game Nintendo tracked Reddit to find pirate

[Cpvr]

Nintendo reportedly hunted down an alleged Switch pirate by tracking their Reddit posts and hardware repairs. Earlier this year, Nintendo resumed its fight against the modded console business with new lawsuits. The main target was James Williams, the main moderator behind the subreddit r/SwitchPirates.

Williams was located after Nintendo commissioned a law firm to investigate online repositories for pirated Switch games, known as “freeshops.” By analyzing Williams’ past posts online, including a 2015 Reddit post by user “archbox,” the firm succeeded in linking “Archbox” with at least two Nintendo accounts under the name James Williams. Additionally, Williams used the same email address for repairs on his Nintendo Switch. This allowed Nintendo’s Product Lifecycle Management group to find his shipping address.

Tracking Reddit posts for piracy​

Once acquired, Nintendo sent a cease and desist letter to Williams. Though he initially agreed to cooperate, he later went dark and failed to appear in court, resulting in a default judgment in favor of Nintendo.

In related news, Nintendo recently moved to shut down streamer Jesse Keighin’s streams via copyright notices on YouTube and other platforms. Keighin allegedly broadcasted unreleased games and instructed others on how to obtain pirated games via “circumvention devices,” actions Nintendo describes as “trafficking.”

Nintendo is now suing Keighin for over $7 million for streaming pre-release titles. The company seeks $150,000 for each alleged violation of the Copyright Act and a further $2,500 for each alleged violation of the Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions.

Essentially, Nintendo wants $2,500 for each time Keighin used an emulator to play a Nintendo game, on top of the $7 million in total it’s seeking for separate streaming infringements. The outcome of these lawsuits could set a significant precedent in the ongoing battle against game piracy and pre-release game leaks.

Source: https://www.killerstartups.com/nintendo-tracked-reddit-to-find-pirate/

 

[MidnightMuse]

Nintendo is known to do everything it can to find and defeat pirates and modders. But this has to be one of the funniest things I have every heard them doing.

 

[gwolf666]

To what extent can they go, the only thing they gain by doing this is losing audiences, since many people do not have enough money to buy games and can only play them pirated, plus Nintendo has a lot of money, why does it do this? instead of making money they only lose money

 

[Alamson]

When people play a pirated game, it shows the product is popular and there is the desire to play it. Going after pirates aggressively may be costly and ineffective. I think the major thing to be addressed is affordability. If they can be innovative enough, the cost of development will be reduced and price will become more affordable. Another thing that can be done is educating people on why consuming pirated product is unfair to developers who commit valuable resources to games development; if people understand this, they will willingly desist from using pirated copies and be supportive.