After that, we can say that Nintendo must be the company with the most relentless legal system in the games market. In February 2022, the company managed to convict hacker Gary Bowser (a reference to the Super Mario character? Perhaps) to three years and four months in prison. The reason? He managed to unlock two of the company's consoles: the Switch and the 3DS.
Gary was a member of Team-Xecuter, a former “rival” of Nintendo. For his good behavior, the man, who is 53 years old, was released in March of this year, but sentenced to pay compensation to the game company for the rest of his life.
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The fine was set at US$14.5 million. The judge in the case stipulated that the amount does not need to be paid in full, but every month Bowser must transfer 25% to 30% of his monthly income to Nintendo. So far, the man has paid the company $175.
It is very likely that the hacker will never settle his debt with the house of Mario and Luigi.
Nintendo: relentless against piracy
As we said at the beginning of this text, it can be said that Nintendo perhaps has the most relentless legal system in the games market. And that's not for nothing. They are known for having zero tolerance against piracy and taking strict measures against it.
For example, in 2018, Jacob and Cristian Mathias, the men behind the sites LoveROMS and LoveRetro, had to pay $12 million to the company. These two sites provided free full game files of Super Nintendo – and other retro consoles.
Nintendo also clamped down on other sites that allowed the download of ROMs for their consoles. This was the case for Matthew Storman, owner of the ROMUniverse website, and the owners of the DStorage website.
They had to pay the company $2.1 million and $500,000, respectively.
With a simple Google search, it is seen that there are still several sites that make this type of illegal content available. So, the Big N still has many enemies to overcome.
And it is worth remembering that not only who makes it available, but who downloads and consumes this type of file is also committing a crime.
Graduated in Social Communication at the Federal University of Goiás. Passionate about digital media, pop culture, technology, politics and psychoanalysis.