Gary Bowser, of Team Xecuter infamy, is still serving his three-year prison sentence. The storied court battle may be over, but a new court transcript was released, and uploaded online, courtesy of Axios. In it, is further official comments from Nintendo's lawyers. According to the document, Nintendo's legal team wanted to use the TX case to send a message to other would-be hackers or those in the piracy business. During the proceedings, US district judge Robert Lasnik asked Nintendo's lawyers, "What do you think? What else can we do to convince people that there's no glory in this hacking/piracy?", with Nintendo's side responding, "There would be a large benefit to further education of the public."

Lasnik agreed with the sentiment, though he did not sentence Bowser to the full 5 years that Nintendo was seeking. "I always tell the jurors, 'Your role is not to send a message. Your role is to decide guilt or innocence on the facts'. But my role sometimes does entail sending a message." In response, Bowser said that giving him a longer sentence wouldn't be a deterrent to hackers, stating, “There’s so much money to be made from piracy that it’s insignificant.”

Additionally, the legal documents also reveal that Nintendo blamed hackers for the release of the new Nintendo Switch model, saying they had to design new hardware to circumvent the losses caused by TX. Nintendo's legal team also claimed that those using hacked systems could cheat, thus scaring off children who would lose to the cheaters and feel upset. “Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage.”

2) According to the hacker Gary Bowser's lawyer, much of the time Bowser already served while awaiting sentencing was spent in de facto solitary confinement due to Covid and other health issues pic.twitter.com/BezqOq2oeZ

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) June 7, 2022

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Regarding the means of "sending a message", Bowser's lawyers sought a shorter 19-month sentence, to which Lasnik disagreed, and eventually sentenced Bowser to serve 40 months. The amount sentenced would have initially been 60 months, but was shortened due to the fact that Bowser suffered health issues as he awaited trial in jail, which caused him to be alone in solitary for 23 hours a day over the course of six months. As this also took place during the height of COVID, Bowser would only be allowed out of his cell to shower once every three days. He also had lost 90 pounds over those six months, and was confined to a wheelchair, as a result of his illness going untreated.

This was Bowser's statement regarding the above: "It has been a very traumatic experience for me getting arrested, coming here, going through this. This is my first time actually in a jail going through the court process and everything. And the amount of time I've spent already, 16 months in custody, a lot of that time - I spent six months, basically, locked up due to Covid. I went through all three of the Covid waves before there was even a vaccine available. I personally haven't got the vaccine [as] I am skeptical with my medical condition, how it will affect me, and I haven't been able to actually have proper medical treatment because I haven't been able to have a one-on-one with a doctor to see if the vaccine would be possible with my health conditions. When I first got arrested, I was 410 pounds. I had to use a wheelchair. I spent my life drinking, since I was age 15, after my mom died, and this is the longest time I have been sober in my life."

Source

 

[LightBeam]

A product not containing copyrighted material by Nintendo and not being intertwined with piracy could still hypothetically by sold and it would probably be less illegal. IMO TX broke every unwritten rule in the book of past legal homebrew or modchip ventures.

Probably ? I do think that Nintendo could try taking legal action against such a thing, but that's not sure, clearly SX was an easy target, they just felt untouchable.

The last time Sony try to send a message like this, it work quite well. There is no more hack on Sony console after that and no emulator of their newest console PS4 on PC.

That has pretty much nothing to do with that tho.
Sony is dealing with hacks with their bug bounties. Hackers would prefer to take Sony's money and maybe reveal the vulnerability afterwards, when it has already been patched. They don't really need to make an example to dissuade hackers to do naughty stuff on their consoles, they just wave money and tell to skilled people to find stuff. It's much more profitable to take the money than giving it for free to people who mostly want nothing more than free games.

 

[Thescrewremover]

The people responsible for this aren't making videogames. They're just ruining lives, putting down fan projects made with love and making extremely customer unfriendly greedy decisions. The game studios with the great developers are the ones making the games Nintendo is well known for, not the atrocious decisions the corporate side makes.
As for the money, piracy isn't the reason Nintendo would be losing money. Most mid-tier pcs can pirate switch games and play them perfectly. DS was the most easily pirated console but the second most successful.

What lives have been ruined?

 

[hamohamo]

What lives have been ruined?

the guy who was put in jail for 3 years? the guy who was asked to pay back millions of dollars? the fangame makers who spent the last decade developing a game just for it to be put down on release?

 

[wolf-snake]

I don't know, his health issues seems to be from the fact that he was a fatass alcoholic in his 50s rather him being in jail. He just wants people to pitty him... Which judging from this thread seems to be working.

 

[bonkmaykr]

Nintendo being full of shit as usual.

Here's what I have to say about that:

1. Either don't let small children play online games, or supervise them and teach them lessons while they're at it. And if you're playing against a cheater, no matter their age, report them and leave. Don't even bother getting upset over it. If they're "legit cheating", just outplay them, because they will slip up. Defeating a cheater using legitimate play is satisfying to me.
2. Consoles in the past have gone flying off shelves because of hacking and homebrew. PSP for example.
3. Most of us only use hacked Switches for homebrew. Those of us pirating games or cheating in them probably aren't playing them online, because you already have spyware embedded into the Switch's operating system to automatically ban modded consoles that try to connect to Nintendo servers, essentially eliminating the problem you just described. None of us seem too interested in bypassing these measures as it doesn't benefit anybody but game modders, and so far a lot of people in those communities are focused on providing "wifi-safe" mods rather than opening up the doors a little more. You're fine, stop whining.

I can't say I'm surprised Nintendo would provide a response so full of holes, and it definitely lines up with their past behavior and information on their website, so it's pretty clear they actually believe what they're saying.

Well, when the Steam Deck comes around, there won't be as much of a practical use to Switch hacking anymore unless you're on a budget or are just tinkering for fun. Nintendo is killing themselves ever so slowly and this is going to backfire on them one of these days.

 

[Thescrewremover]

the guy who was put in jail for 3 years? the guy who was asked to pay back millions of dollars? the fangame makers who spent the last decade developing a game just for it to be put down on release?

Gary Bowser already ruined his life. Matthew Storman was already a loser. Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?

 

[godreborn]

well, tx has been known to provide dongles or whatever in multiple scenes, offering something of their own. where Gary went wrong is that his team tried to profit off of piracy. I don't really care about that, but what I don't like is that they hid information about how some of this is done if that makes sense. I don't believe knowledge should ever be hidden, and that's something I've gotten a lot of flak over from wannabe devs or hackers who are not anything of the sort. that's what made me paint all pirates with a single brush, that all they care about is free games without actually thinking about where or from whom they're getting these games. I'm just left on my own, attacked constantly, because I warned people about someone else's bullshit. no one believes me until that person's true colors are shown, so what can I really do?

 

[Thescrewremover]

Well, when the Steam Deck comes around, there won't be as much of a practical use to Switch hacking anymore unless you're on a budget or are just tinkering for fun.

The Steam Deck has been out for months

 

[smf]

The DMCA was literally paid for by Hollywood pedophile child rapists and enacted by Epstein/maxwell pedo blackmailed politicians .
Remember if you support the existence of or enforcement of the DMCA you are literally supporting child rapists and the rape of children
same goes for if you actually pay for any of their content

Pedophilia in general population is estimated at 1-5%. So any medium sized business is going to have pedophiles working there, how is that relevant to DMCA?

Pedophiles in the police, pedophiles working at the local grocery store, your doctor, uber driver etc....

 

[hamohamo]

Gary Bowser already ruined his life. Matthew Storman was already a loser. Do you have the slightest idea how little that narrows it down?

Gary Bowser didn't ruin his life.
Loser =\= drowned in debt forever
If you want names, I don't have them. Point still stands.

 

[kisamesama]

“Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage.”

good lord... yeah cheaters are the worst thing that can happen to kids....parent should not deal with this... it's too much responsibility

 

[Thescrewremover]

Gary Bowser didn't ruin his life.
Loser =\= drowned in debt forever
If you want names, I don't have them. Point still stands.

Gary Bowser was (currently is just overweight) an overweight alcoholic; therefore, Gary had already ruined his life by shortening it. Matthew Storman's primary source of income was from RomUniverse; thus, Matthew was a loser by not thinking of a better/legal way of making money. You lack names because your point doesn't stand; if you make a fangame, you know the consequences. Also, if your life is ruined by your fangame getting a DMCA claim, maybe you should have made something original instead.

 

[bonkmaykr]

The Steam Deck has been out for months

I'm aware of this, smartypants. I didn't say "comes out", I said "comes around". It's also still locked behind a reservation system and takes several months to go through.

 

[tsam2]

“Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage.”

For anyone wondering, lawyers are used to say anything in the court to win a case for their clients, even the dumbest thing.

 

[KennyAtom]

In response, Bowser said that giving him a longer sentence wouldn't be a deterrent to hackers, stating, “There’s so much money to be made from piracy that it’s insignificant.”

And that's what sealed his deal, making him look guilty in the eyes of the jury.

You don't say "But there's money to be made in piracy!" You don't say shit like that until after the trial, when they can't convict you for it again.

 

[Maximumbeans]

“Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage.”

For anyone wondering, lawyers are used to say anything in the court to win a case for their clients, even the dumbest thing.

They really said:

 

[MadonnaProject]

If you don't want your health to be at risk in prison, don't willfully violate the law repeatedly. He's right where he should be, and is getting free healthcare.

I know people in asia who would not dream of owning nintendo hardware, and through this guy's work they were able to enjoy nintendo games. Sure piracy is wrong but on the rung of crimes its not akin to murder.

I think prison should be relegated to human cost. The way you're keen to see someone rot in prison for circumventing a billion dollar organisations hardware shows you're truly a canadian. Plus your signature reiterates your status in life as an NPC.

Gary bowser probably brought more smiles to people and did more for them in one day than you will in your entire wretched existence.

 

[Elodain]

Gary Bowser was (currently is just overweight) an overweight alcoholic

So...that a valid reason to not provide him acceptable health care?

Matthew was a loser by not thinking of a better/legal way of making money.

I'll begrudgingly agree with you there, charging for ROMS you don't own the rights to is not cool. But let's not forget the fact that part of the reasons ROM sites are necessary at all is because Nintendo, in their infinite anti-consumer wisdom, offers absolutely NO legal avenue to purchase/access the vast majority of their legacy catalogs out side of the second hand ebay market which, not only is massively overpriced because of the greedy fuck-wads with grading systems setting the prices, but Nintendo nor the game's developers see a CENT of anyway.

Maybe, just MAYBEEEE if Nintendo decided to do right by their customers for once and bring back virtual console or put all of a console's library up on the NSO Emulation rental service they have here there wouldn't be as much of a demand for piracy? It's pretty obvious there are enough people willing to spend money for access to ROMS that Matthew was able to make around thirty thousand dollars a year from it. That's a lot of money Nintendo could be making for themselves if they could figure out how to do something that actually makes their customers happy for once instead of being stubborn and clutching their pearls on old games then getting mad when somebody else goes over their heads.

if you make a fangame, you know the consequences. Also, if your life is ruined by your fangame getting a DMCA claim, maybe you should have made something original instead.

Imagine being such a sad person you dick-ride an anti-consumer company that stifles passion projects that aren't being sold for profit and only put more eyes on the series in general. When's the last time SEGA went after a fan game? Do people still buy Sonic games? Yes, yes they do. Freely distributed fan games to nothing to hurt the bottom line of the IP holders.

Are they doing anything wrong from a legal standpoint by snuffing out fangames? No, but Just because they have a legal right to do so doesn't make doing so right.

 

[Tur7L3]

I could say what everyone are reminding about Bowser and I'd be right, he willfully did things in a way that he knew was illegal unlike many in the scene. However I find stupid how Nintendo (don't know if the article was the one to say it that way and not them) dares to use the word "blame" over Bowser about making the new Switch revision. The way you could access a develoepr-intended space on ANY switch was piss-easy and they had it coming

 

[tsam2]

“Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage.”

For anyone wondering, lawyers are used to say anything in the court to win a case for their clients, even the dumbest thing.

I will refrase it. Even multinational companies will say the dumbest things in court to support a case.