Nintendo Sues The Moderator Of Switch Piracy Subreddit

Summary

• Nintendo has filed two new lawsuits in relation to Switch piracy.
• James Williams, known as Archbox, is being sued for his actions in the SwitchPirates subreddit.
• Ryan Daly, known as Homebrew Homie, allegedly operated a website that sold modded Nintendo Switch consoles.

Nintendo has launched two new lawsuits in relation to Nintendo Switch piracy. This time, it is targeting two individuals, one of which is a moderator of the subreddit r/SwitchPirates.

As spotted by VGC, TorrentFreak reports that the lawsuits were filed against the pair in Washington. One of the individuals is being sued due to his communications in r/SwitchPirates, where he operated under the name Archbox.

Nintendo Sues r/SwitchPirates Moderator

The lawsuit names Archbox as James Williams and goes into detail about his alleged behaviour in the piracy subreddit.

"Defendant became a leading (if not the primary) moderator of the SwitchPirates Reddit community, which he helped grow to nearly 190,000 members," reads the lawsuit. "Since 2019, Defendant has posted thousands of comments and messages to the SwitchPirates Reddit Group,"

Williams is also accused of "offering technical advice and encouragement" to other users on how to pirate Nintendo games, as well as how to install "circumvention software" to get around any restrictions put in place.

On top of this, Nintendo claims that Williams is attached to multiple "pirate shops" which sell illegitimate copies of its games.

"Defendant is well aware that his conduct is unlawful and infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights," the lawsuit continues. "Indeed, Defendant has bragged publicly that he is a ‘pirate’ who ‘[isn’t] going to give Nintendo $50 for a game’."

In another lawsuit, Nintendo is also targeting Ryan Daly, who uses the username Homebrew Homie. Daly is said to have operated the website Modded Hardware, which sold modded Nintendo Switch consoles. It was also said to invite customers to send their own Switch's to Daly, which he would modify to play pirated games and send back to them.

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It doesn't seem that lawyers representing Daly and Williams have responded to these lawsuits at the time of writing. Nintendo is seeking monetary damages from both individuals.

This comes after Nintendo successfully sued Gary Bowser, who was also hit with criminal charges as a result of his part in Switch piracy. Bowser served 30 months in prison and owes Nintendo $14.5 million, a sum he had to start paying back while he was in prison.

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