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Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

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Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#21

Post by drewcoo »

xh-dude wrote: post #11
ohthehugemanate wrote: post #5

Anyone have more detail about the case against Bowser? Was it purely a DMCA copyright circumvention case? Did he sell pirated material? On the face of it the damages awarded is ridiculous for a private middle class individual. Reminds me of the old RIAA downloading lawsuits, where they requested outrageous damages in an effort to scare defendants and hopefully set precedent.

Twitter says he distributed pirate ROMs that would brick Switches unless he was paid a monthly ransom.

I didn't see mention of bricking here. It sounded more like everyone (Nintendo & DoJ) was upset about piracy.

https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/2/21499297/team-xecuter-sel...

Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#22

Post by bhaney »

petesergeant wrote: post #2

Doesn’t he owe them a specific dollar amount, and the 25-30% is essentially a lien?

Yes. He owes a specific amount, and the "25-30%" showing up in articles comes from a quote of Bowser himself, where he's referring to wage garnishment.

Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#23

Post by sam1r »

Hamuko wrote: post #12
nhinck2 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Arguably it's a more realistic view of the punishment.

Yeah, is a 53-year-old convicted criminal going to make $48–58 million during the rest of his lifetime? I have my doubts.

He could always do a startup and apply for yc, ofc.

Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#25

Post by neilv »

xyst wrote: post #17

Copyright law is so archaic. Going to jail for “pirating games” is just absurd to me. Nintendo and backers of copyright law clearly using this guy as an example to not fuck with our wares or else we will send our multimillion dollar legal team at you. Copyright and patent law is holding the west back. Can’t create a product without stepping on some patent trolls alleged “IP”

I think that argument about patent law is weakened by juxtaposing it with a complaint that someone who made a business of video game piracy got smacked for it.

Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#26

Post by s5300 »

rektide wrote: post #8

Sad there are so few patrons and nations willing to be like, you did good, fuck this jackal ass corporation and vile legal system, come hang out & chill in our nice non extradition territory where we'll support you, good person.

>> jackal ass corporation

I’m pretty sure the history of Nintendo is tied in with brothels, gambling, & mild organized crime…

Their current C-suite carrying on with power hungry practices & greed is not particularly surprising.

Sort of like the fact that despite Disney being “The Happiest Place On Earth”, Walt Disney was not known to be a particularly good person…

Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#27

Post by jhugo »

gnicholas wrote: post #10
rektide wrote: post #8

Sad there are so few patrons and nations willing to be like, you did good, fuck this jackal ass corporation and vile legal system, come hang out & chill in our nice non extradition territory where we'll support you, good person.

Interesting point. The headline refers to "salary" but the article refers to "income". The former is narrower than the latter, but both would exclude gifts, which are not considered income from a tax perspective. I wonder what would happen if someone set up a GoFundMe that people could donate to. Gift tax wouldn't be implicated (that only applies when a single donor gives more than $16k to a single donee), and the tr…

> The former is narrower than the latter, but both would exclude gifts, which are not considered income from a tax perspective.

The tax perspective is completely irrelevant here. Gifted money would absolutely be considered by the court to be available to repay the debt.

Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#28

Post by ohthehugemanate »

xh-dude wrote: post #11
ohthehugemanate wrote: post #5

Anyone have more detail about the case against Bowser? Was it purely a DMCA copyright circumvention case? Did he sell pirated material? On the face of it the damages awarded is ridiculous for a private middle class individual. Reminds me of the old RIAA downloading lawsuits, where they requested outrageous damages in an effort to scare defendants and hopefully set precedent.

Twitter says he distributed pirate ROMs that would brick Switches unless he was paid a monthly ransom.

Well that definitely makes him an asshole, but not a prison-and-then-life-of-crushing-debt asshole. Is copyright law really this fucked, that someone was extradited and made an example for selling a ransomware chip?

Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#29

Post by ohthehugemanate »

rektide wrote: post #8

Sad there are so few patrons and nations willing to be like, you did good, fuck this jackal ass corporation and vile legal system, come hang out & chill in our nice non extradition territory where we'll support you, good person.

Interesting idea. A fund like the EFF , to take care of the targets of weaponized corporate copyright law? A safe place for the Aaron Schwartzes of the world, even if it's alongside the Bowsers. I'd pitch in.

Re: Nintendo Hacker Freed, Now Owes Them 25-30% of Salary for Life

#30

Post by jimbob45 »

xyst wrote: post #17

Copyright law is so archaic. Going to jail for “pirating games” is just absurd to me. Nintendo and backers of copyright law clearly using this guy as an example to not fuck with our wares or else we will send our multimillion dollar legal team at you. Copyright and patent law is holding the west back. Can’t create a product without stepping on some patent trolls alleged “IP”

If you were to go about changing copyright law, I have to imagine you’d only be able to change it for your nation’s works while still respecting the duration from other countries. In that case, copyright reform wouldn’t have helped this guy.

I’m all for copyright reform though. 70 + life is absurd. Even worse, you penalize people for dying early like MLK.

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