Idk about always But my rule of thumb is If they don't sell the games anymore Then pirate away
I want to agree with this, but I don't. It presupposes that piracy harms the publisher. If you go by the premise that free info sharing is ultimately good for the creator or publisher, then it's arguably morally better for people to turn their backs on Nintendo all together and put their time and energy into makers who aren't so hostile.
I hope Garry becomes a monk that makes no wage. At that point there's literally no point in continuing waged work
He was interviewed/was the topic of a Darknet Dairies Podcast. It's his side of the story as well as some of the facts around the case. Don't know how accurate it is, but it is interesting all the same.
Episode 136
He was part of a team that created devices allowing people to play what they wanted on switch, 3DS and some other consoles. He was convicted of fraud and imprisoned for two years before being released. He still has to pay off a fine of 10 million dollars so Nintendo is garnishing his wages for the rest of his life. Which pisses me off because he's on Disability in Canada which is barely enough to live on (trust me...) and also taxpayer funds. Not to mention that there is no way in fucking hell that his part in all of this adds up to $10 million dollars in lost revenue for Nintendo which is exactly why that fine was applied.
Edit: Apparently disability can't be garnished. Was a slight fuck up on my end. I had misremembered something and misread something which led to that. Nonetheless, situation still massively fucked for applying a $10 million (well, 14.5 million but 10 million of that is for Nintendo) fine for a dude who made $320,000 off of the hacks. However if he did make any money outside of Disability, they would immediately be entitled to 30% of it. Fucking insane.
I get that they have to protect their IP, but $14m is insane. Feels like the judge threw the book, switch, 3DS and every other console they could find at him. Does he have no right of appeal against the sentence?
When Bowser was first sentenced, Nintendo's lawyer Ajay Singh said in a court transcript (via Axios) that the company wanted to "send a message" to other Switch hackers.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought sentencing was supposed to reflect the severity of the crime and make fair restitution? It sounds as if this sentence / restitution was massively inflated to create a deterrant, to benefit a private business. Huge fail from Nintendo imo that only makes me want to never buy one of their games or consoles again.
It was put through the American Legal system. There is absolutely zero reason to believe that the justice system of America actually contains any justice in the first place. Of course they sided with the international corporation to fuck over a disabled 50 year old.
That's just a means to an end, convince a part of the working class they should fear the rest, let them fight it out, and continue capitalizing in peace.
It isn't.
I can't speak for all PoC but I can speak for me. It's been screamed for the ages. Maybe not all Dragons care about ideology, but it's the goddamn minority.
The rule is you (the straw billionaire in this scenario) or your Robber Baron grandpappy were able to rise that way by seeing some as subhuman, and others as rubes. They still discuss phrenology and blood poisoning for fuck's sake.
Stop assuming the bulk of The Capitalists don't absolutely abhor the concept of other races sharing their resources. They'd happily make an all-white caste system.
They keep screaming that's what they want.
whatever do you mean? are you suggesting that there are decades of evidence that the us justice system is a bad joke played on the minorities and/or disenfranchised, and then only functions to line/protect the pockets of the upper class and ultra-wealthy? preposterous!
I like how this used to be a joke about being too cheap to pay for gold, but now that you can't buy it anyway it's as good as anything else.
I've read Vladimir Bukovsky (the Soviet dissident), and the way he describes Soviet courts I advise you to see.
Of course that was about political cases etc, but when you're complaining, remember that it can be worse.
"Stop complaining, pissant, it could be worse" - most abusive situations
The "it could be worse" Olympics is the game of the complacent. You may be complacent. Are you?
In some things yes and I'm fighting it, it's more about understanding well how your situation evaluates among possible ones.
•
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought sentencing was supposed to reflect the severity of the crime and make fair restitution? I
These look like punitive damages designed to dissuade others from repeating what he did.
Why are pirates not protecting themselves properly? Or why are they not operating frome countries where they can't get caught?
Nah, what's weird is for you to openly lie and make shit up for no reason.
He made $320,000 over a 7 year period.
The group made far more than that, and of course he would downplay the amount himself to make his portion look less.
They sold millions of copies of a hardware for over $50. The group made mint and there was 3 of them.
So you have no sources other than what you think?
Yeah I'm going to stick with the documents that were shown in legal proceedings, thanks.
It’s how court cases shake down, especially with plea deals. And what court documents for one thing? Nothing in your links show court documents, just a blurp that also agrees with what I stated.
If you think he made that little with the hack, I don’t know what to say. You also seem to think they can garnish disability benefits, you’re mad over nothing and the wrong things.
But of course you’ll be upvoted since yay piracy! Nothing to do with the actual issue.
So... again... you have no sources other than what you think? Either offer sources that back up your claims or stop making comments that are immediately proven false.
I also did believe that they could because I misread something. That's on me and has been edited. Next time I would also recommend trying to correct someone by acting like an adult instead of whatever this behavior is. Sorry about the mistake but you really could have addressed that with a very different attitude.
Lastly, the actual issue is a misrepresentation on how much lost revenue Nintendo gained from this man. Piracy is a factor. It is not the driving force.
Why is it weird to be mad at a multibillion dollar corporation for garnishing the wages of a disabled person's disability benefits, simply because he was providing the means to do what you want with your device? I don't care what the courts say. It should not be illegal to sell something that allows you to do what you want with your device. Even if that device facilitates piracy. IP isn't real and shouldn't exist in the first place.
I actually didn't know they were directly selling pirated software, I thought it was only about the modding device. However, I'm glad you recognize the extremely excessive nature of the ruling. Do you happen to know why they went after a single individual instead of the whole group?
It shows people are getting mad just because someone endorsing piracy got their comeuppance instead of what actually matters.
Just to be clear, you're ok with saddling a disabled person with $14m dollar fine to a multibillion dollar corporation, for the crime of making $300k on a device that allows you to do what you want with your device? It wasn't specifically meant for piracy, there are several good and legitimate reasons to have full control of your device.
IP isn’t real and shouldn’t exist in the first place.
This. They've made up a dubious analogy between owning physical items and knowledge, and make the "burn the witch" act when you point out that it's unsatisfactory to make laws, and there are plenty of people running around who haven't ever made anything in their lives which would be impeded by IP, so they just support it.
I know a few people who've made IP-worthy things, sometimes published (small-issue), the pattern is that they are against IP (while for them I'd understand having emotional reasons to support it).
disability benefits can’t be garnished. i think it’s ok to be mad at people for spreading misinformation even if they themselves are fighting a just cause. lies like this help nobody.
That situation is fucked and I'm definitely siding with Gary. He deserves so much better. Fuck Sintendo
Here is a Darknet Diaries episode about it where Garry Bowser talks about that and his history of modding devices and Team Executer
Pretty interesting if you have an hour and a half to kill.
I bet if he started a GoFundMe he would make a good amount from people grateful for his efforts.
Not saying that the punishment is proportional, but this guy isn't exactly a hero.
Team Executor stole open source code from the Atmosphere project and then sold it as SXOS with added DRM that could permanently brick systems.
Yeah but not "30% of his income for the rest of his life" evil, even more so since I think he wasn't even a dev on the project but just a web master for their site.
If he started a GoFundMe id donate a few dollars
If I wasn't broke as fuck that is.
Does a GoFundMe count as "income", or will Nintendo try to take 100% of it, in addition to 30% from his actual income?
Why would it count as anything but income?
GoFundMe isn't some magical charity. It's just online begging.
One could also think of it as capital gains, since it grows in value when people "invest" in it. Nintendo's lawyers may claim that because of that it should not be considered an income but an "asset" that they can take in its entirety to cover some of the debt.
Then again - if that GoFundMe can actually cover the entire fine, that could turn out to be a good thing. Yes, we'll be giving money to Nintendo, but Nintendo does not really need that money. What they want is to ruin that man's life in order to send a message. If the public can un-ruin that life, that would send an opposite message - and a signal backed by money, too.
Seriously, what are the odds? I was really confused as to why Nintendo was going after their own all of a sudden.
I see nothing wrong with this but I have less than zero sympathy for anyone that profits off of piracy.
I would agree in the case of reselling pirated content, as a core piracy principle is that data itself has no value and can be given away for free. Once you start selling it, you're just a thief.
But he was part of a modchip team selling physical hardware. They manufactured a real product that was not itself pirated, and users had the choice to use the devices for homebrew or even to not install them at all.
This case is literally like blaming a gun manufacturer for murder.
data itself has no value
Programming: the art of creating worthless things and still getting paid for it.
Well, no cost to replicate, anyways. I'm a strong believer that if you get value from something you should pay for it, but in my youth I did pirate a lot of games and media because I didn't have the disposable income for it. No sales were lost.
I still do pirate games I own. My daughter pretty much has exclusive use of my Switch now so I play my Switch games on PC. Honestly I will buy games and then never play the official copy, and download the ROMs to run at 1440/120FPS on PC.
Ironic that Xecuter got busted for Switch modchips when emulators now do a better job than the Switch itself.
I also only pirate games I own, though for slightly different reasons. I don't think you should pay for everything you get value from (I don't [directly] pay people back for gifts, for example,) but I do think it's theft to pirate a game you never bought. Plus, buying games is how you support the developers.
Kind of makes sense if you view the program as a service. Many programs could be interpreted as contained, executable, repeatable services. Either way they're so abstract compared to lots of other goods and services that they're gonna be their own niche kind of commodity anyway.
This is nothing like a company selling a weapon specifically designed to kill people being used for the thing it's designed to do...
"Better protect the sweet, innocent (totally never misused the court system before) multi-billion dollar corporations. ESPECIALLY NINTENDO"
Hot take
I pirate the absolute shit out of Nintendo games and everything else. My issue isn't with the piracy, it's with people profiting off of piracy. Those people can get fucked and I love to see it.
More like a strict belief that piracy should be free. In Gary's case, charging money for sxos and adding DRM to it is what really bothers me though I will admit that I don't like the precedence this case sets.
A friendly reminder: SxOS is a mostly ripped off version of the FOSS CFW, Atmosphere.
I don't care that they sold hardware for a profit, but they can go fuck themselves for TIVOing open source software and pretending it was all their own original work.
You must be on a speedrun for downvotes to leave that comment on Lemmy of all places.
I'll take my lumps in this case. Gary Bowser is a piece of trash for a plethora of reasons. The precedence this case sets is honestly pretty terrible but the punishment couldnt have happened to a better person.
they are not jesus to spend their own cost for operations. sometimes they spend a lots of time too.