A US District Judge has granted Nintendo a £3.4 million ($4.5m) default judgment against James Williams, the former Reddit moderator known online as “Archbox”, after he failed to respond to a lawsuit over alleged Nintendo Switch piracy.
After putting Switch pirate Gary Bowser behind bars and targeting emulator software Yuzu, back in 2024 Nintendo hunted down alleged Switch pirate James “Archbox” Williams, the main moderator behind r/SwitchPirates, by tracking his Reddit posts.
By this time last year, court papers revealed Nintendo was seeking $4.5m in damages from Williams, accusing him of having “facilitated a network of unauthorised ‘shops’…that have offered to the public extensive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games for download”.
And now, according to TorrentFreak, $4.5 million (£3.4m) is exactly what Williams now owes Nintendo.
The judge noted that while Williams had not responded to the lawsuit, he must have been aware of it given he had hired a lawyer to object to a Google subpoena.
Nintendo asked for $150,000 for every one of the 30 games Williams allegedly pirated, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, adding up to the full $4.5 million (£3.4m). The judge agreed, ruling that “Williams’ egregious infringement activities merit substantial punishment here” and issued a permanent injunction barring Williams from distributing any pirated Nintendo games, not just the 30 named titles, and from encouraging anyone else to do so.
The judge also credited Nintendo for not separately seeking DMCA damages or attorneys’ fees, calling it a “gesture of reasonableness” that supported awarding the maximum copyright damages.
Last month, John Romero, the co-founder of id Software and father of game series Quake and Doom, recounted a tale about when id Software worked with Taiwanese pirates to spread Doom.
