Gary Bowser, of Team Xecuter infamy, is still serving his three-year prison sentence. The storied court battle may be over, but a new court transcript was released, and uploaded online, courtesy of Axios. In it, is further official comments from Nintendo's lawyers. According to the document, Nintendo's legal team wanted to use the TX case to send a message to other would-be hackers or those in the piracy business. During the proceedings, US district judge Robert Lasnik asked Nintendo's lawyers, "What do you think? What else can we do to convince people that there's no glory in this hacking/piracy?", with Nintendo's side responding, "There would be a large benefit to further education of the public."

Lasnik agreed with the sentiment, though he did not sentence Bowser to the full 5 years that Nintendo was seeking. "I always tell the jurors, 'Your role is not to send a message. Your role is to decide guilt or innocence on the facts'. But my role sometimes does entail sending a message." In response, Bowser said that giving him a longer sentence wouldn't be a deterrent to hackers, stating, “There’s so much money to be made from piracy that it’s insignificant.”

Additionally, the legal documents also reveal that Nintendo blamed hackers for the release of the new Nintendo Switch model, saying they had to design new hardware to circumvent the losses caused by TX. Nintendo's legal team also claimed that those using hacked systems could cheat, thus scaring off children who would lose to the cheaters and feel upset. “Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage.”

2) According to the hacker Gary Bowser's lawyer, much of the time Bowser already served while awaiting sentencing was spent in de facto solitary confinement due to Covid and other health issues pic.twitter.com/BezqOq2oeZ

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 7, 2022

​

Regarding the means of "sending a message", Bowser's lawyers sought a shorter 19-month sentence, to which Lasnik disagreed, and eventually sentenced Bowser to serve 40 months. The amount sentenced would have initially been 60 months, but was shortened due to the fact that Bowser suffered health issues as he awaited trial in jail, which caused him to be alone in solitary for 23 hours a day over the course of six months. As this also took place during the height of COVID, Bowser would only be allowed out of his cell to shower once every three days. He also had lost 90 pounds over those six months, and was confined to a wheelchair, as a result of his illness going untreated.

This was Bowser's statement regarding the above: "It has been a very traumatic experience for me getting arrested, coming here, going through this. This is my first time actually in a jail going through the court process and everything. And the amount of time I've spent already, 16 months in custody, a lot of that time - I spent six months, basically, locked up due to Covid. I went through all three of the Covid waves before there was even a vaccine available. I personally haven't got the vaccine [as] I am skeptical with my medical condition, how it will affect me, and I haven't been able to actually have proper medical treatment because I haven't been able to have a one-on-one with a doctor to see if the vaccine would be possible with my health conditions. When I first got arrested, I was 410 pounds. I had to use a wheelchair. I spent my life drinking, since I was age 15, after my mom died, and this is the longest time I have been sober in my life."

Source

 

[peteruk]

any one poking fun at the man's health decline needs to give their head a wobble...

very interesting read, thanks for sharing this.

 

[Localhorst86]

"they had to design new hardware to circumvent the losses caused by TX."

"We had to pay our employees and contractors to design a secure system. And when it turned out they didn't do that, we had to pay other employees and contractors to do that again. It's all TXs fault!"

 

[Ondrashek06]

Nobody can get this through your thick skin but it just is not possible. Wait a few decades for quantum computers to advance to the point where we can bruteforce the private keys.

That's not true. There just has to be some exploit. The way to bring back bricked Wii Us without soldering was literally discovered 2 days ago, 9 years after the Wii U was released.

 

[SonyUSA]

LOL my panties are not twisted but yours clearly are. If you steal from the homebrew community and literally sell it as your own, of course people are not going to like you. Just a reminder sxos would not exist without atmosphere, frankly everything about the guy is immoral. He promoted tools illegally, he broke laws, he stole, he hosted copyrighted code on his own site, he was not a smart man.

Nintendo whining about having to change their hardware because it had a huge flaw and people took advantage of that It's absolutely not because they released it in the first place

If it was free then why did it asked for a licence ? I also don't think you know anything about open source licences, just because something is open source doesn't mean you can freely take it, modify and sell, MIT licence allows you to do that but GPL doesn't, if it's open source your fork also has to be otherwise you're a theft.

Atmosphere didn't exist when SXOS came out, you have it backwards.

And it only asks for a license if you wanted to use the iso loader, you could use it just like you use atmosphere for free (tinfoil to install "homebrew" and run it). Asking someone to respect licensing with software of this nature was best said in PotC "they're more like guidelines" xD Plus people seem to forget they RE'd the iso/xci loader and it appeared in atmosphere for one very short release... both sides stole and both allowed the features to be used for free without crediting the other. But I guess it's OK because there isn't a Premium version of Atmosphere?

 

[LightBeam]

It's not because atmosphere wasn't completed at the time that they couldn't take anything from it, I'm pretty sure they couldn't have sold a finished solution if atmosphere wasn't already around.
I wasn't aware they RE the xci loader, but if they did, there's no issue with RE anyway.
Also pretty nice way of justifying stealing code from people using PotC. Sure you can't do much in this scene if somebody steals something, but you won't convince people not to get mad about that. Remember when a political figure was accused of stealing from Mastodon ? Would have been such a shitshow if they justified their actions with « well, GPL is actually more like guidelines to us »

So yeah I think it's fair for people to hate on SXOS because of stolen code, DRM and bricking code (but that was to be expected coming from the Gateway guys)
I say « hate » but it's just a joke really, people don't care for something that isn't an option anymore

 

[Purple_Shyguy]

Not to be mean but they sold the hack, others released it for free and I think he's on the right place.

How is it not worse that there's a free version? More people will have access to a method of circumventing copyright protection. It's still being update. The last commit was 25 minutes ago.

The argument by Nintendo is that the users who install cfw use it to steal games. A free version is just as, if not MORE damaging in this regard than a paid version.

 

[KennyAtom]

i do feel bad for him, but again, as I've said time and time again, you're playing with fire when admitting your paid homebrew helps you install games for free, and he played a stupid game, therefore he won stupid prize.

He does not deserve this, but if you think you can get away from someone with apparently government backing (why did the FBI take this up? Nintendo has some influence in it most likely, since this seems a little small for the FBI to bother with), then you're either really ballsy or just plain goddamn stupid.

 

[auntnadia]

I remember a time when the name Nintendo evoked images of Miyamoto and Iwata grinning insanely like a couple of real life Willy Wonka’s who ride round on unicorns and whose soul reason to exist was to bring magic to the children of the world... but now when I think of Nintendo, I get a bone chilling shudder and a dark depression filled with thoughts of petty YouTube and fan project takedowns. Miyamoto’s insane grin now reminds me of evil Tingle, hellbent on making children cry and ruining Christmas for everyone. I can’t be the only one who feels this and no doubt Nintendo aren’t doing themselves any favours in the PR department. The days of the Regginator are a distant memory.

I do feel sorry that Gary has taken the weight of this particular hit, as he clearly wasn’t an important cog in any project. Remembering the Gateway days, when he was drip fed nonsense to pass on to us all, so we didn’t spam the gateway team with too much hate mail. He wasn’t paid a lot and he obviously wasn’t privy to any useful info. He was the unpopular guy who tags along with “cool” people who just treat him like shit. Now he’s in prison and they’re not, plus has a debt he’ll never be able to repay and clearly suffers.

No doubt he’ll return to drinking himself to death when he gets released, but the main positive thing we can all be happy about, is that he’s being bummed in the showers by Big Daddy every 3 days for 3 and a half years, which is obviously less than he deserves for such heinous crimes.

 

[smilodon]

It is incredible how much GBAtemp hates TX despite being a piracy site with a layer of hypocrisy to hide this fact.

Oh well, time to use my "backup loader" to play my totally legit "leak" of Pokémon.

 

[Bladexdsl]

forget north korea and the taliban you do not fuck with nintendo!

 

[Spider_Man]

...And that's why we cannot hack our Switches. I wish someone on GBATemp already slapped Nintendo in its face by releasing a softmod for patched switches.

No, because you get ungrateful people like the one above you that disrespects those that bring you these exploits, so what if they charge you.

End of the day, its allowing you to get your games for free, yet they bitch because they expect its exploit to also be free.

Problem is, nintendo targeting Gary as the sole person liable for TX is stupid, he was pretty much a middle man, promoted its product, but TX were not the ones who released the exploit nor were they the only ones. (minus the lite version) .

To blame TX for the reasoning behind the switch lite is just bullshit, nintendo are infamous for rehashing the same fucking console over and over because they know its fans will blindly rush out and buy the console, thus driving up console sales.

They made zero effort in changing its hardware to prevent the exploit.

Another problem with the case was they included other consoles that have nothing to do with nintendo.

Problem is they think they will stop piracy, its never going to happen, people always want freedom of choice when it comes to what they want out of their console, nintendo haven't really put much effort into preventing hackers and exploits.

This could be why the xbox one has had no exploits or hacks, because they allow the user to have the option to run homebrew apps as such that gives the user some form of freedom while preventing piracy, and seems to be ok.

I agree when it comes to cheating, that will never end regardless of the platform, its just something you have to take on the chin and put features in place to try detect those cheating.

But to be fair I fail to see anything from nintendo that little kids would play online like they make it sound like spending hours online playing death matches aka call of duty.

But the instant way for those to cheat online is easy to block, find those running cfw and illegal roms.

But that would mean spending money, nintendo aren't exactly up to date when it comes to consoles and online features.

I feel for the guy, been jailed and sued over a console exploit to let gamers play games for free, games that we already own and paid for on the last gen consoles we already own.

Maybe they should consider catching up with the times and stop releasing cheap shit inferior hardware, so we get the option to play todays games, not all the games you didnt get from past gen consoles and then be limited to the same old usual nintendo titles.

And to be fair, its not like nintendo can be bothered either,
Mario - pretty much the same shit, difference being you dont have to keep entering/exiting the level.

Zelda - had fuck all, just a massive map and repetitive shrines.

Zelda 2 - when nintendo started to actually add something to what should have been in the game, admitted its dlc was that much they decided to make it into a new game.

Pokemon - pretty much been a fuckfest other than pearl and diamond remakes (fuck knows what it wasnt the originals), but then comes arceus, literally like taking zelda assets and same thing, massive map repeating the same shit over and over.

Then takes feedback and ideas, crap out the same again as a new title with the content that should have been in the first game.

Mario kart - port the same old shit but years later the new content you'd expect from a new game is then done as paid for dlc, so pretty much charging the gamer for new content that the game should have come with.

The list continues that they simply ported over from the wii u, and majority of its other games were just ported over from older consoles, or its pretty much the same shit recycled.

Then there's the odd title that is far inferior and runs like shit compared to other platforms that took years later for it to be released for nintendo, so where is that incentive to buy these inferior crap third party ports years after already playing the superior version on other platforms.

It makes no sense at all, as years go by I find my nintendo collection gets less and less as each new console comes out, the switch litrally offers nothing I want to buy.

To think as a nintendo only gamer back in the 80s, this definitely isn't the case now. Nintendo used to always be the superior console with the superior version of said games, you could compare nintendo games to other platforms and its version would be superior.

If your lucky to get said game, its definitely not the case now and hasn't been the case for the last 3 generations.

 

[MicroNut99]

There are no winners in this.
Sucks the life out of a large part of the scene and arguably a large part of this websites content.

 

[Skelletonike]

Well, on the bright side, he got sober.

While I believe that there's nothing wrong with him being arrested and having to pay for it (a crime is a crime, you can banalize it as much as you want, but we should abide by the law), they should have proper health care, then again, it's the US, where freehealth care isn't a thing.

 

[lilil]

Um, yeah. no shit? I think everyone already knew this.


I guess hackers learned something, don't sell Nintendo hacking supplies in the US, do it in Russia or China.

to be honest you make me troubled

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

Here is my take on this:
- SX was in fact illegal due to them outright advertising piracy. DRM circumvention is a very vague law and only applies in some cases where it won't clash with other rights like the right to modify your machine to preserve its functionnality. The reason this applied here is probably for the XCI Loader, which they pretty much stole from Big N.
- Gary had pretty bad life issues it seems, though it's nice to at least hear he got sober again.
- Gary shouldn't be judged under the US laws, he has nothing to do with the US and the product he did sold wasn't forbidden before the case so he shouldn't be judged by the US court.
- The way US prisons are handled are certainly inhumane and against human rights. He's entitled to a proper health system at the very least.
- Overall, Gary certainly doesn't deserve as harsh of a sentence. He also cost way less to Nintendo than they claim. Also, Nintendo didn't have to change their hardware because of SX, that's a blatant lie.
- As for SX, it was bad for them to market it for piracy purposes and to try to sell their products for a profit. They should've made it open-source like Atmosphere and market it towards console unlocking instead of piracy.

 

[Elodain]

t's the US, where freehealth care isn't a thing.

Oh healthcare is free/cheap in prison.

In my state if you request a sick call or any form of medical services, it's a $5 co-pay (which they dont charge you if you don't have any money in your prisoner account) This covers dental appointments, vision, mental health, or general "I feel off can I speak to someone?"

Any time the state initiates medical care, such as if you are already a mental health patient upon entering prison, emergency services, etc, there is no charge.

Medications are provided free of charge.

The problem, however IS the fact that it's free/cheap. The state is paying mostly out of pocket for every inmates healthcare, get compensated almost nothing for it, and they don't like that. They can afford it, I'm sure. They can probably afford to take much better care of the inmates than they do, but then they wouldn't be able to misappropriate all that unspent medical fund.

 

[smf]

"saying they had to design new hardware to circumvent the losses caused by TX."
In related news sun seen to rise in the morning.

Imagine that maybe the court and jurors have no knowledge of consoles and hacking.

I fear they'll go after SciresM and co next even though they released fusee-geelee at no cost they still broke copyright law (namely the DMCA's anti circumvention provision) like it or not they did do something illegal by releasing the unpatched exploit to the public

And disassembling of horizon to incorporate the code into Atmosphere is probably illegal too.

They may be less interested because a court will look differently on someone who made money out of it, compared to someone that was doing it for free.

Imagine blaming someone else for releasing hardware with a known exploit.

There was no known exploit when it was released.


In response, Bowser said that giving him a longer sentence wouldn't be a deterrent to hackers, stating, “There’s so much money to be made from piracy that it’s insignificant.”

I bet his defense attorney shit a brick when he said that. You need to think before you speak.

The problem, however IS the fact that it's free/cheap. The state is paying mostly out of pocket for every inmates healthcare, get compensated almost nothing for it, and they don't like that. They can afford it, I'm sure. They can probably afford to take much better care of the inmates than they do, but then they wouldn't be able to misappropriate all that unspent medical fund.

That is what you get when you have a two party system, where both of them are right wing.

 

[Elodain]

They may be less interested because a court will look differently on someone who made money out of it, compared to someone that was doing it for free.

Not really because Atmosphere is used for piracy too. Maybe not out of the box but it takes literally five seconds to make it piracy capable, and it's not like Devs are doing anything to stop sigpatches from working. In the corrupt court that Sent TX's PR guy up the river like he was the sole responsible person, all Ninty probably has to do is say "Not trying to prevent piracy is enabling piracy" and it would fly.

There was no known exploit when it was released.

But the chip doesn't exploit Fuse Gelee, which is what Nintendo is trying accuse TX of them having to release new hardware (patched models) to fix.

Despite the fact that Fuse Gelee is a flaw in the Nvidia Tegra X1, effects many other devices using said chip, and has nothing to do with the Switch itself.

Nor was it even discovered by TX, according to my research.

 

[codezer0]

the only message heard loud and clear here, is that it's ethically and morally correct to pirate the fuck outta Nintendo.

Even if you don't like the guy, the sentencing was obscene.

 

[smf]

- Gary shouldn't be judged under the US laws, he has nothing to do with the US and the product he did sold wasn't forbidden before the case so he shouldn't be judged by the US court.
..
- Overall, Gary certainly doesn't deserve as harsh of a sentence. He also cost way less to Nintendo than they claim. Also, Nintendo didn't have to change their hardware because of SX, that's a blatant lie.

The problem for Gary is that it's difficult for Nintendo to accurately calculate their loss, but that means he can't either. You don't have much of a bargaining position if you have been found guilty of a crime.

They had to change their hardware if they didn't want people using SX with it, which is what they were trying to stop.

There are similar laws to the DMCA in other countries, I figure Nintendo went with whomever would sort out extradition.