Hero image: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, one of the 30 games named in the order. Image: Nintendo
Nintendo of America has been awarded US$4.5 million in a Seattle court against a man it says ran pirate shops for Nintendo Switch games — and he never turned up to argue otherwise.
The order granting default judgment was filed on 23 September in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington. Judge Lauren King granted Nintendo’s motion against James C. Williams, whom the order describes as known online as “archbox”, and the judgment was entered the same day.
The figure is simple arithmetic. Nintendo asked for US$150,000 — the statutory maximum for wilful copyright infringement — for each of 30 games listed in its complaint, and the court gave it all of it.
Those 30 games are a tour of the Switch library — The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Metroid Dread, Pikmin 4 and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate are all on the list.
Because Williams defaulted, the court took the complaint’s factual allegations as true, apart from those about damages. Those allegations say he became a leading moderator of the SwitchPirates Reddit community, which grew to nearly 190,000 members, and posted thousands of messages pointing users to the shops.
The order also quotes his own posts, including one in which he called himself a “pirate” who “[is]n’t going to give Nintendo $50 for a game”.
Judge King noted that Williams knew about the case, because he hired counsel who appeared in this case to contest a third-party subpoena, but never answered the complaint itself.
Nintendo didn’t ask for everything it could have. The order says it sought damages only for the 30 listed games, did not seek statutory damages under the DMCA and is not pursuing attorney’s fees. The court called the US$4.5 million reasonable on that basis.
Money is only half of it, as the permanent injunction bars Williams from running any online shops offering pirated Switch games, from distributing circumvention software, and from encouraging anyone to download either. He must also immediately disable access to the shops and to any social media accounts, Discord servers or Telegram accounts used to distribute them.
What the order doesn’t say is whether Nintendo will ever collect the money. It sets the amount and the injunction — and it was signed by Judge King on 23 September.
Source: U.S. District Court W.D. Wash. – Order Granting Default Judgment, Dkt. 29, U.S. District Court W.D. Wash. – Judgment, Dkt. 30, CourtListener – docket