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Nintendo is taking legal action against a Reddit mod who ran an online community, asking a court to order him to pay millions of dollars for allegedly coordinating websites that shared stolen copies of games.
The gaming giant filed court documents asking for $4.5 million from James Williams, who went by “Archbox” online. Williams helped moderate a discussion board on Reddit where people talked about playing copied games on the Switch console. The company says this amount barely covers the damage caused by what he did.
Court papers show the company accuses Williams of breaking laws meant to stop people from getting around digital protections. The allegation is that he made copies of Switch games and gave them to others without permission. The company found Williams by looking at things he posted online and records from when he sent in devices for fixes.
It tracked the online username back to someone living in Arizona. Fresh legal documents, which run 30 pages long, say Williams played a key role in setting up and keeping several websites running where people could get pirated games. He also allegedly helped create tools that let people bypass security measures so they could use these illegal sites.
Failed negotiations and vanishing evidence
In March of last year, lawyers for the company contacted Williams and told him to stop his piracy scheme. IGN reports, according to their version of events, Williams admitted he broke the rules and said he would work with Switch to fix the situation. But the company claims he never actually agreed to stop running the pirate websites. When it asked Williams to put his promise in writing, he got hostile and stopped cooperating. Not long after that conversation, several of the pirate websites went dark.
The company says Williams erased or hid proof of his activities, including social media posts and his account on a site where programmers share code. The company tried one more time in May of last year, giving him a last chance to do what it wanted.
When he did not, it filed its case in court the next month. The legal papers accused him of breaking copyright rules both directly and by helping others break them.
Court discovery reveals scope of operation
Last November, a judge said the company could ask Williams’ internet providers for information. The company said its findings backed up its claims about his involvement in the piracy operation. The legal filing states the company has suffered harm because of what Williams did and continues to suffer. It believes he made and shared hundreds or maybe thousands of copied Switch games.
Through the various pirate websites, it think he helped distribute anywhere from thousands to hundreds of thousands of unauthorized game copies.
The company has also spent a lot of money trying to stop video game theft, including building protections into its products and investigating reports of piracy.
Switch claims willful conduct and calculated actions
The court papers argue there is no doubt Williams knew exactly what he was doing. His own words and actions show he either knew he was breaking the law or ignored the rights of the copyright owner on purpose.
Because it is hard to figure out exactly how much money Switch lost, made worse by Williams refusing to take part in the legal process, the company now wants a judge to award it $4.5 million. It also wants an order stopping him from doing this in the future. The company says it is not trying to get extra punishment money. It is asking for $150,000 for each of the 30 game titles it believes he stole. The company is also not asking Williams to pay for lawyer bills.
This case is part of a wider crackdown on piracy that has seen the gaming company pursue multiple legal actions against individuals and organizations. The company has previously taken action against accessory makers and has even subpoenaed platforms like Discord to identify people who leak game information, according to previous reports by Cryptopolitan. The firm has also forced emulator projects offline as part of its effort to protect its games and consoles.
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