Nintendo's ongoing fight against Switch game piracy continues as it has now set its sights on a Nintendo Switch piracy subreddit that was recently highlighted in a lawsuit against an alleged pirate.
It was in June (thanks, TorrentFreak) that Nintendo first filed a lawsuit against James Williams, also known as 'Archbox.' He alleged that he had “been involved in creating, operating and promoting (and assisting others to create, operate and promote) a network of unauthorized online 'stores' (dubbed 'freeshops') that offer extensive libraries of pirated material to the public.” “. Nintendo Switch games to download.” At the time, he called him “an active and prominent member of the Reddit r/SwitchPirates community,” and according to a new game file reportIt appears that the company is planning further investigation into the subreddit itself.
in a new court filingIt is stated that an “extensive and diligent investigation into the operation, ownership and control of Pirate Shops, including efforts to determine the identity of defendant Williams,” was previously conducted in which “we learned several details about Pirate Shops and about the involvement of the accused in them.” One of these things, it is claimed, is that “the defendant was the lead moderator of the 'SwitchPirates' Reddit community.” What's more, he adds, “we also became aware of many other online actors who seemed to have a role in the Pirate Shops,” but we were unable to identify or locate them at the time.
It goes on to say that because Williams “chose not to appear in this action,” Nintendo has selected eight third parties that it believes could help identify “unidentified individuals who worked with Mr. Williams in the operation of the Pirate Stores or otherwise”. make pirated Nintendo games available to the public.” These include Reddit, Discord, and GitHub, and Nintendo is seeking permission to serve them subpoenas (essentially written orders) that would require them to provide business records.
It says the subpoenas would be “limited in scope” but will ultimately “seek information confirming and identifying the account holders and sources of any payments made and, where applicable, aggregate traffic and access statistics to the websites of Pirate Shops and related online locations. In the case of Reddit, Nintendo says it has “reason to believe that other active accounts in the SwitchPirates community may also have been controlled by the defendant, or reflect other people who have worked alongside the defendant.”
As of this writing, the subreddit has around 217,000 members, so it could be a pretty big investigation. It's worth noting that as things stand, Nintendo isn't strictly saying that it will shut down the subreddit, but rather that it will “seek relevant information that is necessary for NOA to file infringement claims,” so it sounds like more claims could be filed. The legal team clearly has their eyes on this, so we'll have to see if any further action can be taken. Nintendo has already taken action this year against the Switch emulator Yuzuand Ryujinx disappeared from the internet after the company reportedly contacted its lead developer, so its team has been busy lately.
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