Nintendo Sues ROM Site Into Oblivion
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Image: Nintendo
Back in 2019, we wrote about Nintendo’s efforts to shut down the website RomUniverse, which was hosting and even selling premium access to pirated copies of Nintendo games. That case is now over, the site is gone and Nintendo has been awarded $US2.1 million ($3 million) in damages.
Torrentfreak report, RomUniverse’s Matthew Storman actually decided to try and fight Nintendo in court, and what’s more, to do so without an attorney. That did not go well for Storman, where his defence based around ”disputing that he uploaded any files to said website” was swiftly picked apart by Nintendo’s actual lawyers, who were able to point to Storman’s own sworn deposition where he admitted to…uploading ROM files to his site.
Image: Nintendo
Nintendo of America has been awarded $2.1 million in damages after winning a lawsuit against pirated game seller RomUniverse. Nintendo originally filed the lawsuit in September 2019, with the company asking for $15 million in damages. Though the case was decided in Nintendo’s favor, the judge opted for a lower number: $2,115,000.
RomUniverse was originally operated by California resident Matthew Storman, who argued in court that he didn’t upload the pirated games himself. But Nintendo, in its original complaint, said the site reportedly offered memberships for as much as $30 per year, which let subscribers download games faster than non-subscribers.
Showing that kind of profit off of Nintendo’s copyrighted works is how the company won the $2.1 million judgment. Nintendo said RomUniverse had a catalog of both new and old Nintendo games, which were downloaded hundreds of thousands of times.