A US district judge has granted Nintendo a £3.4 million ($4.5 million) 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. After putting Switch pirate Gary Bowser behind bars and targeting Yuzu emulator software, in 2024 Nintendo went after alleged Switch pirate James “Archbox” Williams, the lead moderator behind r/SwitchPirates, by tracking his posts on Reddit. Around this time last year, court documents revealed that Nintendo was seeking $4.5 million in damages from Williams, accusing him of having “facilitated a network of unauthorized ‘stores’… that have offered extensive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games to the public for download.” And now, according to TorrentFreak, $4.5 million is exactly what Williams owes Nintendo. The judge noted that while Williams had not responded to the lawsuit, he should have known about it since he had hired a lawyer to oppose a subpoena from Google. Nintendo asked for $150,000 for each of the 30 games Williams allegedly pirated, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, totaling $4.5m (£3.4m). The judge agreed, ruling that “Williams’ egregious infringing activities deserve substantial punishment here” and issued a permanent injunction prohibiting Williams from distributing any pirated Nintendo games, not just the 30 named titles, and encouraging anyone else to do so. The judge also gave Nintendo credit for not seeking separate damages and attorneys’ fees under the DMCA, calling it a “gesture of reasonableness” that supported granting the maximum copyright damages. Last month, John Romero, co-founder of id Software and father of the Quake and Doom game series, told a story about when id Software worked with Taiwanese pirates to spread Doom.
