Nintendo is infamous for its stringent stance against any kind of copyright infringement, to the point where even fan-edits have gotten people in trouble. So, when the company tells you to stop illegally distributing games, you should probably listen. But that doesn’t seem to be the case for “Archbox,” who served as the primary moderator of the r/SwitchPirates subreddit for some time, before he was charged last year for selling pirated games.
Originally reported by Nintendo Everything, the company is now seeking a $4.5 million default judgment because the defendant never showed up for the court proceedings. Archbox’s real, James Williams, is popular in the Switch modding community. He reportedly ran several pirating sites, along with “shops” — such as JITS — where games are available to download on jailbroken Switch consoles. James not only tested Nintendo’s patience pertaining to its intellectual property, but committed the cardinal sin of piracy while doing so: charging money for it.
Nintendo argues that Archbox has illegally distributed “thousands, if not hundreds of thousands” of games so far, and wants to recoup the amount it lost out on. Despite $3.2 billion in profits last year (from a $10.8B revenue), the company “… respectfully requests that the Court enter a default judgment in favor of NOA [Nintendo of America] and against Williams for a monetary award of $4,500,000.”
That’s the latest development in the ongoing lawsuit, and if James doesn’t respond anytime soon, it would be fair to assume that the court will grant this request.
To be fair, it’s hard to find a lot of sympathy for someone who was allegedly profiting from pirated games. We certainly haven’t heard Williams’ side of the story yet. But that would require showing up in front of a judge and Nintendo’s lawyers, something Archbox has seemingly been unwilling to do so far.
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