Nintendo Wanted Hacker's Prison Sentence To Turn Heads (axios.com) 66
Nintendo described the sentencing of a hacker earlier this year as a "unique opportunity" to send a message to all gamers about video game piracy. Axios reports: A newly released transcript of the Feb. 10 sentencing of Gary Bowser provides rare insight, directly from Nintendo, about the company's grievances. Bowser, a Canadian national, pled guilty last year to U.S. government cybercrime charges over his role as a top member of Team Xecuter. The group sold tech that circumvented copyright protections and enabled the Nintendo Switch and other systems to play pirated games. Authorities estimated the piracy cost Nintendo upward of $65 million over nearly a decade and even compelled the company to spend resources releasing a more secure model of the Switch.
"This is a very significant moment for us," Nintendo lawyer Ajay Singh told the court at the time, as he laid out the company's case against piracy and awaited the sentencing. "It's the purchase of video games that sustains Nintendo and the Nintendo ecosystem, and it is the games that make the people smile," Singh said. "It's for that reason that we do all we can to prevent games on Nintendo systems from being stolen." He noted Nintendo's losses from Team Xecuter's piracy and sounded a note of sympathy for smaller non-Nintendo game makers whose works are also pirated. And he wove in a complaint about cheating, which he said Team Xecuter's hacks enabled. Cheating could scare off honest players and upset families: "Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage."
At the hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik noted that TV and movies glorify hackers as "sticking it to the man," suggesting that "big companies are reaping tremendous profits and it's good for the little guy to have this." "What do you think?" Lasnik asked Nintendo's lawyer at one point. "What else can we do to convince people that there's no glory in this hacking/piracy?" "There would be a large benefit to further education of the public," Singh replied. In brief remarks directly to Lasnik, Bowser said longer prison time wouldn't scare off hackers. "There's so much money to be made from piracy that it's insignificant," he said.
"This is a very significant moment for us," Nintendo lawyer Ajay Singh told the court at the time, as he laid out the company's case against piracy and awaited the sentencing. "It's the purchase of video games that sustains Nintendo and the Nintendo ecosystem, and it is the games that make the people smile," Singh said. "It's for that reason that we do all we can to prevent games on Nintendo systems from being stolen." He noted Nintendo's losses from Team Xecuter's piracy and sounded a note of sympathy for smaller non-Nintendo game makers whose works are also pirated. And he wove in a complaint about cheating, which he said Team Xecuter's hacks enabled. Cheating could scare off honest players and upset families: "Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage."
At the hearing, U.S. District Judge Robert Lasnik noted that TV and movies glorify hackers as "sticking it to the man," suggesting that "big companies are reaping tremendous profits and it's good for the little guy to have this." "What do you think?" Lasnik asked Nintendo's lawyer at one point. "What else can we do to convince people that there's no glory in this hacking/piracy?" "There would be a large benefit to further education of the public," Singh replied. In brief remarks directly to Lasnik, Bowser said longer prison time wouldn't scare off hackers. "There's so much money to be made from piracy that it's insignificant," he said.
Bowser?! Seriously? (Score:5, Funny)
Nintendo lawyers must have been struggling not to make the most of that opportunity.
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How have the prosecution overlooked the fact that his name is a breach of Trademark law? There's another 10 years and $100,000 in fines per offense. If the defendant has children, there's another breach for each one.
I'm left thinking that Nintendo must hire shithouse lawyers. Maybe Bowser will get off with a warning.
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This is what happens Nintendo when you hire (Doug) Bowser to run Nintendo of America!!!
Re:Bowser?! Seriously? (Score:4, Funny)
How long will he need to stay in his Castle?
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For once I'm cheering on the Lawyers.
There are tons of good games you can play for free if you don't want to pay for your gaming, and guys like this aren't doing it just for their own personal use, but to actually profit from it, directly at the expense of the developers, and Bowser's own comment of "There's so much money to be made from piracy that it's insignificant," shows a complete lack of remorse for his actions.
I'd love to see stiffer penalties (fines for example, not actual jail time) for those who
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You got the first out loud laugh from me today. Great first post!
"Justice must not only be done (Score:5, Interesting)
But should manifestly and undoubtedly be seen to be done."
These remarks were made when there was the possibility that a trial court judge could be perceived as being unduly coerced by the prosecuting party in a case. There was no claim that coercion had taken place or was likely, the mere perception that it could have was sufficient to warrant an overturning of the conviction.
In this case, the person pled guilty but the remarks by the judge make it clear that there is a reasonable perception that there could have been coercion. True, this principle may not have entered Canadian legal circles, but they would likely be willing to consider whether it should if this case went to appeal. The judiciary MUST be seen as independent and be making decisions of their own rather than at the whim of others.
Re:"Justice must not only be done (Score:5, Interesting)
My worry is that it will affect preservation and homebrew, both completely legitimate activities.
A lot of games are coming with an online requirement, or even just a mostly blank disc that tells the console to download the actual game. If we don't have ways to work around the protections built into consoles, a lot of stuff is going to be lost.
There is a vibrant homebrew scene for the Wii and Wii U. The Wii U in particular is an excellent and cheap emulation system. That has saved many of them from landfill.
I really question how much piracy this enabled. I don't know since I only own one Switch game, but on XBOX and PS5 most games need an internet connection so even if the system was cracked it wouldn't enable much piracy.
Re:"Justice must not only be done (Score:5, Informative)
If we don't have ways to work around the protections built into consoles, a lot of stuff is going to be lost.
That's the idea. Companies such as Nintendo loathe the idea that their older IP falls into a rogue equivalent of the public domain, while they sit on it and try to figure out how they can milk it again to the next generation of gamers.
The bigger problem is that copyright lasts essentially until the heat death of the universe. Until we fix that, being locked out by DRM is really just academic.
Re:"Justice must not only be done (Score:4, Insightful)
Indeed. Copyright holds culture hostage. This is seen first hand in game preservation for systems that are long dead such as 8-bit computers.
We should be fighting for short durations [thepublicdomain.org] and not allowing corporate bribery (lobbying) to hold popular culture hostage while companies milk nostalgic cash grabs.
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This is a common excuse.
Let's be real. 100% of DRM bypasses are about piracy. First.
100% of ROM copiers/flash cards. Piracy first.
Clone consoles? Piracy first.
Steamdeck and similar? Piracy first.
Sideloading mobile phones? Piracy first.
Now is it true? Yes. Should that be the reason why to allow these things to exist? No. Piracy happens because the game or software title is completely detached from reality. If everyone was honest, nobody would need locks. The locks exist because some people like testing locks
It's a common "excuse" because it's valid (Score:3, Informative)
And no, I don't think 100% of DRM bypasses are about piracy first, if anything the console-hacking space tends to be the exact opposite. If you actually look into the history of the homebrew scene, lots of system hackers put work in to avoid their results being used for piracy. When Henkaku came out for PS Vita, the people responsible put in effort to
Re:"Justice must not only be done (Score:4, Informative)
Shorten copyright terms for a start, as you point out most games only make any money for 3 years or so after which time they become largely worthless from a commercial perspective anyway.
Require that any work continues to be available under the same terms (or terms which become more favorable for the customer) for the duration of the copyright term, with the option to voluntarily relinquish copyright claims if they no longer wish to distribute it.
Hold a copy of the game and any required server-side code in escrow, for release automatically once copyright expires or is given up, or if the manufacturer is no longer able to fulfil their requirements (ie goes bankrupt etc).
There are too many works which become lost or forgotten long before their copyright expires, and companies intentionally withholding access to a work for no other reason than that they can. If copyright holders were less abusive, then the fair use reasons would dry up and it would be much easier to justify actions against the remaining people who just want free games.
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Software piracy is a particular form of copyright infringement that entails making a copy of something that you did not already have any lawful ownership of.
Bypassing DRM on something that you lawfully purchased and copying its content for one's own use may be copyright infringement (and depending on one's jurisdiction, personal use can often even be exempt), but it definitely doesn't fit any definition of software piracy.
So 98% maybe... possibly even higher than that. But not a hundred.
Re: "Justice must not only be done (Score:2)
Piracy math (Score:2)
I really question how much piracy this enabled.
It probably enabled plenty of piracy, but how many lost sales that actually translated to is usually greatly exaggerated. The funny thing about paying for entertainment is that most people who were going to pay, will do so even absent any sort of DRM. The music industry figured this out awhile ago and gave up on DRM for purchased content. You'd assume that would mean everything's getting pirated like crazy, but people are actually going out and dropping $25-$45 for albums pressed on old school vinyl. Pe
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The music industry figured this out awhile ago and gave up on DRM for purchased content.
They dropped DRM, but they combined it with making music easier to get online. I can now get almost any music I want with a music video on Youtube. There are many options that are easier than downloading with Bittorrent.
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They dropped DRM
No they haven't. The DRMs name now is Google and Spotify.
There are many options that are easier than downloading with Bittorrent.
Not if you want quality. Or quantity.
RARBG holds more movies and TV than any of the streaming services.
Re: Piracy math (Score:2)
pfff, I am buying cassettes now.
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If we don't have ways to work around the protections built into consoles, a lot of stuff is going to be lost.
good riddance. if people didn't buy games on proprietary closed systems in the first place then all games would be on open platforms and companies would fight piracy with attractive enough content instead of state violence, they could still make billions and not be a cancer for society. the fact that you can't freely reverse engineer hardware you own or repurpose it as you see fit is simply outrageous. this is a very serious issue with health/domestic/security related hardware but we got there because of en
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I agree that those are legitimate activities. That said, the DMCA definitely made circumventing lockout technology illegal regardless of the reason why you are doing it.
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My worry is that it will affect preservation and homebrew, both completely legitimate activities.
When it comes to preservation, it is probably better to do the hacking as the platform is reaching end of manufacturing. This way there is less chance the original manufacturer is going to spend money protecting the console and also their risk of loss is lower, since the next generation console is where their focus would be.
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The corporation itself admits that it put out an insecure product and part of the grievance is that it had to spend money to secure the product this is a normal expense where a shoddy product is involved.
The cheating has nothing to do with anything
Justice is not Revenge (Score:2)
One of the problems with Copyrights, Software Piracy, and these issues. Is the fact that a lot of the laws are out of date and are no longer Just for the crimes.
Back in the old days if I wanted to sell or distribute Pirated copyright material. I would need a good amount of resources to do this. A printing press, a record press, high speed tape recorders... For one to be part of that crime, you would need a serious amount of money invested in performing the crime, thus the high cost judgements if convicted
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The judiciary MUST be seen as independent
That's not true in the US system though where judges belong to political parties, publicly take sides in political debates and run campaigns to get re-elected. How can anyone believe that US judges are independent and doing their best to honestly implement the law when they are also politicians?
Educate the public (Score:2)
Re: Educate the public (Score:2)
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And as for the parent company, this would include al
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Re: Educate the public (Score:2)
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The message is clear (Score:2)
Start lobbying against ridiculous laws like that.
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The idea of truly fair competition is a farce. Some people have advantages, whether that be owning a fancy high refresh rate TV, having internet that doesn't lag like a bitch, and there also might be something to owning one of those fancy gaming chairs rather than sitting in a couch that still smells a bit from when the cat threw up on it.
So yes, parents should have a conversation with their kids that they might get their ass whooped by the rich kid who has money for every nice thing and doesn't have to si
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Wealth has nothing to do with allowing transgender athletes to continue to destroy womens competition. Takes more than porn-grade gamer tits for the biological woman to win here, so even your rich-kid upgrade analogy sucks.
Meh, I'm just a Troll here. Might as well let Nintendo scurry back off into their Hypocrite House of Glass, and we can all can go back to playing pretend again.
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(Answering my question, is valid. Labeling me a Troll, isn't.)
How is your handwaving and distraction not trolling? At best it's willful flamebait. You want everything to be about your pet issue. All the rest of us see is you frothing.
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(Answering my question, is valid. Labeling me a Troll, isn't.)
How is your handwaving and distraction not trolling? At best it's willful flamebait. You want everything to be about your pet issue. All the rest of us see is you frothing.
My pet issue is Logic. Nintendo is going to stand in a courtroom and talk about the massive amount of damage cheating causes in the virtual world, as Common F. Sense is supposed to ignore the shit out of their definition and simply not apply it where it actually creates damage, in the real world? That's hilarious.
I said their definition would be a hard sell, so I appreciate you confirming that fact. My question is valid for adults to answer and discuss. Hypocrite Children want to whip out names and labe
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Straw-man argument about an unrelated scenario. You're right that labeling you as a troll isn't valid. You should have been labeled "Offtopic."
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Straw-man argument about an unrelated scenario. You're right that labeling you as a troll isn't valid. You should have been labeled "Offtopic."
A gamemaker infamous for creating and sponsoring massive amounts of global competition is claiming damages in a courtroom as a result of gameplay between competitors in which one party clearly has an unfair advantage that is painfully obvious to all parties involved.
Not really off-topic, but it's rather convenient I basically have to do nothing but sit back and let Reality prove the correlation. Perhaps we can stop pretending that competition is proceeding perfectly fair in the real world of transgender sp
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Maybe so, but you don't deserve to have a karma bonus for posting such drivel.
Conflating piracy and cheating (Score:3)
I can understand why Nintendo are trying to conflate these two issues. But we shouldn't let them do it. Allow me to elaborate on why and throw in my 2c on each one.
Piracy is when you download/use software without paying for it, usually by circumventing DRM or using software that has had the DRM stripped out/circumvented by someone else. It's pretty rampant in certain sectors, especially video games, but also music and movies. If the original creator is a $multi-billion entity that is price gouging, or engaging in other anti-consumer or anti-competitive behaviour (Nintendo are 100% in this category), or simply doesn't offer their product at any price where you live, then I would say it's not wholly unethical to pirate their software, and if you're the person that strips the DRM so other pirates can use it that's also fine-ish as long as you are not getting rich from the endeavour. As some others have said, piracy is sometimes necessary to preserve these works over the long term as parts of our culture, and if that is the reason for pirating that's OK too.
Cheating on the other hand is hacking or breaking the game in some way as to give yourself a competitive advantage over other players, either in an online multiplayer game or a single player game with online leader boards, or occasionally cheating in speed runs. Cheaters don't just harm the game's creators, they harm other players who paid for the game, that is indefensible in my book.
Now, the argument I *think* Nintendo is trying to make is that a heavily pirated game is more likely to contain many cheaters. But is this actually true? I have very little experience with Nintendo hardware or games so I don't know. With PC games (that have both single player campaigns and competitive online multiplayer) most of the time the pirated version is only the single player component, the multiplayer doesn't even work so pirates can't really cheat. Many multiplayer only PC games are free-to-play, so no piracy by definition. Anything with no multiplayer component or leader boards (or speed runners) can't really have cheaters, again by definition. Correct me if I'm wrong here, but aren't a majority of the popular Nintendo games single player only and therefore immune to cheating?
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Nintendo has lots of competitive multi-player games. One issue with console multiplayer games is that they sometimes rely on the system's DRM to trust the client software perhaps more than they should. Obviously, you can't get away with this in PC games, since the client has to be completely untrusted due to it's more open nature. Breaking a console's DRM means that software hacking can actually occur on the client, and perhaps break the game in ways normally not available.
So, the "cheaters" argument ma
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OK but turn arounds fair play (Score:3, Insightful)
Your fault (Score:5, Insightful)
Gods above, below, and sideways, if it wasn't for the marketing for the Wii, Nintendo would be in the same boat as Sega is now.
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Gods above, below, and sideways, if it wasn't for the marketing for the Wii, Nintendo would be in the same boat as Sega is now.
Yep, that's all the Wii was, marketing. It certainly wasn't the right device at the right time at the right price to entice the largely untapped casual gamer market with new an innovative control options to have fun in their living room playing goofy 5min hits.
No sirree. Just marketing. Why don't Microsoft or Sony think of that?
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Why didn't they just shoot him? (Score:2)
Nintendo's tone sounds like they would have pushed for the death penalty if they could have.
I see their point, but their messaging has gone straight off the rails.
why not try for prison in japan! (Score:2)
why not try for prison in japan!
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Teaching your kids that the world is unfair is abs (Score:3, Insightful)
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You misunderstand. They are striving to make a wold where you are not allowed to discuss unfairness, that way you won't have to explain it to your kids.
Ugly (Score:1)
Ugly outcome. There are no winners here.
Hollywood accouting (Score:2)
> Authorities estimated the piracy cost Nintendo upward of $65 million over nearly a decade
I'm sure that they assume that anything that was 'pirated' was a lost sale. There is no way there would have been an extra $65M in sales without 'piracy'. If you cannot actually measure the damage how can you come up with a proportional response?
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If you don't want to pay for your games, play free ones. There's lots to choose from.
Star trek online
Lord of the rings online
War Robots
Clash of Clans
Endless Sky - single player space trader game
and many many others - these are just some of the games I have spent many hundreds of hours playing for free though. Some are overly pay to win (looking at you, war robots) but most have been enjoyable to play even as a completely free player. I even eventually ended up putting some coin in some too, as a thank you t
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I do not 'pirate' or 'steal' anything. The people that are 'pirating' probably would not pay, maybe cannot pay. So claiming that pirates are lost sales is bullshit, most of them would have gone without. Again, if you cannot measure the impact how do you calculate a proportional response?
What a load of crap (Score:1)
"Parents should not be forced to explain to their children why people cheat and why sometimes games are not fair, just because one person wants an unfair advantage."
I say they should, parents should really explain to their children that we live in an unfair world where some people try any means necessary to get ahead. If they don't explain this to their children how in the world are they going to survive adulthood?