Two and a half years? Pah. That's a bit long in my opinion.

Well, look at it from the company's perspective. They spent thousands and thousands of dollars and hundreds of hours in development time to create the Nintendo DS and its associated games, and if someone was running a website that lets people get all of that stuff for free, and I was the company, I'd be rather miffed too.

Ouch that hurts, sucks to be him.. Well you just shouldnt make such websites but meh..

Anyway, the pic made me chuckle :)

Yeah I remember seeing this. The judge makes a perfectly good point, and I agree with him. But two and a half years? Rapists get less than that. Hell even six months would be hellish for a pirate.

But someone needs to be made an example, and he struck unlucky.

EDIT: If he was in a British prison, 2 and a half years would have flown by. Some PS3, meet some contacts, etc.

They did the right thing here by striking at the source of piracy instead of the average pirate.

Two and a half years seems a little extreme to me. Either way, it proves that piracy won't get you anywhere.

And if Japanese prisons are anything like American prisons, this guy is in for one hell of a stay.

Blackadder51:
This man got off lightly, after all he basically cock-slapped a lot of game developers.

$96,000 fine isn't "lightly" no matter how you look at it.

It's a shame that some people can't afford games, but feel the need to have them. I know some people can afford them and still pirate. But there are some people that genuinely can't...

Two and a half years is far over the top. They must be making an example of him.

I love how they say that the guy put the games up online "without permission", like any C.E.O of any company would seriously consider letting him do this.

Blackadder51:

Amnestic:

$96,000 fine isn't "lightly" no matter how you look at it.

Compared to the possible millions of dollars in sales and the amount of time invested creating over the one thousand games he was pirating? Now to me, thats light.

Add two and a half years wasted in prison.

Now, if you excuse me, I have to get some kind of handheld EMP device.

Heh, Roms? It's not like I have any of those.

mikecoulter:
It's a shame that some people can't afford games, but feel the need to have them. I know some people can afford them and still pirate. But there are some people that genuinely can't...

Two and a half years is far over the top. They must be making an example of him.

He still broke the law, and they do have the right to punish him accordingly. But yeah, you're right- them making an example of him is the most likely hypothesis as far as the sentence is concerned.

Imagine if Nintendo were part of the Yakuza... The news would probably read a bit different:

"Man found dead today with mushrooms stuffed in his throat, and a lead pipe used in his apparent assault."

This is good news.

His one mistake was becoming too popular. Being too good at something can be a downfall.

I am against piracy in general but 2 years is really a stretch.
In the country where I live, not even RAPE has a sentance that long.

Of course he has obviously created some damage to the industry by hosting allt hose fils for free but the punishment he is getting is more severe than that of assault, robbery and yes; RAPE.

I guess that is what happens when the industry gets the opportunity to affect the laws.
2 years is seriously fucked up.

This is good but I wish they would focus on this far more than shearing.
Sharing is a basic right,digital or other wise, making a profit off something you do not have a contract for now that's worth societies time to police.

Harsh, in my opinion.

The fine would probably be enough to ruin his life, don't really need the jail time.

i would say this sounds ok actually, the fine is to compensate for the money he effectively snatched from game developers, and actually 2 and a half years seems lighter then i would expect it to be.

Well given that it is Nintendo I am surprised he got off with only two years, I thought they would have pushed for more.

It is harsh, but really what was the guy expecting to do? Just let people download a few roms and hope that nobody would notice?

ZippyDSMlee:
This is good but I wish they would focus on this far more than shearing.
Sharing is a basic right,digital or other wise, making a profit off something you do not have a contract for now that's worth societies time to police.

I see your point but i dont think this guy had all of those games.

esperandote:

ZippyDSMlee:
This is good but I wish they would focus on this far more than shearing.
Sharing is a basic right,digital or other wise, making a profit off something you do not have a contract for now that's worth societies time to police.

I see your point but i dont think this guy had all of those games.

they never are, humans take the easiest road available, big business takes the "lowest" of the easiest roads....

Even still the spirit of the law says you have personal rights and freedoms even if they are heavily restricted because they(gov/bis) can make more money off you.

The real source of piracy is the sheer assholery by nintendo when it comes to devkit for the wii and the ds. According to them, they own everything you make with them and have the right to decide wether ot not you can sell them. Because of that, if you make, upload, download or play a homebrew which had absolutely no input from nintendo beyond the licensing of the creation of the devkit by another company, you are a pirate.

I've been to this guy's site and most of the things there are games nintendo had never heard of until they started calling their lawyers.

This is blatant protectionism and abuse of their position. I hope the guy wins the appeal.

The jail time might be a bit long, but I guess the fine is ok. If people keep pirating games, then it takes away incentive for developers to make new games. Game take money to make, first and foremost, so if they feel that everyone's just gonna steal their games then they won't make any.

The global crackdown continues...

dalek sec:

Jbird:
Imagine if Nintendo were part of the Yakuza... The news would probably read a bit different:

"Man found dead today with mushrooms stuffed in his throat, and a lead pipe used in his apparent assault."

You sir have made my day with this mock headline, I thank you for that.

Heh :D

This hardly seems like fair judgment, but the picture made my day.

mikecoulter:
It's a shame that some people can't afford games, but feel the need to have them. I know some people can afford them and still pirate. But there are some people that genuinely can't...

Two and a half years is far over the top. They must be making an example of him.

If you cant afford games, dont buy them. Video games are a luxury(as lame as it sounds), no one is entitled to them, so dont try to pull that card here.

If you can afford games, you shouldn't be spending your time on the computer stealing video games, you should be getting a job.

WrongSprite:
They did the right thing here by striking at the source of piracy instead of the average pirate.

Agreed, it's the correct approach to the problem.