Last year saw the arrest of two members of Team Xecuter, the hacking group behind the infamous SX OS. MaxConsole administrator and GBAtemp user GaryOPA was a part of that, and was extradited from Canada to the United States, where he would face charges. While he initially claimed he was innocent, the opposing prosecution did not accept the defense of SX OS merely allowing Nintendo Switch users to play homebrew software, and asserted that the main goal of Team Xecuter's exploit was to play pirated copies of games.

Faced with 11 felony counts, Bowser has just pleaded guilty to two of them: trafficking in circumvention devices and conspiracy to circumvent technological measures. According to the court, Team Xecuter has caused an estimated number between $65 million to $150 million in losses to video game companies.

This means that Bowser will not have to go to trial, with the plea deal also waiving the other 9 criminal charges. Despite that, he still may face prison time, and as part of the deal, has agreed to pay Nintendo for restitution, to the tune of $4.5 million. Bowser will also have to consent to the destruction or give up the technology seized from his home during his arrest, which includes around 30TB of hard drives, micro SDs, and flash drives, along with laptops, phones, modchips, and hacked game consoles.

Source

 

[MasterJ360]

Just wow! and if those 30TB HDD have any kind of questionable porn.... RIP Gary

 

[nachuz]

and you' bought', you wasn't saying that when you bought an SX pro

What are you talking about, I never bought an SX pro lol

 

[JoeBloggs777]

What are you talking about, I never bought an SX pro lol

you only have to look at your old posts

https://gbatemp.net/threads/warning...-from-switchsx-com.508406/page-4#post-8082086

 

[Nincompoopdo]

I guess he will be selling some bitcoin.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Why would he buy a place that's crowded by mentally ill individuals?

Also don't get all the hate. TX were the first to bring mods and piracy to the Switch, and the only ones to release a working modchip. People should be thankful.

Because software pirates are a lot like the free software crowd. They want everything to be gratis instead of libre not realizing that it's money that largely makes development of this stuff possible. So when someone charges for something that should be "free" they throw a tantrum. Not the best analogy since charging for open source software is legal with just about every notable license, but it's the best approximation I can give.

Riiiiight... What a range this is...

That's what happens when you use completely bogus "lost sales" to try to tell people how bad piracy is. For argument's sake, let's say 100,0000 people downloaded 10 games. They'd be using $60/game despite the fact that either the people weren't going to buy them at the full price in the first place, or by the time they've pirated them most games have dropped quite a bit in price. So more like $30 million if that, assuming they are actually losing significant sales from piracy, which they're not.

 

[PowerBall253]

Because software pirates are a lot like the free software crowd. They want everything to be gratis instead of libre not realizing that it's money that largely makes development of this stuff possible. So when someone charges for something that should be "free" they throw a tantrum. Not the best analogy since charging for open source software is legal with just about every notable license, but it's the best approximation I can give.

Isn't the free software crowd purely about making software "libre"?

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Isn't the free software crowd purely about making software "libre"?

Yes and no. Developers are, but a ton of users hate when you have to pay or donate for a ready to use build, pay for support, or a premium build. You see this a lot on Reddit when other software or hardware using open source software as a base is being used for commercial purposes especially.

Oh, that makes sense. I am a developer and pro free software and for a second I thought I was part of the wrong group, lol

Knowledgable users are about it being libre as well, but there are a ton of people who don't actually get what the Creative Commons, GPLv3, and MIT licenses are and think free and open source means gratis only with no professional application.

 

[PowerBall253]

Yes and no. Developers are, but a ton of users hate when you have to pay or donate for a ready to use build, pay for support, or a premium build.

Oh, that makes sense. I am a developer and pro free software and for a second I thought I was part of the wrong group, lol

 

[nachuz]

you only have to look at your old posts

https://gbatemp.net/threads/warning...-from-switchsx-com.508406/page-4#post-8082086

I was talking about the SX OS and until this day I regret the decision of buying that
I never bought an SX Pro tho, which is what you are talking about

 

[CoolMe]

multiple cases atleast where i live people decided to pay instead of jail time

I don't know if you're talking about the US justice system or not.. but since this is happening/ he's being sued on US soil, he has to pay the agreed amount either with money or with his assets. If he doesn't meet the agreed amount, he has to pay it with jail time and the amount of time (he should spend in jail) is decided by the jury/court.

the court cant just say if you dont have money you go to jail, if there is an option you pay for the rest of your life.

That's not how it works, at least not here in the US, you can't just "bail" out of jail, because state laws were broken. Even if Nintendo withdraws he still could face jail time, as stated in the article "Faced with 11 felony counts, Bowser has just pleaded guilty to two of them: trafficking in circumvention devices and conspiracy to circumvent technological measures."
Now i'm not talking about some millionaire, that would hire expensive lawyers to find/exploit loop holes, and even then it depends, but that's a separate (irrelevant) matter altogether..

 

[Detroitguy22]

It's all cancel culture. Social or software. Jumping on the bandwagon and canceling someone or something because its the thing to do. SXOS didn't steal YOUR code. How is it not the exact same thing?

Software Justice Wankers.

Lmao here he is, raging about dead cfw again, you were doing so well

 

[pustal]

A crime is a crime. SX OS never really shied away from being blatantly able to use "backups", and most of the homebrew was specifically for backups.

Being able to use backups is not a crime, if people use it for copyright violation then the fault is on them. This is a very bad precedent for the community, as much as I dislike the guy.

The irony in all of this however is that at least back in the day of Gateway he was accused by scene devs of stealing code for profit. He's paying for what he shouldn't rather for what he should.

Doesn't Atmosphere contain code indirectly stolen from Nintendo?

How do you indirectly steal code and what would Atmosphere have?

 

[ChiefReginod]

I don't know much about Team Xecuter or this Bowser guy, but taking down anything homebrew-related in such brutal fashion doesn't bode well for GBAtemp, the homebrew scene in general or even the emulation scene.

 

[TheZander]

Face it you Nintendo simps are genuinely mentally ill and should go back to ResetEra. Nintendo targets children on purpoose, so that you develop a cult like mentality about being a Nintendo fan.
As "adults" you weirdos don't think, you let big N do the thinking for you. All because you played a bunch of overrated side scrollers in your youth and didn't know what a good videogame is.

It "makes sense" for someone investing his whole life into a brand to seethe when your product can be remplaced and be done better by another.

That's a ridiculous thing to suggest I face. Also Im running into trouble trying to suss out your position. How familiar with everything are you? I mean if you just got into the scene when you became aware of the sxos and you have loyalty to the team whatever.


Nintendo is the greatest company ever. The SXOS was only successful because of Nintendo.

 

[raxadian]

Are we okay with this? Am I supposed to hate this guy, or think he is a Martyr? I'm so confused.

He made money out of hacking and moding the Nintendo Switch. He also made the mistake of selling the mod chip.

I do not think he is Hero, same reason anyone selling pirated copies of games is not a Hero.

 

[tabzer]

Piracy will end up profiting Nintendo, but are those profits going to be shared with the devs?

 

[linuxares]

Piracy ended up paying Nintendo, but did those profits go to the devs?

Well Nintendo are devs as well so I guess?

 

[tabzer]

Well Nintendo are devs as well so I guess?

Nintendo has devs. I don't know how it translates to bonuses and pay raises. Also thinking about the third party titles that helped drive the profit Nintendo is reaping from the lawsuit.

 

[raxadian]

I don't know much about Team Xecuter or this Bowser guy, but taking down anything homebrew-related in such brutal fashion doesn't bode well for GBAtemp, the homebrew scene in general or even the emulation scene.

The two PC emulators for the Switch are doing great. So don't worry Switch emulation will keep happening and get better, there is also clone chips you can get from China and eventually someone will jailbreak the Switch firmware. They have done so for the PS4 more that once after all.

 

[mikefor20]

Lmao here he is, raging about dead cfw again, you were doing so well

It's not about a CFW. don't care what you think. You're an ingreat troll sheep. I don't want your approval. Your intrarectalcrainialitis is acting up again. You "people" are the worst. Hypocritical baby brained bandwagon riding child.