Two years ago, Nintendo began a court battle against the warez-hosting website RomUniverse, suing its owner, Mathew Storman for damages. Storman defended himself on his own, without a lawyer, and attempted to dismiss the charges by claiming that he himself did not upload any ROMs to RomUniverse, therefore he was innocent. Now the verdict is in, with both Nintendo's lawyers and the presiding judge disagreeing, finding that Storman was responsible for the distribution of the illegal and infringing games on his site. Nintendo sought $15 million dollars in damages and legal fees, however, the US District Court Judge found this to be too harsh, instead fining Storman $35,000 per illegal ROM hosted on RomUniverse.

This added up to be $1.7 million. On top of that, Storman was hit with a charge of $400,000 in statutory damages, making the total amount a whopping $2.1 million. Nintendo also sought permanent injunction, though the Judge denied this, stating that Nintendo couldn't prove it had been irreparably damaged by the existence of RomUniverse, and that the company was not at risk, given the fact that the site has been permanently taken down.

The Court Grants Plaintiff’s Motion for Summary Judgment as to Plaintiff’s copyright infringement, unfair competition and Lanham Act claims, and awards Plaintiff $1,715,000 in statutory damages under the Copyright Act and $400,000 in statutory damages under the Lanham Act for a total of $2,115,000 in statutory damages.

Source: Courtesy of TorrentFreak

 

[Jacobh]

Nintendo has certainly made morally questionable decisions in the past and tried to bully people who weren't impacting their business. However, the situation this thread is about - going after someone who was illegally selling their and other people's intellectual property - seems justified both legally and morally.

Whether you agree with how they've handled rom sites in general or think some of the actions they've taken are not moral, it's hard to argue that Nintendo is making bad business decisions. They made over $4 Billion in net profit last year, and they have rarely posted operating losses in the last 35 years. It's also hard to argue they are seriously hurting the games industry overall which is bigger than the Movie industry and growing.

 

[MetoMeto]

I see Nintendo is fighting windmills again... Good for them i guess.

 

[Chrisssj2]

"and attempted to dismiss the charges by claiming that he himself did not upload any ROMs to RomUniverse." idk if people of his..intelligence should be on the streets.

It is accurate though. If he didn't upload it himself. I mean they may have used his infrastructure but.yeah

 

[Kioku]

It is accurate though. If he didn't upload it himself. I mean they may have used his infrastructure but.yeah

Yeah... Well.. It's his hosting.. His fees... And so on and so forth.

 

[rimoJO]

it's all fun and games 'til vimm's get taken down

 

[the_randomizer]

If you charge for them then you're screwed buddy.

I'm not a dumbass, I don't charge people for ROMs, much less distribute them. What the deuce do you think I am, stupid?

 

[Kwyjor]

Guess he watched my cousin Vinny too many times

I hear that My Cousin Vinny's representation of the legal system comes so much closer to reality than any other movie that they actually show it in schools.

Whether you agree with how they've handled rom sites in general or think some of the actions they've taken are not moral, it's hard to argue that Nintendo is making bad business decisions.

A lot of people seem to like a challenge, eh?

Nintendo needs to find a way to make money off of all the people who thinks they know what Nintendo needs to do, I always say.

 

[air2004]

Get rekt pirate scum

Looks like he'll be Storman off to prison

(for real tho what a moron...not even getting a lawyer lmfao)

It's civil matter , not a criminal one .... so no jail time

 

[Deleted member 668561]

I don't see how that has any relevance to what I was saying. Yes when you start working at game studios you have to sign NDAs but student game devs aren't working at game studios, else they wouldn't be students would they? Student's are encourage to study older games like Mario to understand why the gameplay was designed that way. When I was studying game dev at college my tutors linked us to an online snes emulator that was clearly running pirated roms and told us to write an essay on the design choices and how it effects the gameplay. That isn't a unique situation either, I know students at other places that have had similar assignments. Actions like the ones taken by Nintendo make this more difficult and harms their own industry by impeding the education of future developers. Yes in this case the roms were being sold but it's not like they haven't sued people giving out the roms for free in the past.

True, I don't work for a studio, but I had to sign an NDA to access Nintendo dev tools, as an indie dev


Even then it's more about getting you to understand the theory, how the code interacts with the hardware, and how the hardware is utilized, gives a visual aspect of how a CPU and it's peripherals interact with each other, you can just use Atari 2600, Atari 8bit, C64, Sega roms and do exactly the same in the end, I never seen those get dmca'd

Even then I don't think Nintendo is going to sue an educational institution over using roms and emulators, not a good public image

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Cant stand for profit privateers. He had a subscription fee to access content.

 

[placebo_yue]

Never heard of the site. I usually hate Nintendo for being such a douche about ROMS, but this guy sold them? fuck him.
Also not hiring a lawyer when ur being sued for 15 million dollars? kek

 

[Chrisssj2]

Yeah... Well.. It's his hosting.. His fees... And so on and so forth.

Then by that logic the isp is responsible.

 

[Urbanshadow]

As far as preservation goes: Nintendo enthusiast cover that..

Also: youtube.com/watch?v=IqTEBX5cAQQ

That is not for you as a customer to enjoy or watch. And you already knew that before posting.

That, among the other things I already said are only perpetuating attempts at demeaning the customer. They are not doing a service for nobody but themselves.

 

[Kioku]

Then by that logic the isp is responsible.

I hope and pray you never become a lawyer.

 

[Tomtani1]

Deleted.

 

[LightBeam]

Lmao it's really funny how Nintendo really wanted to get his ass and a maximum amount of money here
15 millions ? Come on lmao, they don't sell most of the games available there and they really tried to play the biggest victim on Earth.
I would have understood why they wanted SO much if they were selling the roms themselves, but they are not and they aren't willing to do so

 

[pwsincd]

35k per rom... He only hosted 49 roms?

ninty related roms.. surel they cannot pursue games they didn't make

 

[Kioku]

ninty related roms.. surel they cannot pursue games they didn't make

Again... Only 49? Out of the past 4 decades of games, Ninty surely made more than 49 games?

That or the site only hosted such a small library of games..

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Hail Hydra. more will pop up...hopefully not privateers asking subscription fees

 

[DonCaballero]

I'm not a dumbass, I don't charge people for ROMs, much less distribute them. What the deuce do you think I am, stupid?

The fine gents behind RomUniverse were stupid, considering they essentially charged for ROM downloads. That was my point.