• dustyData@lemmy.worldEnglish
      592·
      1 year ago

      Recently Nintendo closed a lawsuit where the person in question is basically doomed to a lifetime of financial ruin. He was to spend 3 years in prison but was released and owes Nintendo $10 million. Nintendo, the poor indie company, is now entitled to 25% of his income for the rest of his life. Gary Bowser Vs. Nintendo.

    • Ganrokh@lemmy.worldEnglish
      231·
      1 year ago

      In 2018, someone maintaining a ROM site was ordered to pay Nintendo $12 million.

      In late 2021, someone was sentenced to 10 years of prison and to pay Nintendo $14.5 million. That person got out on good behavior last April, but 25-30% of their wages are going to be garnished until their debt to Nintendo is paid off - which will likely take the rest of their life.

    • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
      232·
      1 year ago

      Out of the loop, what Nintendo do?

      Sued him (so far nothing irregular) and he has to pay 10 million dollars or something along this magnitude. Bottom line is, he will have to give a good portion of his income for the rest of his life to Nintendo. OK, that guy was kinda stupid and monetized the website through ads but the punishment is still super excessive for something that resulted in no bodily harm for anyone. Meanwhile, the ROM site could be googled and yet Google is still free to allow users to find pirated media. YouTube started as a video piracy platform (not officially, of course, but unlicensed uploads of popular videos were the reason YouTube grew so much). LW admins will not be granted the same luxury.

          • cottonmon@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            Ah, looked more into it and yes, it appears I was mistaken. What got Bowser though is that it appears that they also set up access to roms though I don’t know if this was included in the purchase of the device.

            This was from one of his e-mails:

            “I [am] going to be busy setting up the ‘underground’ stuff (rompacks, coverarts, emulators) on maxconsole forums, that will also help on ‘grey side’ of the device for those wishing to play more than original snes cartridges,” Bowser wrote in an email quoted in the indictment against him.

            “We have a plan in the works to have secure links to these retro rompacks on a protected server, so it will not be a problem,” Bowser said in another quoted email.

        • woelkchen@lemmy.worldEnglish
          41·
          1 year ago

          Didn’t they monetize the website through subscriptions?

          Maybe, maybe not. I didn’t look up the exact details before writing because the overall point remains that courts punish individuals exceptionally hard for copyright offenses.