyers against 1 lone nerd anyway?

 

[Reploid]

Smol indie company won uphill battle against raiders and scamers

 

[K3Nv4]

Sometimes bragging too much lands you in hot water. As anti Nintendo as this thread will probably get can't really blame Nintendo if he goes around admitting playing pirated games before release date at that.

 

[sexually_inactive]

Sometimes bragging too much lands you in hot water. As anti Nintendo as this thread will probably get can't really blame Nintendo if he goes around admitting playing pirated games before release date at that.

Saying online that you pirated a game before its release won't get you into trouble. Distributing gameplay footage will though. $17,500 is not a huge sum of money for a lawsuit but it's a huge fine you don't want to pay.

 

[K3Nv4]

Saying online that you pirated a game before its release won't get you into trouble. Distributing gameplay footage will though. $17,500 is not a huge sum of money for a lawsuit but it's a huge fine you don't want to pay.

If you have a bigger following it most definitely will. It depends on country location there's a huge difference in online laws really across shores. It's enough to raise eye brows from big corporations. They definitely have smaller eyes and people in their coperate offices watching than we realize. This is a huge confusing area where alot seem to not understand correctly.

 

[Bladexdsl]

they wouldn't be nintapple if they weren't suing someone every week!

 

[Xzi]

On the one hand, it's ridiculous for Nintendo to target individuals this way if they aren't selling/distributing ROMs. On the other hand, there's no way the gimmick of playing games a few days early is boosting your viewership enough to pay for a de facto settlement like this. Gotta find a better hook.

 

[Axido]

All that effort for a $17.500 fine?
There are definitely better ways for Nintendo to get their money's worth... Like, I dunno, putting it into the quality of your latest Pokémon title?

 

[Darth Meteos]

they tried to make physical contact and failed
they tried to get the family involved
they tried everything and in the end they got under 20k and no injunction
if only every nintendo lawsuit was like this

 

[Viri]

According to last year's lawsuit, Nintendo's legal team had reached out to Keighin, who responded by writing a letter claiming that they had a thousand burner channels, and would keep up streaming the pirated games no matter what.

God, why would you do that? It's like you're asking to get sued. This guy is a fucking moron. Also, he "no showed" his own court date? What did he think was going to happen?

This guy deserved this.

 

[mathew77]

This guy deserved this.

No. No one deserves this.

 

[PatrickD85]

Well, saying is one thing you can do mostly (edge cases might differ), but showing ... thats a simple and big no no.
Common sense should have been applied. But hey ... everything for the clicks/views I assume.

 

[AxlSt00pid]

All that effort for a $17.500 fine?
There are definitely better ways for Nintendo to get their money's worth... Like, I dunno, putting it into the quality of your latest Pokémon title?

It's not about the money, it's about sending a "We WILL find you and fuck you up in legal procedures if you piss us off" threat

 

[lightwo]

He FAFO'd quite hard. The idea of profiting from gameplay of unreleased games was bound to fail from the start. It only adds turmoil to the already troubled emulation scene, and for what? Pure selfishness.

 

[Kingofknights]

So this is the "I have thousand of burner accounts" guy

On a side notes
- Fine money too big -> No one deserves to be fined that much
- Fine too small -> No one deserves to be fined at all

You guys love moving the goal post do you

 

[Axido]

On a side notes
- Fine money too big -> No one deserves to be fined that much
- Fine too small -> No one deserves to be fined at all

You forgot the third case:
Fine high enough to scare off people but not ridiculously high -> Nothing to complain about

By your logic, if you got served two meals at a restaurant, one being -200 °C cold and one being 2000 °C hot, you better only complain about one.

 

[munnimann]

Fine high enough to scare off people but not ridiculously high -> Nothing to complain about

So around $17,500 then, yes?

 

[ccfman2004]

If you want to pirate games, go ahead, just don't boast about it online with gameplay BEFORE its release date. You play the game AFTER release and NEVER say you pirated them to an online audience. He CLEARLY wanted Nintendo's attention. Let's not give him more attention. He got what he deserved.

 

[UltraAziz]

He FAFO'd quite hard. The idea of profiting from gameplay of unreleased games was bound to fail from the start. It only adds turmoil to the already troubled emulation scene, and for what? Pure selfishness.

especially when it's a company like nintendo, it sucks that he has to deal with this but it was inevitable