​

After being indicted in 2020, Gary Bowser's trial is finally over, and he has been sentenced to 3+ years in prison. Bowser was facing eleven felony charges as the public face of Team Xexuter, estimated by the U.S. government to have cost the videogame industry between $65 million and $150 million by facilitating piracy. Bowser pled guilty to charges of trafficking in circumvention devices and conspiracy to circumvent technological measures in November, agreeing to pay $4.5 million in fines, but was also ordered to pay another $10 million to Nintendo in a civil case.

"This is not a victimless crime. The leaders of this multimillion-dollar scheme are responsible for diverting money from creative professionals who have worked hard to provide unique products and experiences,” said Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Robert Hammer. Another Special Agent in Charge, Donald M. Voiret, is quoted saying "he also wasted the efforts of legitimate companies as they attempted to build protections for their products.”

Last week, the prosecution announced they were seeking a five-year sentence, while the defense only wanted nineteen months. Bowser has been detained since October 2020 as he was not able to secure pretrial release, so, assuming he serves his full 3+ year sentence, he will have actually been detained for closer to four and a half years.

Source

 

[Dud]

Was this supposed to scare me from pirating Nintendo games? Because news like this makes me more inclined to continue doing it.

Just imagine the conversations with the inmates:

"Yeah...I committed double homicide '07...you?"
"Oh, you know, I just sold a service that allowed my customers to pirate Nintendo games!"
"...*shudders*"

 

[Deleted member 532471]

Why are they on a crusade against this guy??


At this point I'm afraid I'll log in one day to see he was crucified and stoned

 

[zoogie]

Given the length of this sentence, it's interesting to reflect on another one of Ninty's recent legal victims:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/ryan-he...intendo-and-possessing-illegal-images.578135/ ("illegal images" is putting it lightly, lol)

Technically not related to Nintendo, but it shows you how easy Ryanrocks got off:
https://gbatemp.net/threads/former-...ected-pedophile-gets-20-year-sentence.468679/

Bonus irony

 

[Emperor_Norton]

That's the nature of cybercrime laws when combined with business law. The former were made crazy strict on purpose, and the latter is powered by how much money you can blow on winning it.

I do have to wonder if he really caused 65 to 150 million dollars worth of losses, all of this sounds a bit much if I'm honest. I don't know the full extent of what Xecuter did though, perhaps I should read up on it more even though the legal stuff is pretty dry.

This guy's already been fined 14.5 million dollars, the 3 years isn't all that much more- it's really just a customary slap on the hand for precedent purposes by comparison to what he could've got. Really, all I can say is that he knew what he was going up against and still did it anyways- one of the largest media franchises isn't going to pull their punches, and you should probably have the common sense to know you're not going to win the legal battle against them.

Bowser jailed for Mario crimes, I guess

 

[TheGodMauro]

And the precedent's set in stone.

 

[Zonark]

so, he paid $4.5 million and still jailed?

Yes to be honest he will probably only be in there for half the time plus he still has millions of dollars in revenue dudes set. Also probably gonna be some Netflix documentary about it because it hasn’t happened to this extent before

 

[HellGhast]

America, where corporate wellbeing is more important than the wellbeing of children, considering child abusers get off the hook way easier...

Not just corporations, but anyone who is a star or rich or famous or a politician or politically connected gets a get out of jail free; or worst case scenario gets 2 years and is sent to a Martha Stewart kind of prison which has a spa, tennis courts, swimming pool and golf course.
Crazy $h1t.

But woe unto thee if you are a normal citizen, aka peasant, 25 to life in a super-max for a misdemeanor.

 

[Jayro]

i doubt they could pull that off without raising hell with activist and human rights groups to put it in perspective it would be like issuing a death sentence for shoplifters or "the five finger discount" maybe is countries like the UAE, iraq etc but not here

I personally support the death sentence for shoplifters... But that's just me.

 

[HellGhast]

If the victim were an average citizen the sentence would have been reduced to time served,

...Bowser has been detained since October 2020 as he was not able to secure pretrial release, so, assuming he serves his full 3+ year sentence, he will have actually been detained for closer to four and a half years.​

Source

If the victim were an average citizen the sentence would have been commuted to time served so far 1-year and 4-months, but since TX went up against a multi-billion dollar Mega-Corporation he's lucky not to get 50 to Life.

 

[KennyAtom]

Good.

I understand selling actual chips, but when you sell software licenses to pirate games, then you deserve to get caught.

 

[rusty shackleford]

Well Nintendo hires lobbyists to give out money to congressmen. So since these politicians are getting bribed, they want to keep Nintendo happy and jailed the guy after fining him into oblivion.
https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/summary?cycle=2021&id=D000042273

 

[Asia81]

creative professionals who have worked hard to provide unique products and experiences

lmao yes you tell me

 

[Asia81]

government to have cost the videogame industry between $65 million and $150 million by facilitating piracy

When will they understand that pirating doesn't cost anything.
Pirated games are games we would not buy anyways, so pirated or not, you won't get money for it anyways.

Do a good game and we will sure buy it.

Simple as that.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

Time will passed quickly for him in prison if he has a SXOS-Switch with hundreds of games installed.

 

[Emperor_Norton]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/p...-notorious-videogame-piracy-group-sentenced-3

Here's the official US release from the DoJ if anyone cares. Not long, but a bit dry.

Common word of mouth at the moment is that he was particularly nabbed for distribution of pirated games moreso than the actual hardware itself.

 

[Viri]

Damn, I can understand a fine, and maybe a bit of community service, but jailing him for 3 years? That's a bit too far imo.

https://gbatemp.net/members/garyopa.175417/
Sadly his lucky 777 messages didn't help him.

 

[the_randomizer]

Poor Nintendo must be so devastated financially, the horror!

 

[wolf-snake]

Can't believe Jr did such a thing. So sad.

 

[DarknessPlay3r]

https://www.justice.gov/usao-wdwa/p...-notorious-videogame-piracy-group-sentenced-3

Here's the official US release from the DoJ if anyone cares. Not long, but a bit dry.

Common word of mouth at the moment is that he was particularly nabbed for distribution of pirated games moreso than the actual hardware itself.

Actually from everything I've read (now including this) it comes down to "he made money of theft/circumvention" the pirating games is just a byproduct.

 

[YamiZee]

Gonna pirate more games in protest