Nintendo Pirate Settles Dispute for $1.5 Million

[Treblaine]

Lots of self-righteous idiots in this thread.

Most of you just don't have a clue, and you never will. Why don't you all sacrifice a lamb to Nintendo and worship them

I'll get right on that, but first...

I guarantee that 2/3 if not more of all the downloaders that downloaded the "leak" would have never bought the game in the first place. They are either broke or have no intention of ever buying a game ever again, because who wants to buy games from psychopaths in court?

So for Nintendo to say they "suffered losses" like every other company that does, it really doesn't make sense, and it is total bullshit. The only thing accomplished in this fiasco is that a corporation was giving the right to search someone's property. I like how no one is talking about that.

How does this make what they, and this guy, did any less illegal?

People can moan all they want about game prices being through the roof, but that isn't a justification for piracy, just like being poor doesn't justify stealing people's cars.

"BUT THEY'RE NOT STEALING REALLY/IT DOESN'T HURT TEH COMPANY"
is not the point. Piracy is illegal, end of story. Games are a luxury, and you have to pay for that luxury to get it legally.

They were only given the right to search this guy's place because they had sufficient evidence. Since the act of piracy is a computer crime, it also only makes sense that they be given his computer information as well so that the investigation can be properly conducted.

When all is said and done and the proverbial shit has hit the fan and we live in a total authoritarian society, you will no longer have "the pirates" or "the hackers" to scapegoat. You'll just have your confused psyche and the tears in your pillow to bicker about.

Rrrrright.

I mean why are we still calling this piracy? Piracy used to mean people who kill, rape, torture and steal on the high seas, it was already a HUGE stretch to apply the term to organised criminals who were in the business of selling counterfeit tapes and CDs.

The (former) number one illegal file-sharing site dubbed itself "The Pirate Bay." If these people call themselves pirates, than why shouldn't everyone else?

But this isn't even piracy as it used to mean, this really is nothing more than a leak with no attempt to make money off it. He IS guilty of copyright violation but ONLY ONE count and did not try to make any money off this.

He is just being used as a scape goat for the thousands of people they can't catch who did download the game and that is NOT justice.

The problem is that he is now responsible for all the downloads his upload gathered. It's sort of similar to aiding and abetting: [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accomplice#Aiding_and_abetting_under_U.S._law] he is responsible for those downloads because he is the one that enabled the downloaders to download.

We're not disputing the legality... we are disputing whether the punishment fits the crime. This is like cutting off the hands for stealing a loaf of bread, come on man, 1.5 MILLION dollars, he will be in debt for the rest of his life doomed to forever live in poverty. And how is Nintendo doing? Still record profits I see. To spite many negative reviews New Mario Bros Wii has sold 11.5 MILLION units in only 9 weeks!

And you are mixing up the order of things on Piracy, Pirate's Bay did not choose the moniker of "Pirate", it was forced on ALL copyright violators long before their website came along, they just tried to make a wry joke out of it, sorry you didn't get it.

And I'm sorry but associated guilt is not generally a part of justice in modern liberal democracies as it goes completely against any rational sense of justice. Remember, it is not merely enough to prove guilt, it's not like "oh he's guilty, now we can do WHATEVER we want to you".

This guy is just Nintendo's whipping boy.

Your "Aiding and abetting" example is another stretch but even if it did apply it should not and DOES NOT have the same punishment as the original crime itself. This is like selling a lock-pick to a burglar, you can't then charge the guy who sold the lock pick with burglary!

If the punishment was to TRULY fit the crime any jury would be easily convinced that the overwhelming majority of the market that bought this game were never is a position to pirate the game, but rather the "casual" market. On that, a better settlement would have been $20'000 to $50'000 which would be ample discouragement from them ever doing it again. And bullshit on having to pay the legal fees of the plaintiff... I think Nintendo can afford it and still consider it money well spent.

I DON'T want to hear in any reply "ohh but he IS guilty" WE ALL FUCKING WELL KNOW THE LAW but the question is do you know the MEANING OF JUSTICE!

This whole episode just shows how far the Copyright law and legal process has escaped from real justice. These laws where set up for organised criminals who sold counterfeit tapes for profit, these laws would NEVER have been passed today.

 

[Andronicus]

1.5 million. For a $50 $100+ game. Wowww

Fix'd. And good job Nintendo. That'll teach pirates.

Re-fix'd.

Sorry dude, this is Australia. If you don't like paying through the nose for videogames, you've got three options:
1) Acquire illegally
2) Buy online (assuming you don't have to worry about region lock)
3) Bend over and take it like the little ***** you are.

That said, this issue wasn't about acquiring illegally, but uploading the game to the internet. I don't know exactly how innocent the guy is, but the story was actually featured on the news, and it looked like just a silly mistake on his part. Still, I don't think stupidity deserves a $1.6 mil fine.

 

[Guitarmasterx7]

Wow that is fucked. I mean, I can understand a couple thousand dollars, but 1.5 million? First of all, no doubt nintendo already took it off the internet, so the problem is fixed. Second, I doubt that the number of times it was downloaded amounted to anywhere near that, being as it wasn't exactly publicized to a high degree. Third, That guy is never, EVER going to get 1.5 million dollars. Nintendo basically put him in debt for the rest of his life even though they know he will never be able to repay them and they sure as hell don't need the money. I mean, I guess it makes an example of him but holy fuck.

 

[MMMowman]

Dear Nintendo,
I can't believe your paying attention on making millions when you can be making billions....
there's no way you're going to get back all of the money within that guy's lifetime. I even doubt that 50,000 people wanted a Nintendo game. I guess that guy better get used to living with his mum

 

[brunothepig]

1.5 million. For a $60 game. Wowww

Well. It wasn't just pirating it, he made it available to anyone, before it's release. So they're understandably unhappy. My stance on piracy is fairly shaky. I prefer to buy games, but some are impossible to find now, and I don't trust ebay after a couple of mishaps. And I livve in Australia remember. Will I be sued for downloading Worms Armageddon lol?

 

[brunothepig]

EDIT: Sorry, not really sure what happened. Bit tired...

 

[Zanez]

he took a piece of digital data and put it up for people to use, (and its doubtable he even played the game in the first place) He essentially took nothing,he didn't take a physical item, he duplicated a piece of code, it and provided it to the public.

People still saying that this isnt stealing cuz he didnt take anything tangible, he took code?

MONEY is code. MONEY is nothing tangible, its a representation. If i went to the bank and stole $1,000,000, what did i steal? A bag full of paper. just paper. I guess ill repay the bank for all the paper they lost. what will that be, $100 or so?

Duplicating code may as well be the same as duplicating money.

 

[Fish and Chips]

Gosh, talk about a zero-tolerance policy...
Well, if everyone did it then Nintendo would be up shit creek wouldn't they?
And seeing as they can afford to take the entire human race to court now, I'm guessing it was the 'what the hell, let's scare the dirty bastards' sort of thing.

 

[AzrealMaximillion]

Nintendo really needs to find a way of going after the R4DS guys. Too many loopholes though. It's either stop the piracy or making more secure games.

 

[Yopaz]

Could it be?

Could my hatred of nintendo actually grow stronger?

1.5 million? Wake the fuck up nintendo! Not all of us are swiming in dollar bills got for nosepicking!

Also, if anyone thinks this is right, then you have a fucked up sence of justice.

Stealing something that cost a lot to develop is wrong.
Maybe you should wake up. If you steal something, you're bound to face the consequences.

Oh now I see it!

Downloading/uploading is such a serious crime, it's punishment is to ruin the entire life of the downloader!

Thanks! I'll kill the next person I'll see litering!

That's justice, right?

Actually, it's slightly different to upload than download. If I go and download Super Mario Bros. Right now Nintendo will lose between 30 and 50 dollars I guess compared to if I would choose to buy it. If I go ahead and rip it then upload it to thousands of people the losses would increase a lot. Developers need their money just as much as a teacher or a construction worker. Also as a few others say this is to scare people form uploading or downloading games. Nintendo doesn't always have the same idea of justice as many others, but this should be expected. I wouldn't even say that this is ridiculous compared to the case with All of MP3 vs RIAA. For those who aren't familiar with it they demanded $150000 for each of the 11 million songs they had sold.

 

[ParadoxBG]

Errr...is this really punishment befitting crime?

Could that one upload really have caused 1.5 million in damages to the Nintendo compnay?

Errr...

 

[ParadoxBG]

Could it be?

Could my hatred of nintendo actually grow stronger?

1.5 million? Wake the fuck up nintendo! Not all of us are swiming in dollar bills got for nosepicking!

Also, if anyone thinks this is right, then you have a fucked up sence of justice.

Stealing something that cost a lot to develop is wrong.
Maybe you should wake up. If you steal something, you're bound to face the consequences.

Oh now I see it!

Downloading/uploading is such a serious crime, it's punishment is to ruin the entire life of the downloader!

Thanks! I'll kill the next person I'll see litering!

That's justice, right?

Actually, it's slightly different to upload than download. If I go and download Super Mario Bros. Right now Nintendo will lose between 30 and 50 dollars I guess compared to if I would choose to buy it. If I go ahead and rip it then upload it to thousands of people the losses would increase a lot. Developers need their money just as much as a teacher or a construction worker. Also as a few others say this is to scare people form uploading or downloading games. Nintendo doesn't always have the same idea of justice as many others, but this should be expected. I wouldn't even say that this is ridiculous compared to the case with All of MP3 vs RIAA. For those who aren't familiar with it they demanded $150000 for each of the 11 million songs they had sold.

Ah. It's like buying vs. dealing drugs.

 

[Agayek]

Could it be?

Could my hatred of nintendo actually grow stronger?

1.5 million? Wake the fuck up nintendo! Not all of us are swiming in dollar bills got for nosepicking!

Also, if anyone thinks this is right, then you have a fucked up sence of justice.

1.5 mil is a bit steep, but I agree with the spirit of the suit/resolution.

Assuming the report in the OP is correct and "thousands and thousands" of copies were downloaded, that means he stole at least $60,000 from the company. I'd say a settlement of around $300,000 (not including the legal fees) would be appropriate for this situation.

 

[Yopaz]

Could it be?

Could my hatred of nintendo actually grow stronger?

1.5 million? Wake the fuck up nintendo! Not all of us are swiming in dollar bills got for nosepicking!

Also, if anyone thinks this is right, then you have a fucked up sence of justice.

Stealing something that cost a lot to develop is wrong.
Maybe you should wake up. If you steal something, you're bound to face the consequences.

Oh now I see it!

Downloading/uploading is such a serious crime, it's punishment is to ruin the entire life of the downloader!

Thanks! I'll kill the next person I'll see litering!

That's justice, right?

Actually, it's slightly different to upload than download. If I go and download Super Mario Bros. Right now Nintendo will lose between 30 and 50 dollars I guess compared to if I would choose to buy it. If I go ahead and rip it then upload it to thousands of people the losses would increase a lot. Developers need their money just as much as a teacher or a construction worker. Also as a few others say this is to scare people form uploading or downloading games. Nintendo doesn't always have the same idea of justice as many others, but this should be expected. I wouldn't even say that this is ridiculous compared to the case with All of MP3 vs RIAA. For those who aren't familiar with it they demanded $150000 for each of the 11 million songs they had sold.

Ah. It's like buying vs. dealing drugs.

A bit extreme example, but yeah, it's a bit like that.

 

[almostgold]

Could it be?

Could my hatred of nintendo actually grow stronger?

1.5 million? Wake the fuck up nintendo! Not all of us are swiming in dollar bills got for nosepicking!

Also, if anyone thinks this is right, then you have a fucked up sence of justice.

1.5 mil is a bit steep, but I agree with the spirit of the suit/resolution.

Assuming the report in the OP is correct and "thousands and thousands" of copies were downloaded, that means he stole at least $60,000 from the company. I'd say a settlement of around $300,000 (not including the legal fees) would be appropriate for this situation.

Corrections on your math: 'thousands and thousands' we can take to mean at least 4,000. (plural 'thousands' plus plural 'thousands') For legal reasons, the court should assume each of these people would have bought the game otherwise.

Now your estmiate was 60,000 damages, which you gave a fine of 300,000 (not including legal fees).
300,000 / 60,000 = 5
So your figure was fine 5 times the damage done.

Now, lets take our conservative guess of 4,000 and multiply that times 60 (price of game):
4000 x 60 = 240,000 in damages

Multiply using your rate for a fine:
240,000 x 5 = 1,200,000

1.2 mil, not including legal fees (and additional .1 million). Doesnt sound so bad to me, especially considering he settled.

 

[Carlston]

Wait he has to give the "company" his digital media?

Oh hell, counter sue you just won.

First all Nintendo is not a investigation agency. It is not trustworthy to keep evidence cataloged, or any way for it to be regulated to not -add- false data to increase their standing...

Sorry Big N. Your not the FBI, your a game company. That's like letting McDonalds search a person house for ketchup packages... it's cute and all but end of the day one lawyer just points out your system is not secure and the guy who does drive thru is not licensed or a qualifed investigator.

 

[Wing Dairu]

See, the thing here isn't that he pirated the game in the first place. It's that he UPLOADED it. If he had kept it to himself, Nintendo would've been out sixty bucks. Whoop-dee-fucking-doo.
But since he uploaded it, Nintendo ended up losing several hundred thousand dollars in potential sales.