The big N is not only trying to extract data from Discord (we talked about that the other day), but also wants to change the court’s ruling.

Nintendo’s U.S. subsidiary (NoA) has filed for a default judgment in U.S. District Court against a streamer who regularly played pirated games before launch and taunted the company after it failed to respond to a court order. Last year, Nintendo sued Jesse Keighin, who allegedly streamed games on various online platforms under the username Every Game Guru. The lawsuit alleges that Keighin has streamed at least 10 leaked Nintendo games since 2022 before release, more than 50 times in total, most recently Mario & Luigi: Brothership.

Although Nintendo says he has sent dozens of takedown notices that have led to Twitch and YouTube suspending his account, the lawsuit alleges that Keighin has continued to illegally stream Nintendo’s copyrighted works and continues to turn a blind eye to the Big N and the law. It also alleges that Keighin taunted Nintendo and sent a letter to the company bragging that he had thousands of backup channels to stream from and could do it all day. According to the new motion filed by Big N, Keighin did not receive the notice after the lawsuit was filed on November 6, so the court allowed him to be served by substitute service, which he did on December 20. Keighin had until January 10 to respond, but he failed to do so, and the clerk found him in default on March 26.

The Japanese company has now moved for a default judgment against Keighin, but has asked for less damages than it could have potentially claimed. According to the company, by failing to respond to the injunction and default, Keighin has technically admitted liability for all ten games listed in its earlier complaint, but to simplify the damages analysis, it is seeking damages for only one of those games.

“Specifically, Nintendo seeks an award of $10,000 for infringement of Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door. Defendant has been infringing Nintendo’s video games since early 2022, and has been on notice of the wrongfulness of that infringement for at least the past two years, as Nintendo sent dozens of takedown notices for Defendant’s streams of pre-release video games. But Defendant persisted, moving his streams to other platforms, emailing Nintendo directly, saying he could “do this all day” and promising to “help anyone and everyone who wants to get Nintendo games for free (and early). Indeed, it was precisely this conduct that necessitated this lawsuit, which Defendant has chosen to ignore.

Courts in this district have awarded substantial statutory damages in similar circumstances where defendants “knew of, but repeatedly ignored,” copyright notices, and encouraged and assisted others to infringe, but failed to appear. Here, an award of $10,000 is eminently reasonable for Defendants’ blatant streaming of Nintendo’s video games before any ordinary consumer had lawful access. It is particularly reasonable in light of Nintendo’s decision not to seek damages for infringement of the other nine works for which Nintendo has been found liable,” Nintendo’s lawsuit states.

Nintendo will also receive damages of $7,500 (500×15) for multiple breaches of its anti-piracy security system, for a total of $17,500 in damages, and a permanent injunction preventing the infringement of its copyrighted works (including broadcasting), emulator trading, and the use of Nintendo emulators. How will this be enforced?

Source: VGC, TorrentFreak