Nintendo seeks £3.4 million in damages over Switch piracy

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A former Reddit moderator was found liable after failing to respond to Nintendo's lawsuit over facilitating the distribution of pirated games.

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Nintendo has secured a £3.4 million judgment, equivalent to US$4.5 million, against James Williams, a former Reddit moderator known as “Archbox”. A US district judge issued the ruling after Williams failed to respond to the lawsuit filed by the company over the alleged piracy of Nintendo Switch games.

Williams was the lead moderator of the r/SwitchPirates community. According to court documents, he allegedly facilitated a network of unauthorized stores that offered the public extensive libraries of pirated console games for download. Nintendo tracked him down through posts he made on Reddit.

Although he did not respond to the lawsuit, Williams apparently knew about the case. The judge noted that he had hired a lawyer to challenge a subpoena directed at Google.

Nintendo sought US$150,000 in damages for each of the 30 games Williams allegedly pirated. The titles cited include The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. The amount requested for the 30 games came to US$4.5 million, which the court awarded in full.

In the ruling, the judge said Williams’s “blatant infringing activities” warranted a substantial penalty. The judgment also imposed a permanent injunction barring the former moderator from distributing any pirated Nintendo game, not just the 30 titles cited in the lawsuit. The order also prohibits him from encouraging others to do the same.

The court took into account Nintendo’s decision not to separately seek damages under the DMCA or reimbursement for attorneys’ fees. In the judge’s view, that choice demonstrated reasonableness and helped justify awarding the maximum amount of statutory copyright damages.

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