Court Ruled Against Williams

A US District Court in Washington state ruled in favor of Nintendo after the company sued Arizona resident James C. Williams for running Pirate Shops that focused on giving users a way to run unauthorized Nintendo titles.

Williams Ordered to Pay $4.5m

Williams was ordered to pay $4.5 million, the maximum statutory damages Nintendo sought, or $150,000 for each of the 30 games he pirated, although the company says he bootlegged far more.

Court Justification

The court wrote that Williams' refusal to participate in the lawsuit made it 'extremely difficult to quantify' the amount of money sufficient to remedy Nintendo's injury, but it is 'indisputable that such amount would be large.'

“Due to Williams' refusal to participate in the lawsuit and [Nintendo of America's] inability to conduct discovery, 'the amount of money sufficient to remedy NOA's injury would be extremely difficult to quantify; but it is indisputable that such amount would be large,'”

Williams' Pirate Shops

Williams used the online handle 'archbox' and allegedly helped distribute 'thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of unauthorized copies' since 2019, according to Nintendo.

Pirate Shops on Reddit

On Reddit, Williams became a moderator on r/SwitchPirates where he advertised his pirate shops including Jits.cc/Jack-in-the-Shop, Turtle in the Shop, LiberaShop, and Neko / NekoDrive.

Consequence for Williams

As part of the court order, Williams is permanently barred from running his online pirate shops, distributing bootlegged Nintendo games, or engaging in any conduct to encourage others to download or obtain the Circumvention Software for Nintendo titles.