A court has ordered Reddit r/SwitchPirates moderator James Williams (of ArchBox fame) must pay Nintendo $4.5 million in a default judgment for copyright infringement. The fine was estimated at $150,000 per title across 30 specific copyrighted games.
The defendant, who failed to respond to the 2024 lawsuit had previously operated online shops offering up Nintendo Switch ROMs and other copyrighted Nintendo material. With some light doxxing from their trusty ninjas; Nintendo managed to track him down and filed the lawsuit against him.
Unsurprisingly; beyond the multi-million-dollar penalty, the court issued a permanent injunction forcing him to shut down his distribution networks and associated social media accounts.
While it's hard to say that Nintendo is *wrong* here, it sucks that this guy is now in debt for life for something that ultimately didn't effect their bottom line too much
And all the guy did in response to the lawsuit was delete his reddit account, as if that was going to keep him from facing punishment after they already found his real-life location, which they had to do to sue him in the first place.
The smart thing to do would've been to show up to court. At least then, he could've tried to seek a settlement with Nintendo that wouldn't end with him getting his wages garnished for life and a permanent mark on his record.
Many nowadays will do anything for money, even if it places their livelihood at risk. He placed himself in this position, and not a single bone in my body feels bad, this was simply a foolish thing to do.
Agreed. I will shed no tears for him, for he was yet another John Rackham who believed himself to be a Jack Sparrow, and thought he was untouchable in the face of the law. (Or, worse, he has a hero/god complex, and thought he was above the law and everything would just align in his favor without him having to do anything.)
Not exactly hard for Nintendo to win when the defendant didn't even show up to face what was coming like a man. So now he'll die in financial debt like the coward he is.
I mean, to be fair, there's no evidence that Reddit itself facilitated the piracy. It was just a single Reddit mod in a subreddit trying to manage a switch piracy ring, so the most they likely did to Reddit was have them subpoenaed into handing over details that made locating the mod easier.
Not that he made it hard to find a trail to follow. Reddit mods are notoriously stupid when it comes to accountability.
i feel summury judgements like this needs to be capped at something managable the injunction is one thing but he'll probably die befor he ever scratchs 1 mil even
I disagree. Default judgements shouldn't be capped. He chose to ignore the lawsuit, at his own peril. There is no reason to protect people from their own stupidity, especially when they made money selling someone else's product, that they didn't have a right to sell, to make money.
I disagree. Default judgements shouldn't be capped. He chose to ignore the lawsuit, at his own peril. There is no reason to protect people from their own stupidity, especially when they made money selling someone else's product, that they didn't have a right to sell, to make money.
Especially when you consider that the default judgment is already capped: $4.5 million ($150,000 USD per infringement) is the maximum sentence. Nintendo couldn't sue for more than that for this case.
It's just reddit in general. 75% of redditors are just F'ed in the heads.
The funniest thing about this is the actual site(s) that host the actual iso for not just the Switch but the rest of Nintendo games, PS4&5, Xbox 360 as well as PC games are still out there and has been for years. Most of them just keep it hush hush and not draw any attention to themselves.
It's just reddit in general. 75% of redditors are just F'ed in the heads.
The funniest thing about this is the actual site(s) that host the actual iso for not just the Switch but the rest of Nintendo games, PS4&5, Xbox 360 as well as PC games are still out there and has been for years. Most of them just keep it hush hush and not draw any attention to themselves.
Which is honestly how it should be, if I'm going to be honest. Video game piracy was a lot more tolerable when everyone engaging in it kept a low profile. None of this "it's morally right to pirate [X]" or "piracy isn't stealing" bs that's just a mask to protect egos that feel ashamed of committing piracy.
Better were the days when video game piracy was just a crime. A crime many were shameless in committing, but a crime nonetheless. Pirates were a lot more cautious and less annoying back then. We didn't get news like this every couple months or so, and nobody feared legitimate preservation efforts being so directly threatened because of careless and egotistical pirates.
Even the whole "morality" angle loses its value when generative AI is doing basically the exact same things these "moral" pirates are doing, with AI advocates using all of the same arguments to justify it.
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