Aussie NSMB Wii pirate suffers $AU1.5 million fine

[stanleyopar2000]

If you want to play a game, then buy it and do not share it.

-if you want to share it..DO IT QUIETLY!

 

[iNFiNiTY]

Its impossible to tell how many sales are lost obviously, but if they settled at 1.5 million it would mean about 30,000.

 

[Exile20]

Look this is really unfortunate. He didnt have bad intentions when he leaked the game. This was probably his first game leaked.
Everyone was doubting him when he first got the game and people saying show proof etc and now the same people are saying how stupid he was, ye maybe for falling for peer pressure.

People leech all the time and sometimes you wish you could give back and i guess he thought that was his time to shine. Dont hate on the dude for doing what he did. Yes it is illegal but shit he actually bought the game, yet people who download and yes in my eyes the ones who actually stole the game are getting away with no repercussions. Will the one that never did anything illegal, mp3, game, book, picture, etc download throw the first stone?

Now Nintendo are going overboard with this. 1.5 million? I am not defending piracy saying it is right but 1.5 million is chump change with such a big corporation. What is worth more? A man's life who learned his lesson or a corporation who makes billions on top of billions in revenue. A game that sold so many copies. This was his first offense probably and he was a not a career pirate, most likely his first time. 1.5 million is crazy. They didnt choose 1.5 million to get that money back they did that to prove a point. They destroyed this guy's life to prove a point and i dont agree with that. They didnt stop piracy, they didnt catch a big piracy group. Nintendo suing him for 20, 000 or even 100, 000 wasnt going to make a big enough press so they went for 1.5 million. I really hope this is for show and that he doesnt have to pay that amount.

A moral decision is justified here. It is easy for the higher ups to make the calls in suing him 1.5 million from all the way in Japan but i would love Satoru Iwata to tell him directly to his face that he owes 1.5 million for a games that made 50 times that amount. An amount that will ruin his life.

A donation would be great cause this dude could have a family.
If he was a family member or friend you would have a different view. Although he was just a forum poster doesnt mean he is worth less. He is still a person after all that owes 1.5 million.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Wow. Poor kongsnutz...(if it IS him)

Piracy's bad kids, don't ever get involved with it!

Anyways, the fine's ridiculous IMO, but Ninty always get what they want D: Except less piracy.

Makes me think of another case where someone (or a couple of people) was/were fined 10 million USD for downloading 7 (seven!) songs. I think it was Sony or EMI that made them pay.

 

[injected11]

Wow. Poor kongsnutz...(if it IS him)

Piracy's bad kids, don't ever get involved with it!

Anyways, the fine's ridiculous IMO, but Ninty always get what they want D: Except less piracy.

Makes me think of another case where someone (or a couple of people) was/were fined 10 million USD for downloading 7 (seven!) songs. I think it was Sony or EMI that made them pay.

Nobody gets fined for downloading stuff. The uploaders, aka the ones enabling wide-spread piracy to happen, are the ones they go after.

 

[Inpression]

Note to all GBAtemp members. Don't do THIS

It could cost you $1.5 million

Generally it's not a good idea to post images of you with an early release, a receipt with your details and store name on it, and then brag about uploading the game. These are very general no-no's.

If you want to play the game, buy it.

COMPLEX DIGITAL FORENSICS AMIRITE?

I heard they enhanced the pictures a little just to feel like they had done some work.

 

[Crass]

Kongsnuts was an arrogant fool, and while I dont think the punishment fits the crime (1.3 million is absurd) I still think he deserves some form of punishment. He didn't even anonymous his website registrar. Now this isn't some l33t hacker technique, ANYONE can look up who owns ANY website, its easy and there is tons of websites out there that do it, just take a look: http://whois.domaintools.com/yafaze.com

There is his full name, personal address, email.
Again, he could not have done things any more stupider.

 

[Anakir]

... fucking wow.

That guy should open up a paypal account if possible. Maybe there will be people that's willing to donate for pirating a EU version before the launch date, or even after, if they feel guilty/generous enough (even about $10 aud each would be enough since its much cheaper than buying the actual game). It'll compensate a bit of the fine but at least its better than nothing.

If he actually gets the money he needs from donation to pay it off, this is how you really know piracy wins.

I never downloaded this game anyways. I was never really a super mario gamer.

 

[Overlord Nadrian]

Wow. Poor kongsnutz...(if it IS him)

Piracy's bad kids, don't ever get involved with it!

Anyways, the fine's ridiculous IMO, but Ninty always get what they want D: Except less piracy.

Makes me think of another case where someone (or a couple of people) was/were fined 10 million USD for downloading 7 (seven!) songs. I think it was Sony or EMI that made them pay.

Nobody gets fined for downloading stuff. The uploaders, aka the ones enabling wide-spread piracy to happen, are the ones they go after.

I know, that's the weird thing about it, they got fined for downloading it, they didn't upload anything.

 

[Crass]

Wow. Poor kongsnutz...(if it IS him)

Piracy's bad kids, don't ever get involved with it!

Anyways, the fine's ridiculous IMO, but Ninty always get what they want D: Except less piracy.

Makes me think of another case where someone (or a couple of people) was/were fined 10 million USD for downloading 7 (seven!) songs. I think it was Sony or EMI that made them pay.

Nobody gets fined for downloading stuff. The uploaders, aka the ones enabling wide-spread piracy to happen, are the ones they go after.

I know, that's the weird thing about it, they got fined for downloading it, they didn't upload anything.

Are you serious? Kongznuts uploaded it and bragged about it on this website multiple times.

Also anytime you use a p2p program like limewire, or a torrent app, you are still uploading while you download.

 

[Crass]

Also the GBAtemp staff were pretty stupid about this whole situation back in November when this all went down. Why didn't the staff remove his posts, and tell him to buzz off? Totally unprofessional, and risks the whole site.

But yet I'll have two mods swoop down on me the instant I flame a newb.

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Also the GBAtemp staff were pretty stupid about this whole situation back in November when this all went down. Why didn't the staff remove his posts, and tell him to buzz off? Totally unprofessional, and risks the whole site.

But yet I'll have two mods swoop down on me the instant I flame a newb.

quoted for truth....kinda irresponsible..

they remove rom links seconds they are posted..but wont remove a incriminating post threatening someones well being?

 

[sfg]

Regarding the paying up vs prison thing, what happens if he can't pay? Won't he be put in jail?

Anyway, I'm almost sure this sum is just for the show. Unless Nintendo is really stupid (wouldn't surprise me) or that guy is really rich, because I don't think they really hope to get that much money from one normal person.

 

[Anakir]

Also the GBAtemp staff were pretty stupid about this whole situation back in November when this all went down. Why didn't the staff remove his posts, and tell him to buzz off? Totally unprofessional, and risks the whole site.

But yet I'll have two mods swoop down on me the instant I flame a newb.

Because the mods can predict the future right? There's always talk about piracy although you don't get the good stuff here, but this website is a good starting point. Someone posting information regarding games being purchased before launch date doesn't seem far off from what this website offers because most of us here are trying to find a way to pirate X game anyways.

Don't blame the mods, blame the guy who uploaded it. He could have easily avoided many things in the first place. Why blame someone else to clean up the mess? A mod's job is to keep things on topic and reduce the amount of lame posts and flames.

 

[Astral_]

While $1.500.000 is huge (even for Aussie dollars), what is really blowing me away is that the guy actually settled for that.

What could he risk ? 20 years jailtime + $30M fine ?

 

[Crass]

Also the GBAtemp staff were pretty stupid about this whole situation back in November when this all went down. Why didn't the staff remove his posts, and tell him to buzz off? Totally unprofessional, and risks the whole site.

But yet I'll have two mods swoop down on me the instant I flame a newb.

Because the mods can predict the future right? There's always talk about piracy although you don't get the good stuff here, but this website is a good starting point. Someone posting information regarding games being purchased before launch date doesn't seem far off from what this website offers because most of us here are trying to find a way to pirate X game anyways.

Don't blame the mods, blame the guy who uploaded it. He could have easily avoided many things in the first place. Why blame someone else to clean up the mess? A mod's job is to keep things on topic and reduce the amount of lame posts and flames.

They shouldn't need to predict the future, if they see someone posting and bragging that they've upped a high-profile game all over their forums, they should react. Its pretty blatantly stupid. It doesn't take a computer expert to trace kongsnuts, it doesn't take an expert to find this site, they need to be more pro-active in covering their asses, otherwise they'll look like a bunch of non-scene kiddie tards.
ITS COMMON FREAKING SENSE.

 

[Minox]

They shouldn't need to predict the future, if they see someone posting and bragging that they've upped a high-profile game all over their forums, they should react. Its pretty blatantly stupid. It doesn't take a computer expert to trace kongsnuts, it doesn't take an expert to find this site, they need to be more pro-active in covering their asses, otherwise they'll look like a bunch of non-scene kiddie tards.
ITS COMMON FREAKING SENSE.

Common sense maybe, but unless mods actually go through all posts ever posted this kind of thing can be hard to notice. Not to mention that a simple report of said post might've helped.

 

[mariobros1]

He should have kept it too himself and got famous(internet famous) some other way.
But I think its really bad that Ninty are claiming they have lost out because of this because they already have so much money,
But they had to do this...
Probably ruined his life now

.

 

[Crass]

They shouldn't need to predict the future, if they see someone posting and bragging that they've upped a high-profile game all over their forums, they should react. Its pretty blatantly stupid. It doesn't take a computer expert to trace kongsnuts, it doesn't take an expert to find this site, they need to be more pro-active in covering their asses, otherwise they'll look like a bunch of non-scene kiddie tards.
ITS COMMON FREAKING SENSE.

Common sense maybe, but unless mods actually go through all posts ever posted this kind of thing can be hard to notice. Not to mention that a simple report of said post might've helped.

IIRC when this NSMB wii game leaked last november is like the #1 viewed thread that day, and everyone was discussing and reading in it, including several mods, and kongsnuts made several inflammatory posts. Your now claiming that none of the stuff was aware of this situation? BS.

I mean no offense to you guys, but seriously, this is a pretty stupid fuck up and easily could have been avoided.

 

[shanefromoz]

Now why dont they stop the people selling r4 carts right next to there head office in Melbourne Caribbean Gardens????
It would take 5 minutes for the boss to walk there and every Sunday they sell the carts including games.
Hmm makes me wonder.