Shy Mario Bros Wii Pirate Fined $1.5m

An actual Australian news site offers a bit more detail on the story. The alleged criminal is in fact a 24-year-old Electronics Boutique employee (or part-time freight worker, depending which reports you believe) who still lives with his parents. Unless EB pays its staff an awful lot better than the average High Street retail chain, it’s pretty unlikely that he’s earned $1.5m while working for them since the age of 18. So why would a judge fine him such an obviously ludicrous sum, and one based on a plucked-from-the-air figure backed up by no kind of evidence of any sort?

Well, clearly they wouldn’t. And they haven’t, because this outlandish and spurious sum is in fact an out-of-court settlement between Nintendo and the accused. The only sense in which the payment is “court-ordered” is that obviously, when a defendant and plaintiff reach an out-of-court settlement, the court tells them to abide by it as the formal means of closing the case.

But hang on. Why would a 24-year-old shop assistant accept an out-of-court settlement for such an absurd sum, that he has no chance whatsoever of paying even if he works until he’s 100? What would he have to lose by taking the case all the way? Well, it’s pretty obvious. By avoiding a legal judgement on the case, the accused avoids any prospect of a jail sentence, and also doesn’t risk jail for defaulting on the “fine”, since it’s not actually a fine.

Nintendo, meanwhile, gets a terrifying headline with which it can attempt to intimidate other would-be pirates, because it’ll be repeated without question by useless pretend journalists everywhere (or even embellished with added idiot wrongness, as in the Nintendolife link above) and everyone will assume you can really be fined life-destroying amounts of money, based on completely made-up evidence, for what in the greater scheme of things is an absurdly trivial crime.

Cruel One (guest) said:
I think he should have cruel and unusual punishment. How about sex with mario or bowser?

SuperShyGuy62 said:
How can you feel bad for him? He did a bad thing. Can't pay the fine, then dont do the crime.

Martin_ said:
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.

Toon SuperLink said:

Why would it be a SEGA forum? SEGA don't make consoles anymore.
But even so, don't worry as I frequent a SEGA forum and constantly throw punches at them on that site.

satsubatsu347 said:
Judging by the commentary this subject really is not very black and white. As consumers and work a day stiffs we see the court ordered fine as excessive