The big N has filed a lawsuit against two individuals who, according to the Japanese company, violated its copyrights by selling and distributing devices that bypassed its protection technology.

Torrentfreak has shared the lawsuit filed by Nintendo against Ryan Michael Daly and James C. Williams. Daly ran a website called Modded Hardware. This site, according to Nintendo, circumvented the DMCA (copyright law) by selling modded consoles, pirated games and modchips. It was therefore also charged with trafficking in devices that circumvent protection technologies, copyright infringement, violation of the EULA, and tortious interference with contract. Williams (who went by the online name Archbox) was also charged with the same offenses.

Nintendo’s U.S. subsidiary filed the lawsuit on June 28, claiming that the sale of the technology (and its implementation) that circumvented the protection technologies, as well as the sale of hacked consoles, caused “substantial and irreparable” damage to the company. It should be noted that over 100 million Switch units have been sold, so the big N is not in a bad position financially. The more popular a console is, the more likely it is to have this technology.

Nintendo wrote this in its lawsuit against Daly and Williams: “In addition to providing the hardware and firmware to create and play pirated games, Defendant also provides its customers with copies of pirated Nintendo games. Typically, when a customer purchases a hacked console or the circumvention services, Defendant pre-installs 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. It is because of products and services such as those sold by Defendant that illegal marketplaces distributing pirated games exist and thrive. Williams became a leading (if not the primary) moderator of the SwitchPirates Reddit community, which he helped grow to nearly 190,000 members, and then publicly bragged that he was a “pirate” who “wouldn’t give Nintendo $50 for a game. Defendant is well aware that his conduct is unlawful and infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights.”

In March, the duo received a threatening letter from Nintendo (the usual cease and desist). In May, the big N took action against the Yuzu emulator for copies of the emulator on GitHub, after a $2.4 million settlement was reached with Yuzu’s original developers, Tropic Haze, in March (development of the emulator was halted). They just won’t stop…

But in the future, say 20-25 years from now, how is anyone supposed to play a digital-only Switch game if the eShop is gone by then?

Source: Gamesindustry, TorrentFreak