Reddit Pirate Who Mocked Nintendo Slammed With $4.5 Million Judgment
Besides running a fairly large for-profit piracy operation focused on both pirated Nintendo Switch games and copyright protection-subverting hardware, Archbox also made some notoriously inflammatory comments about Nintendo ahead of the game publisher's legal actions.
Ironically, Nintendo did attempt to warn him and settle the matter with a takedown before going to court, but both that initial olive branch and the lawsuit were ignored. Simply ignoring the problem will be considerably more difficult now, though; perhaps Mr. Williams should have played ball when he had the chance.
Like the last time I covered this story, when Nintendo initially filed the lawsuit, it's difficult to be sympathetic for James C. Williams and other pirates like him. It's not that I always agree with Nintendo's stances on things, especially emulation, but there's an enormous gulf between an enthusiast who quietly pilfers a game for himself and a pirate lining his pockets with your work. Nintendo doesn't really go after gamers simply downloading its games. Instead, it's the ROM hosters, software pirates, and related hardware manufacturers that Nintendo goes after. Well, them and emulation developers.
In any case, it's no surprise that Nintendo won this one. Not all of Nintendo's legal ambitions have quite gone to plan, though. While piracy-related lawsuits have largely been favorable for Nintendo, its attempt to kill Pokemon competitor Palworld have seemingly failed miserably, per GamesFray.That's a good thing, though. Game developers need to make their money, and it's not like Nintendo invented RPG or monster battling mechanics.
Per Aftermath, the immediate consequences of the $4.5 million lawsuit's default judgement will include the delisting of all of Archbox's shops. Failure for Archbox to do so will, of course, result in imprisonment.
