The United States Department of Justice has shared some news regarding Team-Xecuter, which doesn't appear to be a good sign for the company. Gary Bowser, known on GBAtemp as garyopa, Max Louarn, and Yuanning Chen have all been arrested in Seattle, Washington. The US Government classifies these men as "leaders of one of the world's most notorious videogame piracy groups", and will be facing a federal indictment charge, for the selling of illegal hardware that facilitates piracy.

“These defendants lined their pockets by stealing and selling the work of other video-game developers – even going so far as to make customers pay a licensing fee to play stolen games,” said U.S. Attorney Brian Moran for the Western District of Washington. “This conduct doesn’t just harm billion dollar companies, it hijacks the hard work of individuals working to advance in the video-game industry.”

The FBI has also been involved, with each defendant to be charged under 11 felony counts, ranging from wire fraud, trafficking circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering. One of the defendants, Louarn, has not yet been extradited, though Bowser has, where he was seen in the court hearing that took place today.

In September 2020, Louarn and Bowser were arrested abroad in connection with the charges in this case. The United States will seek Louarn’s extradition to stand trial in the United States. Bowser was arrested and deported from the Dominican Republic, and appeared today in federal court, in New Jersey.

Each defendant is charged with 11 felony counts, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, wire fraud, conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and to traffic in circumvention devices, trafficking in circumvention devices, and conspiracy to commit money laundering.

Source

 

[64bitmodels]

Just because you use a tool to play your pirated game, doesn't mean the game isn't pirated all the same. Be it a modchip or a flashcard, these are means to unlock your device into being able to play copies of games that you didn't pay for.

youre paying to play games for free
look dude when i pirate on pc i go to igg games, download the game, and then play it
i dont pay for any stupid ass tools in order to pirate shit
it should be the same on the switch, you put in an sd card, boot up hekate/atmosphere, and u play the game
flashcards, dongles, all that shit is all really stupid

 

[MikaDubbz]

youre paying to play games for free
look dude when i pirate on pc i go to igg games, download the game, and then play it
i dont pay for any stupid ass tools in order to pirate shit
it should be the same on the switch, you put in an sd card, boot up hekate/atmosphere, and u play the game
flashcards, dongles, all that shit is all really stupid

lol, I mean you do you. I'm not telling you how to pirate. But I don't understand how you can look at someone who paid $10 for a DS flashcard, loaded it up with 500 DS games they never paid for, and then say they aren't pirating anything because they paid that initial $10 for that flashcard.

 

[64bitmodels]

lol, I mean you do you. I'm not telling you how to pirate. But I don't understand how you can look at someone who paid $10 for a DS flashcard, loaded it up with 500 DS games they never paid for, and then say they aren't pirating anything because they paid that initial $10 for that flashcard.

true pirates dont spend any money on anything besides just the console and maybe an sd card for it

 

[MikaDubbz]

true pirates dont spend any money on anything besides just the console and maybe an sd card for it

Piracy is piracy, even when real purchases are mixed in with the pirating. Even the true pirates of the seven seas must have bought some things to enhance their pirating ways, else why would they have had any interest in plundering treasures to begin with?

 

[ChronoTrig]

true pirates dont spend any money on anything besides just the console and maybe an sd card for it

Bet those true pirates know a lot of code then if not every device already has a known exploit / CFW available.

Piracy is piracy, even when real purchases are mixed in with the pirating. Even the true pirates of the seven seas must have bought some things to enhance their pirating ways, else why would they have had any interest in plundering treasures to begin with?

Dont you know they pirated the ships, beer and food too?

 

[MikaDubbz]

Dont you know they pirated the ships, beer and food too?

I'm sure they did pirate a lot of that. But still, what good is a gold doubloon to a pirate if they stole everything. They must have genuinely purchased some things as well, else they'd have had no interest in the gold and treasures to begin with.

 

[smf]

"uhh you dont technically own this" BS only nintendo does it
this is why we hack switches, to give them the middle finger

It's not that you don't own it, it's that you're not legally allowed to pirate games & products that allow you to do that are illegal.

Most people hack switches, so they can pirate games.
Nothing about sticking it to the man, it's not some kind of rebellion movement.

 

[64bitmodels]

It's not that you don't own it, it's that you're not legally allowed to pirate games & products that allow you to do that are illegal.

Most people hack switches, so they can pirate games.
Nothing about sticking it to the man, it's not some kind of rebellion movement.

yes
pirating nintendo games is sticking it to nintendo for being so anticonsumer lately

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I'm sure they did pirate a lot of that. But still, what good is a gold doubloon to a pirate if they stole everything. They must have genuinely purchased some things as well, else they'd have had no interest in the gold and treasures to begin with.

this just turned into a bunch of actual pirate speak now

 

[sudeki300]

yes
pirating nintendo games is sticking it to nintendo for being so anticonsumer lately

most people couldn't give two shits about nintendo's stance, they just want free games. nintendo won't get hurt by the switch piracy, it will be the various software houses who don't sell so many games

 

[MikaDubbz]

most people couldn't give two shits about nintendo's stance, they just want free games. nintendo won't get hurt by the switch piracy, it will be the various software houses who don't sell so many games

Indeed, I believe the DS was the Nintendo system that saw the most piracy from consumers, yet the DS is also Nintendo's best selling system to date (and narrowly misses the number 1 spot by less than a million units to the PS2).

 

[sudeki300]

Indeed, I believe the DS was the Nintendo system that saw the most piracy from consumers, yet the DS is also Nintendo's best selling system to date (and narrowly misses the number 1 spot by less than a million units to the PS2).

people keep forgetting a hackable system sells and sells big, even the chance of getting a hackable unit is enough for people to buy.

 

[MikaDubbz]

people keep forgetting a hackable system sells and sells big, even the chance of getting a hackable unit is enough for people to buy.

Yet any given Wii U can be hacked into a beast of an emulation machine, and it still only sold like 13 million units. But the Wii U was doomed from the start, no matter how great it's emulation capabilities, it was never going to be enough to get a more impressive number of units out there. Shame, as a hacked Wii U might be my overall favorite gaming system.

 

[sudeki300]

Yet any given Wii U can be hacked into a beast of an emulation machine, and it still only sold like 13 million units. But the Wii U was doomed from the start, no matter how great it's emulation capabilities, it was never going to be enough to get a more impressive number of units out there. Shame, as a hacked Wii U might be my overall favorite gaming system.

wiiu didn't sell well due to nintendo it had nothing to do with piracy, i have one somewhere but never used it to it's full potential. might have a project idea there.

 

[MikaDubbz]

wiiu didn't sell well due to nintendo it had nothing to do with piracy, i have one somewhere but never used it to it's full potential. might have a project idea there.

No, my point wasn't that piracy hurt Wii U sales. My point was that piracy didn't HELP Wii U sales, even though piracy undeniably helped move extra systems like the DS, Wii, and PSP. Which is a shame, because any Wii U can easily be hacked, and it can quickly become nearly an all-in-one Nintendo device, playing games for every Nintendo device on it except for Switch games, you can even stream your hacked 3DS to it now too.

 

[sudeki300]

No, my point wasn't that piracy hurt Wii U sales. My point was that piracy didn't HELP Wii U sales, even though piracy undeniably helped move extra systems like the DS, Wii, and PSP. Which is a shame, because any Wii U can easily be hacked, and it can quickly become nearly an all-in-one Nintendo device, playing games for every Nintendo device on it except for Switch games, you can even stream your hacked 3DS to it now too.

my apologises tired eyes, i agree though there was just no real love for the wiiu.

 

[comput3rus3r]

my apologises tired eyes, i agree though there was just no real love for the wiiu.

I have 3 switches and my Wii U is still connected. There's no better way to play Rayman multiplayer (touchpad controls murphy) , Scribblenauts, Kirby and the rainbow curse.

 

[Sizednochi]

most people couldn't give two shits about nintendo's stance, they just want free games. nintendo won't get hurt by the switch piracy, it will be the various software houses who don't sell so many games

Well to be honest, I probably wouldn't pirate Nintendo games if they weren't so expensive to begin with, specially where I live. I buy all my PC and PS4 games since Steam/Sony are fair with prices and sales, plus games get cheaper as they age, unlike Nintendo games.

Plus, I enjoy the benefits of buying games for those other systems, which is using their online ecosystems. I feel like I lose part of the experience if I pirate a PC game for example instead of getting it on Steam. Nintendo online is garbage, so no incentive to buy anything there and I don't feel like I'm losing anything by playing a pirated copy. I do own Smash phisically to play on my official firmware, but the online is so trash I rather not bother.

 

[depaul]

Why allowing them to release the product in the first place? If it is illegal

Sony is much more efficient when it comes to fighting piracy, focusing on the security of their system instead of pursuing some people here and there.

 

[cashboxz01]

true pirates dont spend any money on anything besides just the console and maybe an sd card for it

dumb logic is dumb. we pay for the convenience, because the time we save having to find 50 diff tools and sigpatches, and every firmware update, outweighs the savings. if you're a kid and have nothing to do then yea just spend your time to find and download everything free. if you have a job that would pay $15+/hr then it wouldn't make sense to spend 3 hours finding files and then finding patches for every update and be frustrated when you have to use an xci without installing, when 2 hours of work would take care of it for good.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Why allowing them to release the product in the first place? If it is illegal

Sony is much more efficient when it comes to fighting piracy, focusing on the security of their system instead of pursuing some people here and there.

probably because the lawyer Nentindo hired is milking them. lawyer gets more work, gets paid more. their strategy is fkd tbh, as it's not a long-term viable solution. on the other hand, it's better for us since it allows us to explore the potential of the system. the security on the unpatched switch was laughable at best.

 

[nachuz]

dumb logic is dumb. we pay for the convenience, because the time we save having to find 50 diff tools and sigpatches, and every firmware update, outweighs the savings. if you're a kid and have nothing to do then yea just spend your time to find and download everything free. if you have a job that would pay $15+/hr then it wouldn't make sense to spend 3 hours finding files and then finding patches for every update and be frustrated when you have to use an xci without installing, when 2 hours of work would take care of it for good.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------


probably because the lawyer Nentindo hired is milking them. lawyer gets more work, gets paid more. their strategy is fkd tbh, as it's not a long-term viable solution. on the other hand, it's better for us since it allows us to explore the potential of the system. the security on the unpatched switch was laughable at best.

If you have a job, then you deserve to lose your tools for piracy
Piracy should only be used by those who have no way of buying games, and if you have a job AND bought SX, you clearly can buy games, thief