Nintendo Awarded $4.5 Million in Default Judgment Against Piracy Moderator
- Nintendo wins a $4.5 million default judgment against James Williams, a piracy facilitator.
- Williams failed to respond to the lawsuit and has a history of moderating r/SwitchPirates.
- A judge ruled the damages were warranted due to Williams’ extensive copyright infringement.
A United States District Judge has awarded Nintendo a default judgment of £3.4 million ($4.5 million) against James Williams, formerly known as “Archbox,” who was a Reddit moderator involved in Switch piracy. This judgment came after Williams did not respond to the lawsuit alleging his participation in piracy related to Nintendo Switch games.
In 2024, Nintendo targeted Williams after successfully prosecuting Gary Bowser for Switch piracy and focusing on the emulator software Yuzu, tracking Williams via his posts on Reddit, particularly on the r/SwitchPirates forum.
As of last year, court documents indicated that Nintendo was seeking $4.5 million in damages from Williams, accusing him of “facilitating a network of unauthorized ‘shops'” that provided public access to extensive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games for download.
According to TorrentFreak, this $4.5 million judgment is now the amount Williams owes Nintendo. The judge observed that despite Williams not responding to the lawsuit, he was likely aware of it since he employed a lawyer to contest a Google subpoena.
Nintendo requested $150,000 for each of the 30 games that Williams allegedly pirated, which included major titles like The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, cumulatively reaching the total damages claimed. The judge concurred with Nintendo’s request, asserting that “Williams’ egregious infringement activities merit substantial punishment” while imposing a permanent injunction preventing him from distributing any pirated Nintendo games and from encouraging others to do the same.
The judge commended Nintendo for not seeking additional damages or attorneys’ fees under the DMCA, describing this as a “gesture of reasonableness” that justified the maximum copyright damages awarded.
In related news, last month, John Romero, co-founder of id Software and creator of the Quake and Doom franchises, shared a story about the company’s collaboration with Taiwanese pirates to promote Doom.
News Courtesy of Eurogamer
