RomUniverse owner previously fined $2.1M, now ordered to destroy pirated Nintendo content

[maxxcool7421]

Yes, and on that basis an injunction against their copying and distribution by unauthorized parties is justified, however, millions in "damages" is not. That is entirely punitive

If you do not punish people .. then they keep doing it and it encourages others.

Play stupid games ... win stupid prizes.

 

[kiwigraeme]

Nintendo has exactly this. If you pay for Nintendo online you get access to the NES and SNES collections for the duration. This is used to advertise Nintendo Online.

Yeah check it out $20/year 100+ curated games - not a lot if into Nintendo system

 

[JohnnyBlazeon]

This makes me want to post NES ROMs everywhere possible.

This case had almost nothing to do with NES or SNES ROMs (which were actually the LEAST popular ROMs on the site). Nintendo complained about the Switch and 3DS ROMs.

 

[JohnnyBlazeon]

Honestly, that's what he should do. He has nothing more to lose at this point. He has a debt he can likely never repay, and they are still squeezing him. He should upload everything to the permaweb to teach them a lesson.

There's a difference between protecting your property and abusing your power.

He'll instantly be guilty of perjury as soon as any of those get traced back to him. That most likely means jail time in his case.

 

[JohnnyBlazeon]

I could understand this. If there was still a market for Nintendo to sell them. I might want to revisit old games, I once played for a minute or two. But no way in hell am I going to pay for them.

This case was about Switch ROMs being distributed on the site and the fee that was charged for premium access.

As you can imagine, there's still a massive market for Switch games.

It had pretty much nothing to do with old games

 

[JohnnyBlazeon]

Makes me feel like downloading more Nintendo roms from more sites.

If it makes you feel better I suppose. May be worth knowing that the distribution Switch ROMs were the focus of the case, not retro ones.

 

[JohnnyBlazeon]

Techspot's bottom line for this article is quite misleading considering the facts of the case focused on Switch and 3DS ROMs, not NES ROMs (which were barely downloaded in the first place compared to ROMs for other Nintendo console)

 

[yukka]

Honestly, that's what he should do. He has nothing more to lose at this point. He has a debt he can likely never repay, and they are still squeezing him. He should upload everything to the permaweb to teach them a lesson.

There's a difference between protecting your property and abusing your power.

He had a $12 a week debt for life

 

[NightAntilli]

Techspot's bottom line for this article is quite misleading considering the facts of the case focused on Switch and 3DS ROMs, not NES ROMs (which were barely downloaded in the first place compared to ROMs for other Nintendo console)

That's good to know.

 

[Norsiiii]

If you do not punish people .. then they keep doing it and it encourages others.

Play stupid games ... win stupid prizes.

That's not how civil damages work. You are not entitled to compensation from somebody who has wronged you in any amount greater than the damage caused to you. That's why it's called 'damages' - because it is meant to remediate the damage you suffered.

If you want to argue that an additional pecuniary penalty is warranted over and above the amount required to remediate the victim's financial losses, then a criminal prosecution pursued by the state ought to be necessary, or if they breached an existing injunction then the court would be just in imposing their own penalty.

You are not entitled to make a profit out of your being victimized.

 

[mailpup]

That's not how civil damages work. You are not entitled to compensation from somebody who has wronged you in any amount greater than the damage caused to you. That's why it's called 'damages' - because it is meant to remediate the damage you suffered.

If you want to argue that an additional pecuniary penalty is warranted over and above the amount required to remediate the victim's financial losses, then a criminal prosecution pursued by the state ought to be necessary, or if they breached an existing injunction then the court would be just in imposing their own penalty.

You are not entitled to make a profit out of your being victimized.

You certainly can collect on punitive damages in the appropriate circumstances in the US and certainly in California where this case was tried. In other countries maybe not but as I said this case was tried in California.

 

[cliffordcooley]

It had pretty much nothing to do with old games

Ahh, that makes more sense.

 

[Norsiiii]

You certainly can collect on punitive damages in the appropriate circumstances in the US and certainly in California where this case was tried. In other countries maybe not but as I said this case was tried in California.

Perhaps I ought to clarify: regardless of what some jurisdictions say, it is not just to award punitive pecuniary penalties against a party in a civil dispute.

If a party has acted out of malice or in contravention of court orders or legislation, then they should be criminally liable for it, with the punitive penalty to be applied as any other fine would, not merely paid to the other party as fake 'damages'.

This would also serve to ensure that the higher burden of proof required in a criminal conviction must be met in order for any punitive penalties to be imposed, instead of having punitive penalties levied merely on the balance of probabilities such as is the case in a civil action.

 

[mailpup]

If a party has acted out of malice or in contravention of court orders or legislation, then they should be criminally liable for it, with the punitive penalty to be applied as any other fine would, not merely paid to the other party as fake 'damages'.

You said, "That's not how civil damages work." You were quite clear on that point. I merely said that is incorrect.

Regardless of how you feel punitive penalties should be applied, nonetheless, punitive damages can be and are awarded in civil actions. That's all I'm saying.

 

[JohnnyBlazeon]

What's next. "Nintendo gets judge to order former rom universe owner to deliver Nintendo's legal team newspapers every day crawling on all fours and dressed in a dog costume"?

Wouldn't be surprised, they just want utter humiliation and apparently also want to make an enemy of all of their former fans, And by the way if you're still a Nintendo fan after reading news like this, don't ever talk to me again.

You're reacting to Techspot's somewhat lightly researched news article. This story REALLY isn't what it seems to be.

This article never mentioned that:
1) The site charged for premium access
2) The site prominently featured Switch ROMs, movie rips and ebook rips on the homepage
3) The guy made his living (A not insignificant $30+k a year) off this site
4) The case primarily centred on the distribution and possession of Switch and 3DS ROMs. The original legal complaint never even mentioned NES ROMs so Techspot shouldn't even be talking about it.
5) Downloads of NES and SNES ROMs represented a small fraction of the actual downloads - The DS had the largest number of downloads (4989978 plus many more across different download categories). and the Switch had 185492 for Nintendo Switch Roms plus 129353 for Nintendo Switch Roms Trimmed (XCI) (Whatever that means) The SNES had 23354 the NES had 16129 This data is based on a web archive capture on 18 March 2019. The numbers would undoubtedly have grown up till the point when they had to be taken down. Nintendo quoted "nearly 300,000 downloads of copies of pirated Nintendo Switch games and more than 500,000 copies of pirated Nintendo 3DS games." in their complaint letter.

If you're still against Nintendo after reading all this, feel free to block me or something.

 

[0dium]

If you're still against Nintendo after reading all this, feel free to block me or something.

I'm still against Nintendo, but these lawsuits have nothing to do with it