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Nintendo sues California man for selling hacked NES Classics & Switch units loaded with pirated games.

Ninjadom

Ninjadom

Member
Oct 25, 2017
5,195
London, UK
Hollywood Reporter said:
Nintendo is suing an Orange County, California, resident who it claims is illegally modifying its consoles and selling pirated versions of popular games in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act.
Pirates have found ways to circumvent Nintendo's hardware and software features that make it so only authorized games can be played, and in doing so the video game giant says they're infringing on its copyrights and trademarks.
Nintendo says one of those individuals is Mikel Euskaldunak, who it claims has been selling modification services for the Nintendo Switch that allow users to play unauthorized games, and has been selling NES Classic Edition systems that come preloaded with 800 pirated games.
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https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t...gedly-rigging-consoles-pirating-games-1168690

Legal paper filings can be read in the link below. This dude was selling NES Classic's hacked with 800 ROM's for $15 above retail price. He was also selling Switch units with Team Xecuter's SX dongle and pirated Switch games.

Nintendo have him on 9 separate and individual infringements.

Legal documents: https://www.scribd.com/document/395564764/Nintendo-v-Euskaldunak

Nintendo are seeking damages that are:

"three times the NOA's actual damages or profits from the defendant, all attorney fees paid and costs of the suit incurred, pre and post judgement interest on the above damages."

Could be millions and millions.
 
-shadow-

-shadow-

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
6,110
Should've just stocked them when the NES Mini was hot, would've made a ton more withoit the legal trouble!
 
Terrell

Terrell

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,624
Canada
I mean... at least they aren't suing for modding the devices, but for profiteering off of pre-modded systems. It makes it fairly more reasonable.
 
Weltall Zero

Weltall Zero

Game Developer
Banned
Oct 26, 2017
19,343
Madrid
Thread title is highly misleading: they're not suing him for hacking them, they're suing him selling pirated games. I would suggest contacting a mod before this snowballs into misinformed outrage.

Terrell said:
I mean... at least they aren't suing for modding the devices, but for profiteering off of pre-modded systems. It makes it fairly more reasonable.
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Not even that: they're suing him for packing them with pirated games. Which, I mean, is fucking illegal no matter what your stance on hacking or emulation is.
 
Oregano

Oregano

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,878
First stealing sprites, now suing hackers!?

Nintendo has no shame!
 
MegaXZero

MegaXZero

One Winged Slayer
Member
Jun 21, 2018
5,079
What a moron. Also the people who bought from him sound screwed too.

Wonder if anyone will come out to defend this poor underdog, lol.
 
zzz

zzz

Member
Oct 27, 2017
760
A quick search shows that not only was he selling pirated games, but he might have been selling SXOS with Smash Ultimate before release. That's a very quick way to get Nintendo's attention.
 
SeeingeyeDug

SeeingeyeDug

Member
Oct 28, 2017
3,004
Oregano said:
First stealing sprites, now suing hackers!?

Nintendo has no shame!
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You can hack consoles with no problem. Smart individuals who make a living doing that sort of thing might show a potential customer how they can acquire their own ROMS, but they never provide them to the customer. As soon as the hacker also provides the pirated material, they're breaking the law.
 
Atheerios

Atheerios

Member
Oct 27, 2017
7,098
Wait.. When did they change the Nintendo eShop name to Nintendo Switch Online shop?

FVDyQ8x.jpg


Could an eShop overhaul be coming soon?
 
F34R

F34R

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,990
Ouch. You don't sell roms. Say it again... you don't sell roms. That's the quickest way to get pulled in court.
 
Plankton2

Plankton2

Member
Dec 12, 2017
2,670
Through OfferUp, Defendants have sold and continue to sell modification services for the Nintendo Switch game console that allow the user "to play ANY switch games [they] want." Upon information and belief, Defendants install a software modification on the Nintendo Switch that allows customers to play games coped from unauthorized sources and loaded on a memory card, which circumvents the Nintendo Switch's copyright protections. Defendants provide customers with "free" (i.e., illegally copied) game(s) with every purchase of illegal modification services for Nintendo Switch consoles. Case 8:18-cv-02196 Document 1 Filed 12/11/18 Page 3 of 29 Page ID #:3
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He made a service out of this, which is the big nono
 
Foffy

Foffy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,388
I thought this was a thing always cracked down on.

I know many years ago, back during the PS1 days, a store my dad used to shop at was raided by cops for selling burned games.
 
Rust

Rust

Member
Jan 24, 2018
1,225
What a silly man.

Obviously what he should've done is give them away for free (but start a completely independent Patreon!)
Isn't that how it's meant to work on the net?
/s
 
Firecrest

Firecrest

Member
Oct 28, 2017
82
I see morons trying to swindle people on the Facebook marketplace with these all the time. As much as I'd like to see this level of scumminess scaled back, I doubt this will change much.
 
DeuceGamer

DeuceGamer

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,476
Now if they would start going after all the bootleg games on eBay. Would make me happy if they went after eBay themselves for neglecting to properly police their marketplace. Even when you report fake games they no longer do anything like they once did.
 
TheMadTitan

TheMadTitan

Member
Oct 27, 2017
27,235
DeuceGamer said:
Now if they would start going after all the bootleg games on eBay. Would make me happy if they went after eBay themselves for neglecting to properly police their marketplace. Even when you report fake games they no longer do anything like they once did.
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If they go after eBay, then they're going to go after etsy.
 
Keldroc

Keldroc

Member
Oct 27, 2017
11,987
Foffy said:
I thought this was a thing always cracked down on.

I know many years ago, back during the PS1 days, a store my dad used to shop at was raided by cops for selling burned games.
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I thought this was what happened to the boutique game store near me about 15 years ago but it turned out that while the search warrant was for modded Xboxes they were selling, it was the heroin bricks in the back that got the store closed permanently.
 
Foffy

Foffy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
16,388
Keldroc said:
I thought this was what happened to the boutique game store near me about 15 years ago but it turned out that while the search warrant was for modded Xboxes they were selling, it was the heroin bricks in the back that got the store closed permanently.
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Wow, that's quite a jump. Shoulda just modded the Xbox's with the heroin bricks.
 
texhnolyze

texhnolyze

Member
Oct 25, 2017
23,169
Indonesia
Nintendo should start raiding 3rd world countries now. There are actual stores that are selling Switch with pre-installed pirated games.
 
BriGuy

BriGuy

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,275
MegaXZero said:
What a moron. Also the people who bought from him sound screwed too.

Wonder if anyone will come out to defend this poor underdog, lol.
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I'll defend him insofar as I don't think his crimes rise to the level of "millions and millions of dollars" in damages and financial ruination for the rest of his life. He's a dumb ass and deserves some kind of consequence for selling stolen goods, but I'll never, ever back the kind of damages these bloodthirsty DMCA cases try to seek.
 
Kvik

Kvik

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
889
Downunder.
Selling these consoles preloaded is a poor business decision, at the end of the day. Just because one person operation seems minuscule in the grand scheme of things, they also can't be certain Nintendo or other platform holder won't be alerted. I'm sure there are investigators who look into these kind of enterprises at the behest of platform holders.

If they were smart enough, they've should've stopped at offering a service in the form of hardware dongles and/or installing CFW and leave it at that. There's definitely some money to be made in offering these services. Although the Switch homebrew scene is still relatively new, the hardware is very popular and obviously the hackable models are desirable.
 
Lackless

Lackless

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,137
Man oh man. I knew someone last year who uploaded every NES, SNES, Gameboy, Gameboy Advanced, and Gamecube game to a site and it was organized and shit. Nintendo probably hired a hitman on him by now.
 
Untzillatx

Untzillatx

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
1,375
Basque Country
Mikel Euskaldunak?! That sounds like a made-up name. In Basque, euskaldunak means "Basque speakers" or "Basques" and Mikel is a Basque name. It is like someone being called "Mike Francophones", or "Mike Englishmen".

Sounds very weird as someone coming from the Basque country.
 
meaulnes

meaulnes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
208
Yes, I tought the same about the name. While I am not from the basque country I am from Spain and that name sounds made up to me. May be wrong though, not sure.
 
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