Nintendo sues two Switch pirates for "substantial and irreparable harm"
"Defendant is well aware that his conduct is unlawful and infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights"
Nintendo of America has filed lawsuits against two individuals it accuses of violating its copyright by trading and selling "circumvention devices".
In court papers uploaded to Torrent Freak, Ryan Michael Daly of Modded Hardware – a website Nintendo believes has contravened the DMCA by selling modded consoles, pirated games, and mod chips – has been accused of trafficking in circumvention devices, copyright infringement, breach of EULA contract, and tortious interference with contract.
James C. Williams – known online as 'Archbox' – has similarly been accused of copyright infringement, circumvention of technological measures, trafficking in circumvention devices, breach of contract, and tortious interference with contract.
The complaint – filed in Seattle, Washington, on June 28 – states that the defendants' sale and distribution of "circumvention devices, hacked consoles, and circumvention services" has done "substantial and irreparable harm" to Nintendo.
"Defendant not only offers the hardware and firmware to create and play pirated games, but he also provides his customers with copies of pirated Nintendo games," the lawsuit against Daly asserts.
"Typically, when a customer purchases a Hacked Console or the Circumvention Services, Defendant preinstalls on the console a portfolio of ready-to-play pirated games, including some of Nintendo’s most popular titles such as its Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid games."
Nintendo adds that "it is only because of products and services such as those sold by Defendant that illegal marketplaces distributing pirated games exist and thrive".
In Williams' paperwork, Nintendo claims he "became a leading (if not the primary) moderator of the SwitchPirates Reddit community, which he helped grow to nearly 190,000 members."
Nintendo claims it issued a cease and desist to both Daly and Williams in March 2024 and alleges the latter "bragged publicly that he is a 'pirate' who '[isn’t] going to give Nintendo $50 for a game'."
The "defendant is well aware that his conduct is unlawful and infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights," Nintendo states.
Back in May, Nintendo issued a DMCA takedown notice against 8,535 GitHub repositories that contained code from the Yuzu emulator for Switch. It followed a settlement in March between Nintendo and Yuzu developer Tropic Haze, in which the latter agreed to pay $2.4 million to the company and end its support for the emulator.
Nintendo initially took legal action against Tropic Haze in February for copyright infringement and, back in April 2023, the Paris Court of Appeals sided with Nintendo in a similar dispute with sharehosting website operator Dstorage.