Nintendo has finally won its long-running lawsuit against a reddit moderator who sold pirated Switch games, and been awarded $4.5 million in damages.
We've been tracking Nintendo of America's legal action against James "Archbox" Williams for the past two years, ever since the firm initially used a combination of reddit posts and Williams' own Nintendo repair orders to track him down and launch litigation back in late 2014.
Williams was accused of leading the reddit community SwitchPirates, whose 190,000 members regularly discussed how to download illegally pirated games and circumvent Nintendo's anti-piracy measures. Williams was also accused of operating and advertising various online "shops" where piracy-enabling software and tools could be acquired.
Nintendo initially demanded $4.5 million from Williams last year, though said at the time that this figure was "nowhere near an amount that would compensate Nintendo of America for the seriousness of the Defendant's conduct." Almost 12 months later, the full amount has now been awarded by default — seemingly because Williams did not respond to the lawsuit at any point.
"It is ordered and adjudged that default judgment is hereby entered against Defendant James C. Williams," reads a ruling filed this week, confirming that Nintendo of America has now been awarded the $4.5 million it previously demanded, as well as a permanent injunction barring Williams from selling pirated Switch games and other piracy-assisting software or modded consoles.
Williams must now close all of his remaining online "shops" where "extensive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games" have been made available for download, and any social media accounts, Discord servers and the like where these have been advertised.
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