A US District Judge has granted Nintendo a \u00a33.4 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.<\/p>\n
After putting Switch pirate Gary Bowser behind bars<\/a> and targeting emulator software Yuzu<\/a>, back in 2024 Nintendo hunted down alleged Switch pirate James “Archbox” Williams<\/a>, the main moderator behind r\/SwitchPirates, by tracking his Reddit posts.<\/p>\n By this time last year, court papers revealed Nintendo was seeking $4.5m in damages from Williams<\/a>, 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”.<\/p>\n And now, according to TorrentFreak<\/a>, $4.5 million (\u00a33.4m) is exactly what Williams now owes Nintendo.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Nintendo asked for $150,000 for every one of the 30 games Williams allegedly pirated, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom<\/a>, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe<\/a> and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate<\/a>, adding up to the full $4.5 million (\u00a33.4m). 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.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n