Nintendo reaches final judgment agreement with ROM site owners

Nintendo of America has reached an agreement with the owners of LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.com in a copyright infringement lawsuit against the emulator sites. Both parties have agreed to a final judgment in Nintendo's favor to the tune of over $12 million.

The lawsuit, which was filed back in July, was brought by Nintendo against the owners of the sites, Jacob and Cristian Mathias. In it, Nintendo alleged that the "vast library of unauthorized copies of video games" contained on the sites "infringes and threatens irreparable injury to Nintendo's intellectual property rights."

TorrentFreak reports that the suit did not go to trial, but that both parties agreed upon a consent judgment and a permanent injunction after the couple admitted to both direct and indirect copyright infringement. The judgment prohibits them from using, sharing, or distributing Nintendo ROMs or other materials again in the future, and requires them to both provide Nintendo with all games, game files, and emulators in their custody and hand both domain names over to the company. In addition, they must pay Nintendo $12.23 million.

However, as TorrentFreak points out, it is unlikely that Nintendo will come for the full amount from a married couple running a ROM site. Rather, the high figure may be to act as a deterrent to others, while an actual, smaller amount has been agreed upon in private.