Illegal Mario Wii game internet uploader caught in Australia and fined $1.5 million
Nintendo has confirmed the settlement of a Federal Court action against an Australian who is the original and first person to upload a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii illegally to the Internet (uploaded on November 6 2009, a week before the game’s official release). The cost to him? $1.3 million USD.
Nintendo states:
“This legal proceeding was commenced to protect the creative rights and innovation of game developers, and to combat the growing international problem of Internet piracy. Under Australian law, copying and distributing games without the permission of the copyright holder is a breach of the Copyright Act.
The legal proceeding resulted in a settlement in which the individual will pay to Nintendo the sum of $1.5 Million dollars by way of damages to compensate Nintendo for the loss of sales revenue caused by the individual’s actions.
Upon the game being uploaded to the Internet, Nintendo was able to employ the use of sophisticated technological forensics to identify the individual responsible for illegally copying the file and making it available for further distribution. On 23 November, 2009, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court search order in respect of the individual’s residential premises. This led to the seizure of property from those premises in order to gain further evidence against the individual.
Nintendo guards its intellectual property rights in order to protect the interests of its valued consumers, its own interests, as well as the interests of game development companies. Nintendo will pursue those who attempt to jeopardise our industry by using all means available to it under the law.”
This should obviously serve as a warning to anyone who would consider uploading and spreading videogames on the Internet illegally. And if you break this law, they can literally come to your house and seize your property, not to mention possible jail fines and hefty fees.
The sad thing is that some really cool PC mods can and did come from what was released online. But obviously it came at a very high price for the original individual who committed the crime.
Via Nintendo Mobile
Did you know the unique PS Vita game Gravity Rush is helmed by the Siren series director? 
