Man Fined $1.5 Million For Leaked Mario Game

An anonymous reader writes "A Queensland man will have to pay Nintendo $1.5 million in damages after illegally copying and uploading one of its recent games to the internet ahead of its release, the gaming giant says. Nintendo said the loss was caused when James Burt made New Super Mario Bros Wii available for illegal download a week ahead of its official Australian release in November of last year. Nintendo applied for and was granted a search order by the Federal Court, forcing Burt to disclose the whereabouts of all his computers, disks and electronic storage devices in November. He was also ordered to allow access, including passwords, to his social networking sites, email accounts and websites."

Comments

Re:Pro-piracy

[Hognoxious]

First of all, nobody, or at least not I, have argued that he should go completely free

Difficult to tell what you've argued when you post as AC. See, you all look the same.

The difference is that there would have been some hope to actually pay that amount and move on with his life, rather than being stuck in eternal poverty with nothing left to lose really.

Why? This isn't some kid sharing a few games with his pals. It's tortious interference against someone's business. And how do you know exactly how much he can afford? For all we know he might be a front for a rival company - 100k is peanuts to Sony or Microsoft.

Fact is, it was pretty clear (or should have been) what would happen, and now it has it's a little late to cry foul. One way he could have avoided paying anything was simply not to do it. What did the dumbass think he was trying to achieve?

Not that they'll ever collect that amount anyway. It's largely symbolic, but it sends a shot across the bows of anyone who tries it again.