Switch Modder Ordered To Pay $2 Million

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Switch modder ordered to pay $2 million
 Asura.Reidden
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By Asura.Reidden 2025-09-10 05:51:59
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Maybe he wanted a reason to file for chapter 7 bankruptcy? Idk if it would wipe everything out.
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By Jetackuu 2025-09-10 07:09:13
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Seun said: »
Jetackuu said: »
Guy should have had representation and went for a jury trial instead of a bench. Installing modchips in consoles isn't illegal. I don't care how smart he is, he was an idiot.

Piracy is illegal, so installing modchips for that purpose is also illegal.
That isn't how it works.
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 Fenrir.Niflheim
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By Fenrir.Niflheim 2025-09-10 07:25:10
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Afania said: »
There are actually people who believed infringe copyright from big company is "justice" lol.
A judge can overturn a jury's verdict when it is not supported by the evidence/law. It would likely be professional suicide to do so in this case had the jury sided with daly. Can't imagine how the public would have reacted.
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By Afania 2025-09-10 07:27:16
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Jetackuu said: »
Seun said: »
Jetackuu said: »
Guy should have had representation and went for a jury trial instead of a bench. Installing modchips in consoles isn't illegal. I don't care how smart he is, he was an idiot.

Piracy is illegal, so installing modchips for that purpose is also illegal.
That isn't how it works.


The title says he sells it, not just installing it.

I highly doubt anyone would come after you if all you do is modifying your own console for your own use. Selling things to everyone else which potentially hurt other game company's profit at a larger scale is whole other business.
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By Seun 2025-09-10 08:23:15
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Jetackuu said: »
Seun said: »
Jetackuu said: »
Guy should have had representation and went for a jury trial instead of a bench. Installing modchips in consoles isn't illegal. I don't care how smart he is, he was an idiot.

Piracy is illegal, so installing modchips for that purpose is also illegal.
That isn't how it works.

Maybe in places that don't have or enforce copyright law.


My man is sitting in a shop full of modded consoles, running a website to market and resell them with the clear intent of piracy. If this case went to trial it would have looked like a Phoenix Wright speedrun.
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 Quetzalcoatl.Khajit
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By Quetzalcoatl.Khajit 2025-09-10 08:41:04
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Not how it works. It’s legal to have backups of your software. He presumably was stupid enough to admit something that could be linked to piracy or his lack of representation meant the fact that it isn’t illegal was never brought up.
 Fenrir.Niflheim
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By Fenrir.Niflheim 2025-09-10 08:49:06
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Quote:
“The MIG Devices, Mod Chips, Hacked Consoles, and Circumvention Services allow members of the public to create, distribute, and play pirated Nintendo games on a massive scale,” the ruling states. Daley denied any wrongdoing.

That was apparently in the ruling according to chanti's article. so that was the point Daley (his name seems to be spelled 2 different ways in the article) needed to argue, better than just "denying wrongdoing"
 Asura.Iamaman
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By Asura.Iamaman 2025-09-10 08:57:54
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I don't think the point is that he was pirating or modding his Switches, he was selling modded consoles, the hardware to mod them, providing instructions to do so, and offering modification as a service, then loading pirated games onto customers consoles.

This wasn't a personal use/backup situation according to other articles, he was involved in sales and ran a business around it:

https://torrentfreak.com/modded-hardware-defendant-denies-nintendos-copyright-claims-in-court-241006/
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 Fenrir.Niflheim
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By Fenrir.Niflheim 2025-09-10 09:02:46
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“Typically, when a customer purchases a Hacked Console or the Circumvention Services, Defendant preinstalls on the console a portfolio of ready-to-play pirated games, including some of Nintendo’s most popular titles such as its Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid games.”

ballsy
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By Seun 2025-09-10 10:22:46
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Did people not understand or are there really that many who would step up to be a defense attorney in this case? It shouldn't surprise me given the tolerance for violating in this community, but damn....
 Garuda.Chanti
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By Garuda.Chanti 2025-09-10 14:12:13
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Seun said: »
Did people not understand or are there really that many who would step up to be a defense attorney in this case? It shouldn't surprise me given the tolerance for violating in this community, but damn....
I don't understand what you are saying here.

Lawyers work for money or pro bono. They do not "step up." I doubt that any would take this on as a charity case.
 Carbuncle.Nynja
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By Carbuncle.Nynja 2025-09-10 14:21:01
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I'm no lawyer, but I'd like to believe that someone who invested a lot of money in the schooling required to take and pass the bar wouldnt take up a pro-bono case thats an obvious L.
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By Valefor.Yandaime 2025-09-10 15:41:45
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Afania said: »
Valefor.Yandaime said: »
Garuda.Chanti said: »
Draylo said: »
Nintendo is the greediest company
Nowhere near the greediest.

I could point out any number of companies or industries that are greedier but that could be construed as political ESPECIALLY as the greediest grow exceedingly wealthy sucking money out of governments.

Why do I feel like Amazon is in the top 5?


Out of all the retailers that I've ever done business with, Amazon isn't anywhere close to top 50 greediest company.

Amazon has a much nicer return and refund policy than most smaller retailers, and sometimes when their system has an error they gave me free stuff for compensations.

Many small retailer are far more stingy on refund policy and customer services. (AND they also paid minimum wage + 6 days per week work).

Nevermind the fact that Amazon tend to undercut product price far more than other retailers. Which benefits the customer.

As for sucking money out of government, who doesn't like to do business with government? As long as the business delivered their value from government money it doesn't matter.

I think people just has higher standard on very big companies like Amazon because they make more and get more attention. I can easily name 50 small retail businesses that's has way worse business practices and customer services than Amazon every single day.

These are very valid points but on the other side of the coin they are Infamous (With a capital I) for screwing over labor rights and unionizing activities even when they are expressly protected by law in that country.

Very wonderful to their customers, absolute ***to all of their workers seems like a greedy move to me but going down that particular rabbit hole will probably severely derail the thread.
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By Leviathan.Andret 2025-09-10 16:21:42
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Gameshark (if anyone remembers them) already lost a similar case. They gonna use the same reasoning.

Essentially, if you have a sets of locks in a car you sold, you have the right sell the "unlocks" or keys to those locks, not somebody else. While the buyer might or might not be able to bust open the locks (probably not) the guy selling the lock busters ain't allow to sell them. The locks can be artificially created for the sole purpose of pissing people off. Of course, exceptions for multi-tool lock busters like a memory reader.
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By Jetackuu 2025-09-10 19:17:50
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Afania said: »
The title says he sells it, not just installing it.
Selling a modding service for people who own hardware isn't illegal either.

Seun said: »
Maybe in places that don't have or enforce copyright law.


My man is sitting in a shop full of modded consoles, running a website to market and resell them with the clear intent of piracy. If this case went to trial it would have looked like a Phoenix Wright speedrun.

There's no "copyright law" that outlaws selling a service to mod consoles. Seriously get educated.

Seun said: »
Did people not understand or are there really that many who would step up to be a defense attorney in this case? It shouldn't surprise me given the tolerance for violating in this community, but damn....
everyone is entitled to a defense. Grow up.

Asura.Iamaman said: »
then loading pirated games onto customers consoles.
this is the sole part that *** him.

Leviathan.Andret said: »
Gameshark (if anyone remembers them) already lost a similar case. They gonna use the same reasoning.

Essentially, if you have a sets of locks in a car you sold, you have the right sell the "unlocks" or keys to those locks, not somebody else. While the buyer might or might not be able to bust open the locks (probably not) the guy selling the lock busters ain't allow to sell them. The locks can be artificially created for the sole purpose of pissing people off. Of course, exceptions for multi-tool lock busters like a memory reader.
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By Seun 2025-09-10 19:35:40
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Jetackuu said: »
everyone is entitled to a defense. Grow up.

Everyone is entitled to a defense, unless they don't have one. In which case you take a plea.. unless you're not grown enough to accept the responsibility for violating. Then you defend yourself because you think you're educated in copyright law and you find out exactly how educated you are.

Say whatever you want to in a forum, it's not a court and we're not lawyers. The result speaks for itself and really doesn't need any commentary.
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 Carbuncle.Nynja
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By Carbuncle.Nynja 2025-09-10 19:51:30
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Yes, that person is entitled to a defense and they decided to represent themselves in court against the heavily bankrolled Nintendo lawyers

His lawyer was Fa Afo, he shoulda picked better.
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By Pantafernando 2025-09-10 19:57:26
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Seun said: »
we're not lawyers.

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By Jetackuu 2025-09-10 20:11:23
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Seun said: »
Jetackuu said: »
everyone is entitled to a defense. Grow up.

Everyone is entitled to a defense, unless they don't have one. In which case you take a plea.. unless you're not grown enough to accept the responsibility for violating. Then you defend yourself because you think you're educated in copyright law and you find out exactly how educated you are.

Say whatever you want to in a forum, it's not a court and we're not lawyers. The result speaks for itself and really doesn't need any commentary.
Then don't post moronic opinions. The "result" speaks of nothing other than this idiot bother to hire a lawyer.
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By Seun 2025-09-10 20:22:21
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Jetackuu said: »
Then don't post moronic opinions.

I agree. Let's leave the moronic opinions for the educated people who adjudicate these cases for decades.

We could also leave the insults on the playground, especially if you're trying to suggest that someone needs to grow....
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By Afania 2025-09-10 21:00:21
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Valefor.Yandaime said: »
screwing over labor rights and unionizing activities even when they are expressly protected by law in that country.


If hindering unionizing activities is the worst greedy thing that Amazon has ever done, it probably can't even made it on top 5000 greedy companies on the list lol.

For example, there are businesses out there purposely not following the safety procedure required by law so they can save money, which leads deadly accidents and life loss. This kind of business practices is arguably far more harmful than Amazon screwing over unions.

But most people don't really give a damn if some random 3 man company breaking safety law that leads to life loss. Amazon do something way less harmful then everyone pay attention to it. It's not because Amazon is inherently more greedy than every other business, but because they are bigger and gets more attention from the public. And people has higher moral standard on big companies than small ones.
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By Seun 2025-09-10 21:04:45
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Pantafernando said: »
Seun said: »
we're not lawyers.

I couldn't hack it in law school so I dropped out and started installing Brazilian booty modchips (‿|‿)
 Garuda.Chanti
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By Garuda.Chanti 2025-09-11 09:35:10
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Jetackuu said: »
Then don't post moronic opinions.
If it wasn't for moronic opinions politics, as we know it, would be impossible.

Also, one person's moronic opinion is another person's sound and reasoned discourse.

Quote:
The "result" speaks of nothing other than this idiot bother to hire a lawyer.
As I pointed out in the opening post.
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By Jetackuu 2025-09-13 13:43:23
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Garuda.Chanti said: »
Jetackuu said: »
Then don't post moronic opinions.
If it wasn't for moronic opinions politics, as we know it, would be impossible.

Also, one person's moronic opinion is another person's sound and reasoned discourse.

Quote:
The "result" speaks of nothing other than this idiot bother to hire a lawyer.
As I pointed out in the opening post.

A. Good. 2. no.