News: Shy Mario Bros Wii Pirate Fined $1.5m Page 1

Shy Mario Bros Wii Pirate Fined $1.5m

10.02.2010

Shy Mario Bros Wii Pirate Fined $1.5m on Nintendo gaming news, videos and discussion

Pirates may have their illegally downloaded copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, however their captain has been fined $1.5 Million in damages.

Back in November last year an Australian chap Burt, 24, leaked a copy of the game he'd accidentally been able to purchase a week ahead of its launch, illegally online. It didn't work initially, however hackers were able to adjust files to work with homebrew systems.

Upon the game being uploaded to the Internet, Nintendo was able to employ the use of sophisticated technological forensics to identify the individual responsible for illegally copying the file and making it available for further distribution.

On 23rd November, 2009, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court search order in respect of the individual's residential premises. This led to the seizure of property from those premises in order to gain further evidence against the individual.

After raiding the poor chap's home and gathering evidence, courts have ordered him to pay $1.5 million ($1.3 million USD) to Nintendo for loss of revenue.

According to Digital Life, his father states that he is a "shy gamer trying to proove a point to friends". Nintendo however are adamant that Burt was trying to be accepted by a dangerous hacking group.

It was peer pressure on the internet forums and the blog sites that led him to do a very very silly thing to prove that he'd actually managed to purchase a game before its release date.

What do you think of the move - should piraters really be fined that much, even if he purchased the game legally?

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Justice (guest) 10.02.2010#1

I think the 1.3 million dollar fine is too high.
I think a 2 month prison sentence is a better punishment.
If he chooses not to go directly to jail, then the fine is $1,300,000 dollars.
If you cannot do the time, do not do the crime.

Darkflame 10.02.2010#2

His excuse just doesn't work, he could have just filmed himself playing for the same proof.

I hate folks like these. It makes real homebrewers look bad.

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Canyarion 10.02.2010#3

sophisticated technological forensics

Nintendo read the forum where he posted pictures of his illegal game. How sophisticated is that?

$1.5 million is a lot, I don't think it works like that.

Guest (guest) 10.02.2010#4

Hopefully they'll let him pay bit by bit. Especially in this economy.

EdEN 10.02.2010#5

Well, he's a stupid kid that wasn't raised properly. Basically, it's the parents fault for not teaching him that stealing is wrong, which he did by posting a ROM of the game for anyone to download.

There is a reason for laws, and this is it.

Cruel One (guest) 10.02.2010#6

I think he should have cruel and unusual punishment. How about sex with mario or bowser?

jb 10.02.2010#7

Definitely don't think he should be forced to pay that ridiculous sum of money - he didn't steal the game as a tester/inside-job, but got it early from a retailer.

Something like $1/2,000 would be far more appropriate

He didn't flog the game for profit or make fake copies etc - sure he shared the rom with others, but demanding a huge sum of money from a person is just ridiculous.

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Darkflame 10.02.2010#8

EdEN said:
Well, he's a stupid kid that wasn't raised properly. Basically, it's the parents fault for not teaching him that stealing is wrong,

At 24, Id say its his own fault.
There's only so much you can blame your parents for.

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JoshSL 10.02.2010#9

At 24, I'd say Nintendo and the "kid"'s father are being hilariously patronising about everything Smilie

very very silly thing

You hear that Burt? Say sorry.

Also, what a ridiculous sum of money. It really is all about cash with Nintendo isn't it? Haven't they gotten enough money out of this under-one-year-development-cycle-fest as it is?

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WP-Final 11.02.2010#10

How do they expect him to pay that much? Smilie

wdfowty (guest) 11.02.2010#11

buying the game wasn't the issue, it was the fact he leaked it. pirates do this all the time and get away with it. it's just getting harder to not leave a trail these days. back when modern warfare 2 came out (around the same time this all happened with mario bros...) they tracked down one guy in miami and busted him for leaking it early.

these kids were stupid, talking about it on forums (and facebook for the latter). you'd think discretion would be the name of the felony game...

anyways, 1.5m is rediculous. ludicrous i say. lol

Stulaw 11.02.2010#12

But that ROM could be downloaded thousands of times costing millions of pounds/dollars/whatever in the whole industry, hence, the hefty sum.

But really, he should be made to work for Nintendo to work it off, maybe working in the anti-piricy department as some sort of ironic punishment.

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PMD 11.02.2010#13

So... is it "prove" or "proove"? The article uses both.

EdEN 11.02.2010#14

Just Legal Fees are $100,000. When you add all the copies downloaded (about 50,000 in 5 days), multiply by $50 (plus tax) and then add how the downloaded copies could theoretically have been re-distributed after that... well, $1.5m doesn't even come near it. NSMBWii sold 200,000 copies in Australia in almost 2 months. Add 50,000 copies to that and it sure is a bigger number for Nintendo.

( Edited 11.02.2010 21:38 by EdEN )

Justice (guest) 11.02.2010#15

I posted earlier. I think many members here do not understand that in Australia, just like the United States, the actual amount is not what is really paid. It is just a number that always drops probably 90% with appeals and after bankruptcy is declared. I am not a lawyer, but I will not be surprised if he only pays $15,000 or less of that $1,300,000. I do not have any empathy because he knew he was committing a crime and did not care and was dumb enough to brag about it.
Survival of the fittest?

Flynnie 11.02.2010#16

The sum is due to lost sales that could have been made if the game had been bought not downloaded. Nonetheless how can they expect one indivdual to pay this sum.

How about imposing a court order where he could never play ANY video game of any kind, ever AGAIN!

Now that would be mean. Smilie

Keven 11.02.2010#17

Like Nintendo needs anymore money! Smilie

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SuperShyGuy62 11.02.2010#18

That maybe alot of money but I got one complaint that isn't about the money issue:

For a Nintendo site, there seems to be a whole lot of Nintendo attackers who throw punches at them......maybe its a SEGA forum under disguse... o_O

Mario, Mega Man and Rayman FTW!!!

trgdr777 11.02.2010#19

Yeah obviously he won't end up paying the full 1.3 million, so it's not as harsh as it seems. You really can't call this guy a kid. I'm 19, and I know that if I do something stupid, I'm gonna pay for it just like any other adult. He's a grown man that committed a really silly crime.

Keven 11.02.2010#20

SuperShyGuy62 said:
For a Nintendo site, there seems to be a whole lot of Nintendo attackers who throw punches at them......maybe its a SEGA forum under disguse... o_O

It's tough love. Underneath it all, we're hardcore fans, but we voice our opinions quite openly. Smilie

brittany (guest) 11.02.2010#21

sorry .. i have never downloaded anything like that because i have the lack of knowledge of doing so . But i feel that this is crazy to charge someone that much. Nintindo wii has enough money to give this gut a mil and not even know it's gone and the poor guy that did this will prob be paying the rest of his life over Mario. i think it's dumb.

nomad (guest) 11.02.2010#22

How about those people who downloaded the game.

Send $40 to James Burt, and anyone who has downloaded similar games because we are all guilty of it so why should he alone suffer. on top of that we can tell nintendo "stuff you, if you want profit out of this, we can make profit out of piracy"

nintendo started this game, lets finish it.
pass the message on.

Sonic_13 11.02.2010#23

nomad (guest) said:
we can tell nintendo "stuff you, if you want profit out of this, we can make profit out of piracy"

They're a business and businesses profit by selling their product, not by people stealing it and uploading copies to the Internet.

nintendo started this game, lets finish it.
pass the message on.

Absolutely not.
Nintendo didn't start this game. The guy who copied and uploaded the game did.

I encourage everyone to down-vote this confused individual who we'll probably see on the news soon, after Nintendo sues him for trying to profit from piracy.

( Edited 11.02.2010 07:30 by Sonic_13 )

Martin_ 11.02.2010#24

Q: What do you think of the move - should piraters really be fined that much, even if he purchased the game legally?

A: Nope, since unless he's super-rich there's really no way that he'll be able to pay off 1.5million. The sum itself is not the point, and Nintendo know this, the point is to scare everyone else with a massive fine that very few people on Earth could ever dream of repaying.

Conclusion: Just don't upload anything illegal yourself. It's a bit like drugs - so many people do it that punishing everyone is impossible. So they go after the dealers, whom without nobody else could commit the crime, and also because 'dealing' in contraband (as opposed to just possessing it) is viewed in a very dim light (much more so than possession), they are more able to prosecute these people.

If you're one of those who downloads this sort of thing - I wouldn't worry. Just never upload anything.

( Edited 11.02.2010 08:26 by Martin_ )

JoshSL 11.02.2010#25

SuperShyGuy62 said:
For a Nintendo site, there seems to be a whole lot of Nintendo attackers who throw punches at them......maybe its a SEGA forum under disguse... o_O

Why would it be a SEGA forum? SEGA don't make consoles anymore. Smilie

But even so, don't worry as I frequent a SEGA forum and constantly throw punches at them on that site.

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