I just saw a big win for the Japanese game company, Nintendo! They won a lawsuit against a streamer named Jesse Keighin. I heard he was streaming game copies he didn’t pay for like pirated ones of games that weren’t even out yet. A court in Colorado told Keighin he has to pay $17,500 because he broke their copyright rules.
They started this lawsuit this year because Keighin didn’t just stream the pirated stuff; he even made fun of Nintendo! This victory shows me that Nintendo is super serious about protecting its games and ideas its intellectual property.
Keighin acted pretty tough during the legal fight. I saw reports that he was bragging about how he could get around Nintendo’s security. One place, Torrent Freak, said he posted on Facebook, “Should have done more research on me. You might run a corporation, I run the streets.” His bragging made Nintendo want to win this case even more.
The court said the fine breaks down like this: $10,000 is for the newest game he streamed, which was Mario & Luigi: Brotherhood. The rest of the money, $7,500, is from fifteen separate fines of $500 each. These were for earlier times he broke Nintendo’s rules. This pattern of breaking the rules over and over is why the total fine is so big.
I saw that Nintendo did win the money, but the judge said no to two of their other requests. Nintendo wanted the court to order him to destroy the devices he used to get around security. They also wanted an order to apply to other people who worked with Keighin.
The judge said destroying the devices was “unclear” and “unreasonable” because Keighin used online tools, not just physical stuff. I think the judge saw it was hard to destroy something digital like that. The judge also said no to the order for the “third parties” because Nintendo didn’t name them clearly. Legal expert Maria Sanchez said, “in order to ensure an injunction, it has to be very specific and targeted.” She told me that the court doesn’t want to accidentally hurt innocent people.
This isn’t the only thing Nintendo is doing! I know they’ve been getting more aggressive against piracy. Just this month, they said they want to sue a person on Reddit for $4.5 million for pirating games. Also, I saw that Nintendo updated its Account Agreement to say they can brick (make useless) game consoles if they find pirated games on them.
A spokesperson for the company said, “We are committed to protecting our intellectual property and will continue to take action against those who attempt to infringe upon our rights.” This tells me they are serious about stopping piracy.
I noticed people had mixed feelings about Nintendo’s new console rules. Some people liked the strong position against piracy, but others were worried about what might happen to people who didn’t pirate games.
This legal win is bigger than just one streamer, I think. It sends a clear message to everyone else: if you try to pirate Nintendo’s games, they will sue you. This lawsuit is a warning for anyone who tries to make money from illegal copies.
It looks like Nintendo will do anything to stop piracy and protect its games and its good name.
