Fuck DoJ for going along with this shit. They don't go after billionaire tax evaders, but going after some nobody basically not doing shit to Nintendo at macro level, they throw a book at him, book written by a Corp apparently.
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Waypoint: Nintendo wanted to make an exemple out of Gary Bowser, Switch hacker who was sentenced for 40 weeks and $4,5mi
- Thread starter ultraluna
- Start date
While this might be a fine principle to argue in favour of it's naïve to expect it to be upheld in reality. The laws do exist. I think it's disgusting the way capitalism protects property more fervently than it protects life, but that's the sorry world we live in. The laws need to be changed - and as is true of so many things - the movement towards doing so would be such an uphill battle it would be perpendicular.
I don't think people should be able to sell devices that make the theft of software a lucrative cottage industry. Keep in mind his renumeration of $320k was spent in the DR, where his money went a lot further. Other members of the team must have made even more. Possibly millions. But I also don't think they should get harsher jail terms and financial penalties than people who've fucked over entire countries, or committed other serious crime. What TX were doing is bad, but it's not "that bad" in the grand scheme of things, if that makes sense. That's where I stand on it anyway.
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By the way, I don't necessarily disagree the sentencing was harsh. I'm generally in favor of more lenient sentencing with a few exceptions. My issue is with the framing of the story as "Nintendo bad" when nothing much presented points to this ultimately being Nintendo's call.
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Imagine wanting to make someone a financially destitute pariah because of fucking video games. Everything about the wording in that statement is fucking disgusting.
I'm not saying to completely ignore piracy, but my experience with people who do is that they are from unsupported regions, don't have the money, or just outright don't care. You are typically not going to make a marked increase in sales by stamping out piracy, because most people will just move on to something else.
Yet there are people out there that will champion the stance that Nintendo/the DOJ are taking, because apparently consumer products are more important than a person's long-term livelihood.
I'm not saying to completely ignore piracy, but my experience with people who do is that they are from unsupported regions, don't have the money, or just outright don't care. You are typically not going to make a marked increase in sales by stamping out piracy, because most people will just move on to something else.
Yet there are people out there that will champion the stance that Nintendo/the DOJ are taking, because apparently consumer products are more important than a person's long-term livelihood.
This is waaay too harsh. I'm against piracy, and companies has right to defend their IP, but this, this is hard.
Though, not sure why people keep talking like it's Nintendo themselves who decided the sentence. Unless it's different than in Canada, it should be the judge. But then again, I know nothing of US legal stuff.
Though, not sure why people keep talking like it's Nintendo themselves who decided the sentence. Unless it's different than in Canada, it should be the judge. But then again, I know nothing of US legal stuff.
I mean, it's something that a company should want to discourage, but both the fine and sentence are way too high. He only made 375K, so the fine should be closer to that. I'd only say like a month or two for jail time, if any at all. Shouldn't be ruining his entire life for it.
When this dude was initially charged, someone started a thread about it here and one of the first replies was "So long, Gary Bowser" and that post will live in my head for ages to come.
That's all I have to add.
That's all I have to add.
I like how their fear of piracy is so high it goes into fucking over consumers with how they handle save game storage on the switch.
This is really inhumane how they've approached this. Ruining his life some more and giving him a harsher punishment just so you'd scare anyone daring to download a ROM, while there is a study that showed there is no evidence piracy affects sales and might even help the gaming industry.
Bowser is guilty, sure. But his sentence should bare the same weight as his crimes, and this is not it. Screw Nintendo.
Bowser is guilty, sure. But his sentence should bare the same weight as his crimes, and this is not it. Screw Nintendo.
Wait, why should businesses, companies and creators not be able to protect their ideas, within reason? I don't quite see your logic here, because encouragement of legitimate piracy doesn't help anyone but the pirate. That's been clear from the many studies based on it, and in recent mind Valve's discussion on how PC piracy reduces the more appropriate your pricing is on the market.
I don't think it's a coincidence that some of the best selling systems are easy to and known for piracy: PS1, PS2, Wii and DS.
Videogame company ruins man's life over something that barely made a dent in their earnings.
I'll gladly be the thousandth to say it in this thread: Nintendo are disgusting as shit when it comes to copyright.
I'll gladly be the thousandth to say it in this thread: Nintendo are disgusting as shit when it comes to copyright.
OP
OP
I think that FrakEarth hit it in the head as he said capitalism protects intelectual property more than it protects life itself, and I understand my thinking is maybe naive and utopical. I'm not advocating for piracy, but piracy is a part of the gaming industry ecosystem, and is what introduces gaming to low income communities, as it did for me. I only had a Nintendo console in my childhood when these had mod chips easily available. Brazil has a lot of taxes that raises prices to prohibitive levels, I'm sure you've seen headlines like "PlayStation 5 launches in Brazil for bajilion dollars".
EDIT: that and mobile games these days, they're doing wonders to the gaming industry due to their low barrier of entry. FreeFire is huge here, with championships airing on national tv.
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But they wanted this, though? Nintendo was represented and were making their case. This passage in the article is attributed to Ajay Singh, Nintendo's rep:
They were arguing for harsh punishment as a deterrence. This is what they wanted.
There's a lot of anger at Nintendo here which is weird cause it's the judge that handed down the sentence. Obviously Nintendo's legal team is gonna fight for as much damages as they can get. The Judge could have easily just awarded like 500k which based upon the income the criminal in question earned seems reasonable.
But they make such friendly games! Look at the wahoo Mario Man and Pikachu!
People saying things like it "barely made a dent in their earnings" - yes, they're still more than successful enough - particularly this gen -- but I don't think that will be entirely true. They updated the Switch hardware itself twice to try and beat the Nvidia-hardware exploit. They released a patched version of the original model then released the Mariko variant that didn't have the vulnerability. That's ceasing production of one line, fabricating two new ones, with associated manufacture and shipping costs.. probably doing some R&D to make sure it'll hold up... it won't have been 'cost free'. It's partly their own fault (or Nvidias) for releasing the original model with such a flaw in the first place, but I can also see why they'd set legal teams on doing something about it.
The saddest thing for me - aside from his personal health and circumstances (which again, are in the Kotaku article - his weight and health condition make prison seem all the more cruel) - is that (I think) he's basically the only one suffering any kind of punishment for the entire enterprise? I would feel guilty as shit if I was involved in this and someone I knew was made a scapegoat; went down for 40 months while I went free.
Can he appeal his sentence? Could an appeal be crowdfunded?
This is true! 🤦♂️ I do think stuff like this is hurtful too. Maybe not in the casual retail community, but certainly with people like us who read up on things like this.
It's capped at 10% of earnings, he's pretty much got a pirate-tax applied to his wages for life unless he comes in to millions some other way. I do wonder how enforceable that is outside of the United States. Could he move to a country that doesn't extradite to the US? Not that he should have to of course! Just curious..
The saddest thing for me - aside from his personal health and circumstances (which again, are in the Kotaku article - his weight and health condition make prison seem all the more cruel) - is that (I think) he's basically the only one suffering any kind of punishment for the entire enterprise? I would feel guilty as shit if I was involved in this and someone I knew was made a scapegoat; went down for 40 months while I went free.
Can he appeal his sentence? Could an appeal be crowdfunded?
This is true! 🤦♂️ I do think stuff like this is hurtful too. Maybe not in the casual retail community, but certainly with people like us who read up on things like this.
It's capped at 10% of earnings, he's pretty much got a pirate-tax applied to his wages for life unless he comes in to millions some other way. I do wonder how enforceable that is outside of the United States. Could he move to a country that doesn't extradite to the US? Not that he should have to of course! Just curious..
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Don't worry, I get the social topic of piracy all too well myself, but I do see the need for intellectual property laws as a way of protecting one's creations. Capitalism has definitely skewed that concept of protection to benefit the ultimately already richer for the sake of hurting the poor. I don't see piracy however, as being okay just because in the past people pirated and so therefore it should be okay now.
Today's world is far different to 20 years ago when people were pirating games like no tomorrow. People definitely do have more financial freedom to actually pay developers for their hard work, and to excuse piracy just because is no defence. This example is too harsh, because of the defendant's role being minor compared to the others not caught, and making an "example" of them does not achieve the result that Nintendo is hoping for.
Nintendo is making record profits, but still needs to kick down as hard as they can. What a trash company.
Except that this isn't going to effect Nintendo's image in the west because the majority of their audience isn't going to care or even hear about it. Shit, most of the people in this thread aren't even going to remember this in a week.
It'll get automatically taken out of his paycheck by the government.
That's how it works for child support, it's generally the only way to get people to pay.
In comparison you need to be responsible for your child. Nintendo probably pisses 4 million without even thinking about it. They are toxic company.
These corporations are not your friends. They are not making games to make children smile. They want your money, they want yours children's money when they can afford to buy their products.
Punitive justice is awful and doesn't work. It doesn't deter other criminals from doing the same thing and "making an example" of someone is textbook injustice—intentionally giving one person a harsh sentence for any reason other than to match the crime is inhumane.
Guy gonna have his life ruined harder by the DOJ than people that stormed the Capitol to try to overthrow an election.
probably passport blocked. would be extremely surprised if you could bounce over international lines with a record like that hanging over you
Hopefully dude put some of them millions away safely for his sake Nintendo ninjas don't mess around..
When Gabe Newell talked about how their biggest competition was piracy and the need to provide a product and service that is superior, Nintendo is the company I think of most. It's insane how they zag so far in the opposite direction. They intentionally make their products way worse than pirated versions.
He made $320k over 7 years. That's roughly $45k a year. I feel like this should be in the OP at this point.
The examples they gave for his life of excess and luxury were things like "he got a car" and "he lived in an apartment".
Maybe, but it seems more likely to me that pirates flocked towards already incredibly popular consoles versus consoles being easy to hack as the reason they sold so well.
Oh no! Will anyone think of the corporations?! Piracy bad and blah blah but it's not like he was selling heroine to kids.
