Nintendo tracked down an alleged Switch pirate using a combination of Reddit posts and repair orders, a new lawsuit has revealed.

As reported by Game File, Nintendo sued James “Archbox” Williams, from Surprise, Arizona, for allegedly violating its digital copyrights by selling pirated copies of Switch games.

According to the lawsuit, Nintendo hired a law firm called Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp to investigate online pirate video game stores and found a user called Archbox it traced to Arizona. It then spotted a Reddit user called Archbox (Archbox was a moderator of r/SwitchPirates). Based on their posts, the law firm was able to identify Archbox as James Williams. Williams, it turns out, had various Nintendo accounts associated with email addresses, which were tied to repair orders.

Yes, Williams, an alleged Switch pirate, actually made two repair orders with Nintendo tied to a Surprise, Arizona shipping address.

As you’d expect, cease-and-desists followed — one of which came just two days after Nintendo sent him one of his repaired items. The pirate shops Archbox was allegedly involved with include Jack-in-the-Shop, Turtle in the Shop, and NekoDrive, which all shut down following a cease-and-desist Nintendo sent in March.

“Defendant became a leading (if not the primary) moderator of the SwitchPirates Reddit community, which he helped grow to nearly 190,000 members," Nintendo’s initial complaint reads, as reported by Torrent Freak. "Since 2019, Defendant has posted thousands of comments and messages to the SwitchPirates Reddit Group.

“Defendant’s posts have included, by way of example, messages directing users to the Pirate Shops […]; and offering technical advice and encouragement to other users about how to use the Pirate Shops, how to download and install Circumvention Software, and how to play pirated copies of Nintendo Switch games.”

Nintendo now has a default judgment in their favor after Williams failed to plead his case to the court in time.

Source

 

[Kioku]

On a note, this kind of indicates how deep the telemetry rabbit hole goes such that ninty is able to match the console sent in with the stuff that is distributed on the shops/net. I wonder if those console he sent in used emunand and if he did, how did they find out if he didn't leave the sd card inside it? Seems to suggest that even emunand could leave traces.

It was more so the address and some internet sleuthing rather than the serial number.

 

[Sd4930Ur]

Geht Nintendo unter? Oder warum und worum geht es dabei, bekommt Big N kein Geld?
Ich hatte schon immer großen Respekt vor N!

PS: Wenn sie ein paar Millionen auf ihrem Konto haben, OK! Nur zu.
pps: ^^ Vielleicht

 

[4d1xlaan]

How else is it going to happen? Voluntarily by the companies? How are you going to archive Wii and 3DS content now, btw? If those hadn't been pirated when they were, how would you access wide swaths of that content that was completely exclusive?

you're more than old enough to be able to recognize that things can happen even if you don't see them directly. if you can't imagine that current gen games can be archived for the future unless they are also being publicly available to pirate for free weeks before their official release then I'm sorry but you are beyond reason

 

[choolisfound]

View attachment 471465​

Nintendo tracked down an alleged Switch pirate using a combination of Reddit posts and repair orders, a new lawsuit has revealed.

As reported by Game File, Nintendo sued James “Archbox” Williams, from Surprise, Arizona, for allegedly violating its digital copyrights by selling pirated copies of Switch games.

According to the lawsuit, Nintendo hired a law firm called Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp to investigate online pirate video game stores and found a user called Archbox it traced to Arizona. It then spotted a Reddit user called Archbox (Archbox was a moderator of r/SwitchPirates). Based on their posts, the law firm was able to identify Archbox as James Williams. Williams, it turns out, had various Nintendo accounts associated with email addresses, which were tied to repair orders.

Yes, Williams, an alleged Switch pirate, actually made two repair orders with Nintendo tied to a Surprise, Arizona shipping address.

As you’d expect, cease-and-desists followed — one of which came just two days after Nintendo sent him one of his repaired items. The pirate shops Archbox was allegedly involved with include Jack-in-the-Shop, Turtle in the Shop, and NekoDrive, which all shut down following a cease-and-desist Nintendo sent in March.

“Defendant became a leading (if not the primary) moderator of the SwitchPirates Reddit community, which he helped grow to nearly 190,000 members," Nintendo’s initial complaint reads, as reported by Torrent Freak. "Since 2019, Defendant has posted thousands of comments and messages to the SwitchPirates Reddit Group.

“Defendant’s posts have included, by way of example, messages directing users to the Pirate Shops […]; and offering technical advice and encouragement to other users about how to use the Pirate Shops, how to download and install Circumvention Software, and how to play pirated copies of Nintendo Switch games.”

Nintendo now has a default judgment in their favor after Williams failed to plead his case to the court in time.

Source

Lesson:
If you want be a pirate, don't tell anyone.

 

[G33ksquad]

Listen to their cease and desists, when they tell you to stop doing something, stop.

 

[_Ruri_]

What is with the piracy scene lately? Seems like every time I turn around, there's yet another emulator being taken down because of increased openly-bragged-about piracy (especially days/weeks ahead of everyone else), or pirates getting sued because they make dumb decisions. Honestly, it was better when the piracy scene stayed underground and wasn't trying so hard to be in the spotlight. Maybe we'd still have regularly-updated Yuzu or Ryujinx if we were still in those days.

Piracy has become way too easy and accessible, and with social media like YouTube, TikTok and Reddit… well, it’s kind of a recipe for disaster. I hope that at least when all of this ends the piracy situation will become underground again, and only people who actually know their stuff will be left.

 

[DM9]

And this is what I hate about people today and what the real consequences are about posting shit you shouldn't, thinking you can have a fan base and make money off it while committing federal crimes (money+internet)= , what I'm not liking is big N taking over sites because you have to hope that people delete all data before they take over so big N doesn't try and cross reference up address with peoples accounts .. it's what most companies do when they go after stuff like this, can you imagine banning accounts with digital purchases because you were flagged for suspicious activity well this is a direction Corporation can go..
Do people forget when Sony was sueing people for downloading music with Napster, the wild West days are becoming contained and lately most governments have ruled in favor of Corporations be smart A.I is watching you

 

[ZeroFX]

Find me ninty, i pirate all of your stuff. Also GBAtemp will be on ninty list sooner than later.

 

[LightBeam]

I won't call people stupid for that because no other company does that, just none. They're just doing it to send a message.

So sure, it feels bad, but hopefully it pushes people to do the bare minimum when it comes to opsec.
At least make it hard for Nintendo to track you ffs, they're just doing it because it's easy and makes people scared.

Tons of ways to make it a bit harder for Nintendo to track you.

But I'm not betting that it will have the effect that Nintendo hope it will. We've seen it with YouTube trying to crack down on adblockers, they just get better. People won't get rid of adblockers, and people will keep pirating/modding/hacking Nintendo's software and hardware.

So I just hope that it pushes people to level their game. There are tons of ways to make it a pain for Nintendo to track you or send claims to your stuff. Host your stuff on a server in Russia, Singapore or something, where DMCA have almost no effect (with a good hosting service tho), use Lenny if you want a Reddit, host your git, use an identity just for that, and be discrete (most important). Heck that stuff could even be hosted on the darkweb, that might make Nintendo less prone to aim for it.

At this point, anything would be better than literally giving your adress, but if it's hard for them to track you, they really aren't going to spend that much energy time and money to track people making homebrews or tutorials about how to solder a chip.

 

[4d1xlaan]

Piracy has become way too easy and accessible, and with social media like YouTube, TikTok and Reddit… well, it’s kind of a recipe for disaster. I hope that at least when all of this ends the piracy situation will become underground again, and only people who actually know their stuff will be left.

it doesn't help that people unironically think that current gen games need to be available to pirate, because... preservation?

 

[BlusterBong]

Find me ninty, i pirate all of your stuff. Also GBAtemp will be on ninty list sooner than later.

taunting "the big evil corporation" to find you really isn't going to help the Temp's case when they come after it, many of the posts on the site that do the same by some very notable posters will just give the N targets for who to really hurt more, and they got two possible wins that would give them the greenlight to do it with no consequences.