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Aussie gets $1.5 million dollar (AU) fine for copy/uploading NSMBWii
- Thread starter VOOK
- Start date
Really large amount of money. The lost sale argument is stupid and should never hold up in any court. Going after the original uploader and ripper is a much better practice than going after individuals of the masses though. Really the worst done to the masses is that they should lose the game.
DualShadow
Member
legend166 said:
This.
Minsc
Gold Member
The Faceless Master said:
Why would you assume that? This is going to be the same that happens when the RIAA sues for
There was a case not too long ago, and some woman got sued for $100,000s and the RIAA won.
It isn't about getting the money, hardly anyone has millions of dollars to pay out. They could be suing for 100 million for all the difference it makes. The loser declares bankruptcy and does what they can to hold on to a couple of essential things, and starts over with nothing.
legend166 said:
Like this one?
Edit: redirected link to article instead of forums
-COOLIO- said:
Sounds like you have a problem with the laws themselves. Take that shit to the people who write them and put them in place.
Here, a guy did something illegal, and the law as it stands was put to work against him. Nintendo did nothing wrong, the court did nothing wrong, this guy did.
Fact.
Any other objections you have regarding this is really moot.
lowrider007
Licorice-flavoured booze?
-COOLIO- said:
Here here Sir, here here..
Completely ridiculous punishment, financially ruining someone's life over an infringement of piracy, madness, while corrupt business men/women can embezzle millions of dollars from companies and get away with much less.
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
It could be that films =/= games under Australian law, but more than likely, the guy committed some other crimes, like breaking an NDA. If the NDA had a clause making him personally liable for damages caused by misuse of his review copy, he was screwed the moment he decided it'd be a good idea to use it to fatten up his ratio.-COOLIO- said:
-COOLIO-
The Everyman
Nicktals said:
when it comes to piracy i dont think any analogies work for it. cigarettes are a physical thing that while cheap to produce do have inherent value to them.
i started with the stealing thread because of the "its still stealing" comment. that implied to me that that person saw this is an issue similar to stealing a single copy of a game.
a lot of people still dont know what to think of piracy in regards to either uploading or downloading. my point is if you see it as stealing one thing then why not liken it to shoplifting.
in the robin hood sense, nobody steals stuff to give away for free so there's no other crimes to compare it too but imo digital piracy just isnt that bad. definitely not fuck up a guys life bad.
i actually have a really unique perspective on piracy but im not going to get into that right now.
viciouskillersquirrel said:
Yes and no. Most early releases will come from some dude who works at EB, takes it home, rips it and brings it back the next day. Of course that's how it's *usually* done and in this case it could be different.
Since i don't believe this was ever a "Scene" release. There is a chance the guy was a gbatemp fan (something like that) and just uploaded it to a public torrent site and begun seeding. Which is why it was probably so easy to figure out who he was.
lowrider007
Licorice-flavoured booze?
Puncture said:
The court have gave out a disproportionate punishment for the crime committed, they didn't have to fine him that high, there is no doubt that he did wrong, that isn't in question, but whether the judge gave out a fair punishment for the crime is.
Minsc
Gold Member
Grayman said:
Maybe it's the truck that would have gone and delivered the CDs to the stores had the people who pirated it instead bought the CDs at stores causing the stores to need to re-order additional inventory.
lowrider007 said:
How can you say its disproportionate, see my above link. The law, even when decided by peers agrees $22,000 per song is not disproportionate. A song is much less substantial than an entire game.
HappyBivouac
Member
I hope this gets tons of attention. I think that rather than deterring pirates it'll say something more like "Nintendo is a company who doesn't mind completely ruining the life of a human being in order to make a couple bucks."
And yes, I like a lot of Nintendo's stuff, and have owned all of their consoles since the NES. But this goes way beyond that. Fuck this.
And yes, I like a lot of Nintendo's stuff, and have owned all of their consoles since the NES. But this goes way beyond that. Fuck this.
Princess Skittles
Prince's's 'Skittle's
Awesome!
I want to read more. MORE.
I want to read more. MORE.
water_wendi
Water is not wet!
Pirating is bad but $1.5 million? Its not like this one guy is the sole distribution network for such things.
HappyBivouac
Member
Really, things like this are what make me begin to question whether I'll continue to support a particular company. It's looking like a big "no" for Nintendo right now.
Let me guess, none of the pirates would have purchased a copy otherwise?Dance In My Blood said:
I'll agree that this is largely true, but do you honestly think it's the case for 100% of pirates? For a game that's been downloaded over a million times, even if only 3% or 4% would have purchased a copy if no torrents were available, that's still millions of dollars in lost revenue to Nintendo and retail stores.
I remember what that guy was actually doing when he released the game. NSMB Wii employed a new feature that stopped it from working via traditional methods. He got the game early and was posting on a forum about how it wasn't working and so on. He was then flooded with a ton of requests for copies of the game for testing and proof, so he acquiesced.
When I saw the post where he said that he had actually given the game out to people, I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a really stupid idea when I saw it, but never suspected at the time that it would come to this. If I remember correctly, he hadn't done much to actually protect his identity and he actually appeared shocked that the people that he gave the link to leaked it to a bunch more people. It's not a surprise he was caught so easily.
He does deserve what he got in many ways, but hopefully Nintendo is also trying to go for the bigger uploaders too. Of course, they'll never get them all, but a few more cases like this may make some of the smaller guys reconsider, at least.
When I saw the post where he said that he had actually given the game out to people, I couldn't believe it. I thought it was a really stupid idea when I saw it, but never suspected at the time that it would come to this. If I remember correctly, he hadn't done much to actually protect his identity and he actually appeared shocked that the people that he gave the link to leaked it to a bunch more people. It's not a surprise he was caught so easily.
He does deserve what he got in many ways, but hopefully Nintendo is also trying to go for the bigger uploaders too. Of course, they'll never get them all, but a few more cases like this may make some of the smaller guys reconsider, at least.
lowrider007
Licorice-flavoured booze?
Somnid said:
How is it not a punishment when Nintendo and the Judge know full well that the person in question is never going to be able to repay even the smallest margin of the fine, it would be 'more' understandable if he had acutally made 1.5 million from the sales and distribution of the game but he didn't, the fine is non-repayable.
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
Dude, insinuating or suggesting that modding or soft-modding consoles is solely for piracy can get you banned. It should be common knowledge.Iadien said:
You should have boycotted in the 90s when they were doing their really dastardly crimes.HappyBivouac said:
Sony shut down Hong Kong based importers Lik-Sang because they were taking advantage of arbitrage and importing PSPs to Europe at a cheaper rate than retail and a few years ago, they hid a program (a rootkit) onto their music CDs that would run when played on PCs and spy on people's music consumption habits. This rootkit, when discovered, was eventually taken advantage of by malware and viruses.
Microsoft have a long, happy history of antitrust and anti-competitive behaviour that's a matter of public record.
These companies exist to make a profit and protect their own interests at all costs. They're not your friends and never were.
That goes for you too.HappyBivouac said:
yankeeforever2
Member
:lol :lol This idiot hosted in Australia a western allied country. Most big names broadcast out of these type of countries(Russia, China, Middle East) and those legal systems do not care, so Nintendo can't do shit to them. What do you want Nintendo to form a army of pikmin to invade those countries?shuri said:
I find it funny some people are offended Nintendo to do this, fuck any gaming company will do the same thing :lol
HappyBivouac
Member
I understand that the majority of huge companies are ready and willing to screw people over in the interest of the best possible earnings. I know that they "aren't your friends and never were."
But that's sort of what I'm trying to say here. Either people who are supportive of this think of Nintendo as their best friend, want to appear as staunchly anti-piracy as possible in front of GAF, or really are so anti-piracy that they'd like to see one guy get fined $1.5 million aus for it.
I know that when I buy video games, I'm supporting an industry I am not happy about on a moral level. This is something that's bothered me for a long, long time. But I can at least vocally express my dislike for the actions taken.
But that's sort of what I'm trying to say here. Either people who are supportive of this think of Nintendo as their best friend, want to appear as staunchly anti-piracy as possible in front of GAF, or really are so anti-piracy that they'd like to see one guy get fined $1.5 million aus for it.
I know that when I buy video games, I'm supporting an industry I am not happy about on a moral level. This is something that's bothered me for a long, long time. But I can at least vocally express my dislike for the actions taken.
legend166 said:
This made me think of that absurd recent case in America where a woman was fined nearly 2 million for downloading music. The good news is that was lowered on appeal.
yankeeforever2
Member
Clipper said:
:lol
HappyBivouac
Member
Kandrick said:
Please don't call me out on that post when I start going on about how awesome Pokemon HG/SS, SMG2, and the new Zelda are...
My point was that we can and should always question these types of actions, rather than just always sympathising with the "victim" of piracy no matter what.
farscape82
Member
Clipper said:
I remember that too, he even made a pic of the game with the receipt and his username for proof, no wonder they got him easyly
VOOK said:
Not very. As i said in my post i assumed it would be a gbatemper.
GBAtemp took the gba and ds piracy into the public eye and got away with it. They become beyond popular, the irc channel was filled with users and fservs/xdcc bots, their website slowly become the #1 place for the gba/ds naming and numbering system.
So when you have a community that thrives on homebrew and piracy on Nintendo platforms, where else would a guy goto when he happens to grab a copy of a huge game early? It's about the only place that exists. He wasn't a scene member, that's obvious. He was just a dude wanting 5 minutes of fame.
It's not the thread in question, but here's one of the aftermath posts.
Edit: And here's the post that potentially cost him $1.5 million.
Edit: And here's the post that potentially cost him $1.5 million.
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
The same thing happens with all IP-related industries (music, film, books, video games). It's the IP laws that are screwed up and the companies involved usually go for the maximum amount of compensation they can legally justify. Don't think it's unusual that Nintendo pressed for that amount or that the judge granted it.HappyBivouac said:
The end result is absurd, but Nintendo are well within their rights under the law. Whether the law itself is moral, useful, effective or appropriate is another matter entirely.
Anyway, finding out that the guy posted that he was giving out the game on GBATemp makes me think this was just a stupid dude who was made an example of.
Striking one in a million pirates with lightning doesn't strike fear into their hearts. Getting caught is like winning a reverse lottery. It's just so unlikely that the odds might as well be zero.spwolf said:
Rather than fining one pirate $1.5 million, it would be orders of magnitude more effective to fine ten thousand pirates $150.
HappyBivouac said:
There is a difference between going after some 13 year old kid who pirated the game off isohunt, and the guy who leaked it onto the internet for the first time.
On another note, did they ever get around that issue of the game turning itself off after 5 minutes if you pirated it or something?
Too many people posting for my stealth edit to work, so here we go again:
And here's the post that potentially cost him $1.5 million.
And here's the post that potentially cost him $1.5 million.
Yes, and before the real launch of the game because of this guy :S.legend166 said:
Dragona Akehi
Retired
Visualante said:
Barn door is wide open and can't be closed thanks to a design flaw in the hinges, frame and lumber used.
viciouskillersquirrel
Member
Heh. Dude who leaked the game got it from Dick Smith's in Mt Ommany. One of my exes used to work in that shopping centre.Clipper said:
So, Dickies at Mt Ommany broke street date, got a slap on the wrist from Nintendo and this guy decided to leak it, brag about where he got it and post photographic evidence?
Idiot.
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