Nintendo continues to target Switch pirates with new lawsuits

Nintendo is not giving up on its crusade against Switch piracy, as it has filed two new lawsuits against individuals who allegedly promoted and profited from modded consoles and pirated games. Interestingly, one of these lawsuits targets one of the moderators behind the popular r/SwitchPirates subreddit. 

As spotted by TorrentFreak, the first lawsuit targets James Williams, the main moderator of r/SwitchPirates, a subreddit dedicated to Switch hacking and piracy. According to Nintendo, Williams operates “several pirate shops” that offer “massive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games” for download, as well as providing technical support and guidance. Nintendo claims that Williams' actions violate the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) and infringe on Nintendo's intellectual property rights.

The second lawsuit names Ryan Daly, a member of a homebrew group that sells modded Switch hardware online. Daly had previously agreed to a cease and desist order from Nintendo earlier this year, but failed to comply with it. Nintendo accuses Daly of selling mod chips, mail-in modding services and modded consoles that enable users to play pirated games straight out of the box. Nintendo is seeking damages, injunctive relief and the destruction of all infringing products from both defendants.

These lawsuits are the latest in a series of legal actions that Nintendo has taken against Switch piracy in recent years. In 2022, Nintendo successfully shut down Team Xecutor, a notorious piracy group that sold hacking devices for the Switch. More recently, Nintendo also reached a settlement with the developers of Yuzu, a popular Switch emulator that was widely used to play leaked copies of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom before its official release. The Yuzu team has since disbanded and shut down operations.

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KitGuru Says: Nintendo has been on a winning streak with these lawsuits lately and I would expect that to continue here. If you are selling modded consoles, hardware designed to circumvent DRM, or console modding services online, Nintendo's legal ninjas will be monitoring.

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