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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

 

[MushGuy]

Had to do a double take on this. Not THE Gary Bowser, current Nintendo CEO, but Gary Bowser, Switch hacker.

I think you mean Doug Bowser.

 

[subcon959]

Doesn't matter, a crime is a crime.

Weird. It's almost as if it's one rule for people and another rule for the powerful. How come a crime isn't a crime when it's a corporation ruining the planet?

You're right though.. activism is dumb and people should just live with the current state of the world because everything is fair and equal.

 

[Hecatia]

Why was this anything more than a civil case?

 

[Norris]

I've hardly seen a thread this toxic on any forum, and all to protect a guy who legitimately broke the law.

Politics section be like

 

[ChaosEternal]

cringe sheeple

Hey man, don't be hating on sheep. They're delicious and their wool makes great clothing!

 

[The Catboy]

I wonder if Team Xecuter will end up rocking the Switch in 2025? ;O;

 

[Skelletonike]

Weird. It's almost as if it's one rule for people and another rule for the powerful. How come a crime isn't a crime when it's a corporation ruining the planet?

You're right though.. activism is dumb and people should just live with the current state of the world because everything is fair and equal.

What does a corporation ruining a planet have with this though? One doesn't invalidate the other.
Crime is crime. If you do something illegal you should be ready to reap the consequences of your actions, that's part of being a responsible adult.

In this case, he is at fault. He is not an innocent bystander.

 

[The Catboy]

Why are they on a crusade against this guy??


At this point I'm afraid I'll log in one day to see he was crucified and stoned

Literally just trying to use him to send a message to anyone trying to replicate what he did. It's not even about his crimes anymore, it's just about dragging him around in the hopes of scaring people.

 

[subcon959]

What does a corporation ruining a planet have with this though? One doesn't invalidate the other.
Crime is crime. If you do something illegal you should be ready to reap the consequences of your actions, that's part of being a responsible adult.

In this case, he is at fault. He is not an innocent bystander.

Normally, they wouldn't be related but in the case of America, the laws which determine he is criminal are produced by corporations lobbying the government. The whole system is corrupt as hell, so it's all very well saying crime is crime, but there is more nuance behind why certain things are considered criminal.

I have no problem with the civic case and fine, I just don't see any sense in someone going to jail for non-violent "crimes". As plenty of people keep saying in the thread, it seems that if you're going to commit a crime in America then you're better off killing someone than causing financial harm to a corporation.

 

[ACNIGHTWING3000]

If they were fairer with thier pricing and reduced the prices relative to the age of the games (nintendo being the worst for keeping the original rrp for the life of the game) and if they didn't continually charge high prices for ports that people have already paid for and didn't shut down servers and devices (without making it available for people to run thier own servers) then I could understand their argument but these are part of why the hacker/modder communities exist! This is why I strongly oppose the digital only systems! As a retro collector I hate to think of whats gonna happen to some of the titles as they supersede and shut down the online stores for later systems. It makes copying and preserving all the more important!

 

[chrisrlink]

You're right, those poor corporations have had it so bad for years. How dare people show sympathy for a single human being when share holders stand to lose imaginary money.

mind you these corperations treat their employees like shit employ cheap communist labor (China) and pumping toxic fumes into the air? why should i give one **** about companies like shitendo?

 

[Bladexdsl]

Hey man, don't be hating on sheep. They're delicious and their wool makes great clothing!

and they line up to buy apple products by the millions

 

[Arilys]

Both PSP and DS were screwed up heavily by rampant piracy during their heyday, so I wouldn't say it's as harmless for the publishers as some may want to make it sound like - if anything, the draconian anti-piracy measures we see on consoles and handhelds now were a direct response to that mess.

Besides, "do a good game and we will sure buy it" is a very optimistic outlook to put it lightly, and there's a lot of people who simply get very good at finding excuses to not buy stuff regardless of the games' actual quality. I mean, we already see the market of small indie games being ruined by players who abuse the hell out of Steam's 2-hour refund policy, basically yoinking money back from devs hands; yet somehow we're supposed to believe that most players will be conscientious enough to bring cash later if they liked what they stole.

Yeah, there are a lot of people that find excuses. But there are also others that do end up buying the games. I've lost count to the amount of games that I pirated on PC and older consoles that I ended up buying later on.

There are even some that I pirated and would like to have bought, but I couldn't find them on sale new. Heck, even these last few months I've been looking for physical copies of Xenoblade Chronicles 2 and its DLC (The Golden Country), but I can't find it in any stores.

"Just buy it used!"
Okay, sure, find me someone selling those games for 30€ or less, because I sure as hell ain't gonna pay a premium for used games (in the case of Torna, paying even more than its original price), especially since none of that money will be going back to the devs - just like with piracy. Really makes ya think, huh?

"Just buy digital!"
Lmao no. I only buy digital if the games have no physical version at all. Besides, I like having the boxes and carts.

"You're just making excuses to justify your pirating!"
I have a Lite and refuse to buy a way-too-overpriced chip for it, so pirating isn't even an option for me right now.

 

[SeventhSon7]

I'm picturing Gary's arrival in prison like The Shawshank Redemption. Later in the cafeteria he's asked what he's in for, and with a steely look in his eye he says, "pirating Nintendo games." Then the other prisoners have a look of terror pass over them everyone backs away leaving him alone.

 

[ccfman2004]

The thing is that most pirates weren't going to pay for the games anyway so those developers would have never seen any money anyway from those people. There are some people, like me, who do pay for games but want to play them without messing around with cartridges. Currently I do not have any roms of Switch games I did not purchase. If you don't believe me, I'll upload a picture of my Switch games when I get a chance. Most of my Switch games are digital though.

 

[sley]

I bet Nintendo lost more money on the court costs than it ever did because of SXOS

 

[chrisrlink]

The thing is that most pirates weren't going to pay for the games anyway so those developers would have never seen any money anyway from those people. There are some people, like me, who do pay for games but want to play them without messing around with cartridges. Currently I do not have any roms of Switch games I did not purchase. If you don't believe me, I'll upload a picture of my Switch games when I get a chance. Most of my Switch games are digital though.

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?"

 

[smf]

Literally just trying to use him to send a message to anyone trying to replicate what he did. It's not even about his crimes anymore, it's just about dragging him around in the hopes of scaring people.

That is the main reason for locking any criminal up.

 

[Shadow_The_Hedgehog82]

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?"

Then youre not a pirate its not piracy if you own it

 

[Something whatever]

He paid and still got time? Thats fucked