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After being indicted in 2020, Gary Bowser's trial is finally over, and he has been sentenced to 3+ years in prison. Bowser was facing eleven felony charges as the public face of Team Xexuter, estimated by the U.S. government to have cost the videogame industry between $65 million and $150 million by facilitating piracy. Bowser pled guilty to charges of trafficking in circumvention devices and conspiracy to circumvent technological measures in November, agreeing to pay $4.5 million in fines, but was also ordered to pay another $10 million to Nintendo in a civil case.

"This is not a victimless crime. The leaders of this multimillion-dollar scheme are responsible for diverting money from creative professionals who have worked hard to provide unique products and experiences,” said Special Agent in Charge (SAC) Robert Hammer. Another Special Agent in Charge, Donald M. Voiret, is quoted saying "he also wasted the efforts of legitimate companies as they attempted to build protections for their products.”

Last week, the prosecution announced they were seeking a five-year sentence, while the defense only wanted nineteen months. Bowser has been detained since October 2020 as he was not able to secure pretrial release, so, assuming he serves his full 3+ year sentence, he will have actually been detained for closer to four and a half years.

Source

 

[ccfman2004]

beg to differ cause i bought both PLA and SP i just like playing my games a little earlier than most,ever heard of "try before you buy?

I don't know what PLA or SP are. I said MOST people who pirate won't ever buy the games. I know there are people who do buy after pirating.

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

Really, there's no way companies lost this much from piracy. Seems like they used a RNG to calculate the cost.
A, because a digital copy of a game is free to make, it doesn't cost Nintendo anything to create one single more copy of the same game.
B, because most pirates would have not bought the game in the first place (not winning ≠ losing) or may have bought it at some point already (which counts as winning money, not staying on the same spot, since again, digital copies are free to create)
C, because the hacking scene is still pretty small compared to the full fanbase, and even with highly priced games, it wouldn't be enough to reach those numbers anyways.
D, because used games also exist, and they "cost" as much to companies as piracy.
E, because SX devices aren't exclusively used by piracy, even though that's their main focus.
F, especially in Gary's case, he didn't cost nearly as much anyways, he's just the marketing guy, it's almost like he did nothing for SX anyways.

In conclusion, that sentence is completely unrational. Even the original fine he agreed on was too much, but way closer to reality, now this is getting ridiculous. Jail time + 14 millions? Completely insane, pedophiles often only take half as much. Considering he didn't really cost much to companies, the original 4 millions were more than enough.
One question, since i genuinely don't remember, is he even american to begin with? Otherwise he shouldn't get sentenced by the america's justice but by his country's. It would be too easy this way, like Nintendo could just sue every modder in japan since it got illegal there lmao.

I personnally would never pay that much money if i was sentenced for it. Like what are they gonna do? Make me homeless? I'll sue them for endangering myself. Give me permanent jail? Better escaping then. This just shows that the world would be a better place with no justice system at all than a completely broken system like that.

I guess i'll now consider every incoming Nintendo game as free real estate to compensate. It will be hard to reach those 100 millions cost, but i can definitely come closer to reaching it with enough motivation. I hope the next Mario Kart 8-recycling DLCs will be fun to pirate

 

[Alexander1970]

40 Months...

16 Months already "served"....24 Months to go....well......

 

[ccfman2004]

This is Nintendo making an example of someone to disway others from hacking their products. They needed a scapegoat and Gary fit the bill. Just like Geohot was the scapegoat for Sony.

 

[Subtle Demise]

Modchips are similar to rooting an Android or jailbreaking an iphone. The fact that they happen to enable piracy is just a side effect of opening up the software. If circumventing the DRM has even one legitimate use, then it is legitimate and shouldn't be illegal. Banning modchips or console hacking dongles is like banning hammers because a lot of people murder other people with them.

Back to the phone analogy: the SX dongle as I understand it is closer to rooting your Android phone. It simply re-enables a feature that's already present in the system's software. The SXOS is like BusyBox and gives you extra tools to accomplish various tasks. But yes, modchips shouldn't be illegal.

 

[linuxares]

I don't know what PLA or SP are. I said MOST people who pirate won't ever buy the games. I know there are people who do buy after pirating.

Like me! I bought it after the leak. Since I found it a breath of fresh air. That this franchise have so deeply needed for a while.

 

[ccfman2004]

The thing is that circumventing anti-copy protection is illegal in the US at least. There was a popular DVD ripping software that got a cease and deceased so they removed the DVD Ripping feature and we now have ImgBurn.

Jailbreaking an iPhone is officially legal in the US as decided by the courts though.

 

[linuxares]

Modchips are similar to rooting an Android or jailbreaking an iphone. The fact that they happen to enable piracy is just a side effect of opening up the software. If circumventing the DRM has even one legitimate use, then it is legitimate and shouldn't be illegal. Banning modchips or console hacking dongles is like banning hammers because a lot of people murder other people with them.

Back to the phone analogy: the SX dongle as I understand it is closer to rooting your Android phone. It simply re-enables a feature that's already present in the system's software. The SXOS is like BusyBox and gives you extra tools to accomplish various tasks. But yes, modchips shouldn't be illegal.

No, just no. Modchips are nothing like rooting or jailbreaking. I root not to pirate but to actually make adblockers work and backup software since I switch roms a lot.

 

[MetoMeto]

none of this is valid or fair, they are just demonstrating power and making example out of him. poor guy tho...
nintendo being one of the worst companies. i used to love them as a company and what they make.

 

[Augusto101]

.

 

[Augusto101]

Prison for this? Nah the legal system is pure BS at least it was brave sacrifice for the community...so thanks...

 

[ccfman2004]

Prison for this? Nah the legal system is pure BS at least it was brave sacrifice for the community...so thanks...

Like I said, he was someone Nintendont wanted to make an example of to disway others from following in his footsteps.

 

[Augusto101]

Like I said, he was someone Nintendont wanted to make an example of to disway others from following in his footsteps.

Probably, but they will NEVER stop piracy, so yeah...nice try Nintendo keep wasting millions.

 

[MetoMeto]

"he also wasted the efforts of legitimate companies as they attempted to build protections for their products.”
Perhaps those companies should make a.....oh idk, a better protections instead of whining and sending a guy to a jail?

Meanwhile people buying their products, helping them make millions so they can spend them on a witch hunt.

 

[Viri]

I'm gonna download a torrent of every Nintendo game, since Nintendo loses money that way. Then I'm going to delete all the Nintendo games, and then re-download it. I'm gonna do this so much, that it'll make Nintendo lose too much money! Then I'm gonna "buy the dip" and become the majority share holder!


I'll be sure to force Miyamoto to make a new F-Zero game once I become the new CEO!

 

[badman112]

It was obvious what they wanted to do, so the point of all that was jail time to begin with because big companies want to keep their precious greed.

 

[The Catboy]

That is the main reason for locking any criminal up.

Yes but no. Obviously, that's why a lot of the reason for the public nature but sometimes there's just overkill for the sake of overkill. His crimes are bad but they aren't so extreme that they need to go through with so much. They've pretty much stated that this punishment is just for sake of making an example of him.

 

[ChibiMofo]

so, he paid $4.5 million and still jailed?

You say that like it's okay to make $10M from criminal activity and only pay a fine for half that amount and not have to go to jail.

Thankfully this criminal genius is going to spend three years getting to know what prison life is really like. Trust me. He'll never re-offend again!

 

[ChibiMofo]

It was obvious what they wanted to do, so the point of all that was jail time to begin with because big companies want to keep their precious greed.

And criminals want to steal from who do the actual work (read as big companies). Which side you on again? And by the way, the big companies don't decide prison time. That's not how it works. I would have thought that was obvious.

 

[SeventhSon7]

You say that like it's okay to make $10M from criminal activity and only pay a fine for half that amount and not have to go to jail.

Corporations and banks do that all the time.