Nintendo Switch hackers Team Xecuter leaders arrested, charged in federal indictment

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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.

:arrow: Source
 

SlCKB0Y

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joycon drift

speaking of which, I’ve never seen this on any of my switches. Does the drift only happen when the stick is in the Neutral position? If so, how does this actually impact gameplay, since when you are actually playing, the stick is never in a neutral position completely.

genuinely curious.
 

eyeliner

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Their mistake was getting into the USA. They should have been in China.
It was bound to happen, so let's hope that there is a SXOS leak sometime.
 

fille

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Search for it on youtube,n64 have also this problems,but that after 20 years,difference with switch after a few years,with the tech we have now its UNACCEPTABLE,and even more when they deny it.
It doesn't make steal a game a good thing,but nintendo is just shit for customers,and many people say that.
The reason i react here is cause now people wake up and say tx is bad,but like i said,everybody is here on gbatemp for homebrew,i just don't believe those stories.
If i ask normal people who play games from cartridges,a normal family,they don't known gbatemp.
You find guides for hacking consoles,but everyone is here for another reason,hmmm,don't think so.
 
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HideoKojima

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Well then... Guess I'm running Atmos from here on in :rofl2:

This does suck for the V2 Mariko users with the chips installed. I've got a V1 Erista patched... Just hope I can continue to use it.
You don't really need to, as long as you stick to the games that were released so far, as for the new games that require a higher few, who knows maybe a homebrew could do the trick and remove the version check
 

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speaking of which, I’ve never seen this on any of my switches. Does the drift only happen when the stick is in the Neutral position? If so, how does this actually impact gameplay, since when you are actually playing, the stick is never in a neutral position completely.
Basically, the drift problem is that the little pads that keep the stick in a neutral position are of poor quality. They can wear down with extended use in one direction, which causes the stick to not be in a neutral position.

As to when you might need the stick in a neutral position, think aiming an arrow in a game. Doing that becomes a lot harder if the game is constantly moving your character slightly to the left or to the right.
 

fille

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speaking of which, I’ve never seen this on any of my switches. Does the drift only happen when the stick is in the Neutral position? If so, how does this actually impact gameplay, since when you are actually playing, the stick is never in a neutral position completely.

genuinely curious.


If you play a mario game(platformer),you have big problems then,and lots of other games.
It seems that you don't get it.
It shouldn't happen in the first place,thats how it works.
And after your warranty,bye joycon,buy a new one,after a few years,bye joycon,if you like that concept,your crazy.
Things brake offcourse,but not in that short lifespan.
So with other words,nintendo say fuck you to customer,and i say fuck you to them.
Last thing i ever bought from them,next console will be sony or microsoft.
Will play games from them on emu till they learn to threat a customer a nice way and not like you be fucked when you buy something from them.
 
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Welp, I guess I'll finally have to migrate to Atmosphere once a future game comes out that depends on a future Switch firmware that is no longer supported by SX OS. I'll miss XCI loading greatly when that day arrives.

EDIT: And what I mean by depend on is -- a game that ACTUALLY requires a newer firmware to function. Such as games that utilize new APIs implemented in new firmware versions. I'm not talking about the artificial version check that is easily circumvented.
 
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FAST6191

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‘Look, just because I don’t do it doesn’t mean I’m judging those who do. For me there is a massive difference between people pirating games and those who get rich by facilitating it. If these guys had been giving their code away for free I could probably even accept that.

And guess what, if they were giving it away for free, there is a good chance they just get a nasty letter from Nintendo’s lawyers rather than Federal charges.

Do you similarly condemn those emulators, often of current consoles, with massive patreon or whatever similar service support sections?
 

HideoKojima

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Huh, is there a new check for newer games that prevent then to be played?
Maybe I didn't phrase it well. For instance you'll have to update to the latest version of switch firmware to be able to play the Mario 3D All Stars, if you aren't you get a message that you should update. Hence the game checks for the Fw and won't play if it's lower than the required one. So what I meant is a homebrew that will make games play on lower fw
 

Paulsar99

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Now I'm thinking nintendo will raise hell upon them and sue them for every sx os sold. Also I wonder if the owner of uberchips might have settled with nintendo by revealing the identities of tx?
 

Foxi4

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Atmosphere isn't selling products with a sole intent of circumventing copyright protection like TX, Atmosphere devs will be just fine since creating CFW itself isn't illegal and they can't be arrested for it.
It 100% can be, depending on the jurisdiction. The only exemptions in the DMCA that I can think of off the top of my head concern mobile phones (aka "Jailbreaking"), vehicles (based on Right to Repair) and "copy protection research", consoles are a free-for-all in regards to what it describes as "technological protection measures", or TMP's - bypassing those is strictly prohibited, as is sharing the methods on how to do so. Any method of installing any software that circumvents the built-in TMP's is subject to potential litigation. It would be a rather "broad strokes" approach, but technically not beyond the realm of imagination.
 
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|<roni&g

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A blow for sure, still hoping to get my switch hacked so I can actually use it properly, only played most of a link to the past so far and nothing more, haven't even connected to the net because without a hack, it's almost useless
 

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Mates, this is not the time to argue endlessly over the fact that TX was taking Atmosphere code, taking money for SX OS. We use CFW from this same reason - Tinfoil, Custom apps, systems, not officially ported games, customization... Now we need to focus so that the unpatched scene doesn't get ruined to prevent Nintendo from shutting down the SX Core. We need ideas how to save big part of our scene.
 

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Do you similarly condemn those emulators, often of current consoles, with massive patreon or whatever similar service support sections?

If the people implementing the emulation have done so without using proprietary code/software, access to confidential hardware documentation or facilitated the circumvention of copy protection, then they are completely in the clear, regardless of whether they are charging for their software as their implementation is clean. And the courts generally agree with this opinion.
 

FAST6191

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Huh, is there a new check for newer games that prevent then to be played?
A simple check for a firmware is rarely a problem (we have total control over the hardware -- not like say the 360 DVD mods or the sky3ds where only 1:1 games would work without additional hacks, you find it and remove it).
It is usually more when the newer firmwares have extra functionality not present in old ones, or said functionality is radically retooled (different inputs, different locations, different...) then you either get to emulate it in the game, or have to redo the game to work to the old scheme (easier for a game likely developed before said firmware changes and not really taking advantage, as years go on then maybe harder).

If then your base firmware starts getting more and more out of date, or development drops off, more games fail to work. If another firmware then takes up the mantle in some way you will tend not to see people put in the hours to get it to work on old ones.

To be honest their fate was sealed when they started charging for a licence that’s probably why Nintendo went after them. Profiting from it was never a good idea.
We have had flash cart vendors and emulator authors that have taken payment/donations for better versions... for as long as I have been knocking around in flash carts and emulators. Some of said same are with us to this day.

If the people implementing the emulation have done so without using proprietary code/software, access to confidential hardware documentation or facilitated the circumvention of copy protection, then they are completely in the clear, regardless of whether they are charging for their software as their implementation is clean. And the courts generally agree with this opinion.
And how many emulators do you think conform to those standards? We have had copy protection for decades at this point (16 bit era was the last to particularly lack any), hardware docs similarly get leaked for just about everything, I will take your meaning of proprietary as opposed to being the strict meaning and yeah you can probably dodge that one.
There are substantial non infringing uses to play with but if the makers of the emulated devices or gaming running on them really wanted to they could make life very hard with what would ostensibly be a legit case (not one likely to be called frivolous) -- a homebrew only emulator is a very easy tweak for many of them and it is not just pure accuracy that allows them to run commercial games. Whether debugging, ROM hacks for disabled people and simple backup/my chosen method counts there then being the balance.
 

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yea, it’s a great day for these scene. These assholes were known for stealing code and bricking peoples consoles if they thought someone was running a cloned flash cart or unlicensed software. Their illegal actions also bring a ton of unwanted legal scrutiny to the people and teams putting in the extra work to do things legitimately; who aren’t using proprietary code, who are doing clean reverse engineering projects and who aren’t directly promoting piracy, let alone getting hugely rich from it.

Max Louarn was also known for ripping off 10s of millions of dollars from ordinary people via credit card fraud in the early 90s.

‘They are pieces of shit who deserve what is coming to them. When the feds are done with them I hope Nintendo bends them over and financially cleans them out in a civil suit.

Bunch of whining babies on GBA celebrating a demise like this, only jut after ~1 month that the DOJ went after -SPARKS and literally obliterated the real scene, you guys say scene here scene there, when you are all a bunch of nobodies who never spoke with anyone relevant in any kind of scene but all you guys want to say now is fuck you SX OS because they sold licenses, meanwhile millions of pirates around the globe are worried about their future and if their CFW will still get updates... I won't be an asshole like most of u guys here and say that I want the same for Atmos devs.. because I don't and nobody should wish this for others without even knowing them.

You guys should be happy that theres no more TV/Movies/PC games hell the whole iso scene around like before, at least not if you're not a member of those top-tier and impossible to get in places...
 

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