Nintendo Takes Legal Action Against California Man For Selling Hacked Systems

Dear lord. Those pirates never learn their lesson. They need to be straight up punished by either putting them in prison or other means to punish them for piracy.

Pirating games is unforgivable.

Nah. Its ok with some piracy. We have all done some piracy when we were younger!

It's THE Hacker to you!

@Tasuki I wouldn't mind that actually.

Wonder when Nintendo will go after Soulja Boy..Lol

Its not illegal to modify the systems, it is illegal to sell pirated games. Also what stupid person buys a premodified system? Isn’t all the fun in doing it yourself?

@KingdomHeartsFan But it is clickbait.

@Tasuki Dunno, you're closer to management of the company. Bring it up innit

@daggdroppen I draw the line at selling these goods for profit.

A lot of people hack their systems, the real problem it's hacking and selling them with other people's work.

Eager to play pirated games & hacking the system to do illegal things = We still have Uncontrolable Desire to possess something even by illegal ways.

The solution is simple, just CONTROL your Wild Desire.

@ReaderRagfish: You just can't comprehend that gorgeous chinliness!

@Alantor28 That's an incredibly over-the-top reaction to this story.

@Anti-Matter Uh, no. Some of the games that I play on emulators are either a) outrageously expensive, and b) not even available anymore. As an example, an old arcade game called Cybattler is one of of my favorites. Right now, there's only one copy of the motherboard for the arcade machine on eBay, and it's $900. For me, that's 100% inaccessible. It doesn't even have the cabinet! So, for cases like that, emulation is the only answer, as that game was literally never ported to any home console.

Honestly, Nintendo needs to back off a little bit. There are other reasons for playing emulated games than just "for the lulz" or "because I can" or just pirating.

@Eddy7eddy I can get on board with this. It's one thing if an individual user adds games to their mini-SNES, but if they go back and sell it for profit I can see how that would upset Nintendo.

Soulja boy you’re next lol

Gonna hack my Wii U to play gamecube games. Yay for me.

@goggles789
I will let them go, not playing video games anymore.
Life is not about possessing video games for eternity.

@KingdomHeartsFan
That's my Pikachu Plushie doll for Costume day on 25 October 2018.

@goggles789 So because you can't afford something, you can steal it? I want a 1970 Ford Mustang, but they don't make them anymore, and I can't afford one. So it's ok if I steal it.

I'm all for the preservation of video games, but don't convince yourself it isn't stealing or it isn't wrong because you can't have it.

@KingdomHeartsFan It's misleading

@itslukec It’s not theft if the intellectual property right holder no longer kept the trademark active. Did I steal the motherboard? No, it’s somewhere in Japan, far far away from me. If the trademark isn’t kept up, it becomes public property. A similar thing happened with the original Diablo on PC. Because they haven’t done anything with it for so long, Blizzard allows it to be freely distributed. In the case of Cybattler, nobody loses money if someone downloads the ROM.

@Anti-Matter That’s good that you like to talk so much, but your Pokémon cosplay is more of an indication than your words.

@goggles789 I understand what you are saying and why you say it's ok. But you have been misinformed about trademarks. Diablo on PC is not public property in the slightest.

Diablo is a very successful series and to think that a company as big as Blizzard would just let one of their most lucrative RPG games fall into obscurity to be traded freely is absurd.

These aren't real rules you are following, they are made up.

Again I am all for the preservation of video games, but just because someone dumped the rom far far away from you, it's still in a legally grey area.

@Yorumi It's 100% illegal to sell modified systems. Or sell tools to modify systems.

@goggles789
I asked a tailor to create Ash Ketchum jacket for Costume Day at my school.
I designed the hat with Kanto region symbol by myself.
I bought the Pikachu plushie doll & Pokeball with my own money.

Owning video games by legally is good.
But, owning video games by illegal way, even by excuses about not available anymore, that's not good.
And don't justify preserving roms by stealing from internet was the RIGHT way to do.

@goggles789 Don't want to seem like 'that guy' but you contradict yourself,
"Blizzard allows it to be freely distributed".
Key point being -allows-.

I actually have no idea but assuming it's like most forms of copyright isn't it 50 years without any attempt to reapply before it becomes public use?

Regarding hacking/piracy in general, my view is varied.
For one, I can't really blame the individual for hacking and pirating if they want to as at the end of the day it's immediately life threatening or anything and multi bajillion companies aren't going to lose sleep.

On the other hand, people,devs,employees depend on the money made from the games and pirating will have a knock on effect of growth etcetc.
Plus it's peoples creations and I'm sure most others would be pretty annoyed if you drew an original character but thousands of others made money from it.

So my end result is a small amount of piracy per person for old and aging systems is probably ok. Modern stuff? Eh...a bit ott.

Phew! Long post sorry!

@Tasuki None of those things are anywhere near as hard as setting up some emulators. Rob Bank : Enter bank with gun and note. Steal car: Steal car. Other illegal activities: Carry out other illegal activities.

See it's easy.

Maybe Nintendo should take a lesson from this about what consumers want with their legacy content. Slow drips and locking it behind a online subscription just doesn't cut it. Reggie said earlier they hadn't released the full nes library yet, since when have they done so. Dropping the roms shouldn't take years heck you can go online right now and download the entire nes library (official and unofficial games like wisdom tree and Tengen) if they want to make a profit and end this mess wouldn't the smart thing be to give people what they want? Sure some will steal even if there's a legal way to do things, but punishing the consumers that would gladly buy the games with this sorry backside of legacy drip feed gaming just don't cut it.

@itslukec Stealing takes something away from someone. "Pirating" ROMs takes nothing from anyone.

I don't view digital files as actual things. Can't hold it. Isn't real.

Going after old ROMs is silly. Why isn't Nintendo focusing on the piracy of Lets go and Smash?

@Yorumi Illegal to sell them though

California man! He's always there for us.

Ok, this is NOT about hacking the system, its about SELLING the hacked systems for profit.
THAT is what is wrong with this.

@goggles789 "Uh, no. Some of the games that I play on emulators are either a) outrageously expensive, and b) not even available anymore. As an example, an old arcade game called Cybattler is one of of my favorites. Right now, there's only one copy of the motherboard for the arcade machine on eBay, and it's $900. For me, that's 100% inaccessible. It doesn't even have the cabinet! So, for cases like that, emulation is the only answer, as that game was literally never ported to any home console."

Someone break out the Kleenex, such a harrowing story. Justify it all you want but you are playing it illegally. It doesn't even matter if there are no more boards, it is illegal, unless it has been made publicly available by Jaleco, well, City Connection who I believe have Jaleco's IPs now.

@ElectricGhost @goggles789 Do y’all just wake up this salty, or are you genuinely bothered by random internet comments?

Good I love when these hackers get taken down

@goggles789 no they don't.I'm glad these guys are being hit.go nintendo

MAYBE if Nintendo sold us their back-library, we wouldn't need emulators! The company is run by a bunch of fracking a-holes.

Why can't I buy GBA, N64, or GC games on a modern system? I own a 3DS and Switch, and surely one of those two platforms should be able to offer all or most of those. We should pirate the crap out of everything until Nintendo chooses to make money off their own products

Yessssss make him suffar~

@Alantor28
"Pirating games in unforgivable."

Drama much? As far as "crimes" go, it's easily forgivable.

A few years ago, I paid a local kid $20 to hack my Wii and load it to the gills with NES, SNES Sega (MS and Genesis), Tubo Grafx, Atari, and PC games. Fantastic value that is still very much in use today. A couple years after that, he was working at a stable and a horse bit his thumb off. That horse's name...Epona. I am not making any of this up. He actually revealed the nub on Youtube and it was, well, exactly what you think.

Lesson: Nintendo is sending their horses to eat your thumbs, you dirty hacker.

Reminds me of the first con I went to after the SNES Mini’s release; at least 3 modded systems with triple digits worth of games all for marked up prices.

I love the drama

@Bunkerneath
Yeah that is what all of those who defend emulators on here are not getting. This guy was selling systems with the ROMs already preloaded. That’s is most certainly piracy. Oh well, they’re gonn defend him so that they can justify their own use of ROMs and emulators.

BUSTED! That's all..

@Tasuki
Yeah. Some things are better left non stated. When articles are published in what's supposed to be an honest fanfare site it's best to be more mindful of what you're putting out there, for good influence sakes. Otherwise, the publisher looks and sounds quite hypocritical.

@Yorumi If he's selling at as what can be argued as retail it could be an unauthorized distribution case as well. That's a civil, not criminal court though.

@HobbitGamer ???

@Trikeboy Actually, no. In order for it to be illegal, it has to cause monetary damages. In the digital world, if the copyright holder doesn't keep their trademark up to date, the item in question becomes public domain. Might want to look into that before getting all edgy on the internet.

@DABYX Thanks for being reasonable! As far as copyright, I don't know how long it takes for something digital or written to be considered public domain. It can't be 50 years, because Diablo is less than that. Maybe it has to do with when the trademark expires?

@Anti-Matter Look up public domain, it will help prevent you from being so black and white on the matter. Remember, stealing only happens when it causes a person or entity financial damages. Otherwise, it's not considered so. I know what you're pushing for, but you're just wrong so let it go.

@Yorumi that' comes back to the distribution rights thing. It's not criminal/illegal but you can sue someone doing business by selling your products unauthorized if you have an authorized distribution program.

Granted, authorized distribution itself is kind of gross and is just a branch of price fixing and collusion...but unfortunately, it's a thing. It shouldn't be. But it is.

@itslukec The public was informed directly by a representative from Blizzard that distribution of Diablo 1 on PC is okay because they haven't done anything with it. If they ever take up the trademark on the original game again, that will change but so far, they have settled to allow it become public domain.

@goggles789 me, reasonable? yea I have no idea really. Just that you said allowed which makes me assume they actively passed on trademark or whatever

@goggles789 Sounds good, if they passed I guess I will buy it. Since it's public domain. I can do that right?

I mean the packaging, characters, logos, music is just up for grabs! What a deal. They won't mind, they abandoned it.

@itslukec I'm not even sure what you're getting at anymore. Do you have a point to add to the discussion?

@goggles789
You're keep justifying something wrong as something right.
Do whatever you want but i still stay on the RIGHT way to do.
I feel sorry to hear your confession. 😒

@Anti-Matter Public domain isn't a crime...what are you even on about?! lmao

@goggles789
Listen !

I will keep stay on the RIGHT way to play video games.

I Will NOT try 1001 ways to get illegal games with excuse about to preserve the games that cannot be obtained anymore because i know that's ILLEGAL to do like that. It's called STEALING no matter what.

I will NOT cry on the games that i cannot get anymore (Wii / NDSi eshop games). I can move on by forgetting those games and play other games. I will let them gone, i will NOT try to get them back.

And there is NOTHING Right from Wrong.

Got it ?!

@Anti-Matter In the case of Blizzard and Diablo 1, if they've officially allowed it to become public domain, that's their decision. Public Domain is actually a part of US Copyright Law. It's exactly what it sounds, the rights essentially "belong to the public", legally, and thus the public may use it as they see fit. So if that's what Blizzard-Activision has done with Diablo 1, they literally decided to make it free and share the usage rights with everyone. The law explicitly covers that (and makes that action automatic if a company does not protect their copyrights/trademarks/patents in courts of law, the government declares that property to be public property under Public Domain.)

Nothing wrong or illegal in those cases, it's the actual laws on IP ownership (in the US, at least.)

@Anti-Matter Is Gamestop pirating? They are selling things where they don't own the IP. Heck, they even sell download codes for games. Are all the people selling old, out of print games pirates, too? They don't own the rights to the things they are selling. Are public libraries pirates for freely distributing books?

Are people who are buying these things all stealing, according to your logic? Theft has to involve financial damages for it to be considered so. It's a legal term, backed by other such legalese. It's not just stealing because it makes your heely-feelies hurt when someone downloads a ROM that's out of print and is therefor, public domain and protected by laws that govern such things.

I just want to see how deluded you are, at this point. I already know the answers to those questions. You clearly have no understanding of how copyright works, and when things become public domain, either through abandonment, or as in the case of Blizzard, their own willfulness.

@NEStalgia Thank you for adding a little bit of reason to this conversation. I feel like I'm hitting my head against a wall when I talk with that guy.

I wonder if the hacker themselves ever paid the developers whom created those games? If they can make the hack and make money why are they not paying those whom created those games?

@Anti-Matter You would know a thing or two about "wild desires"...

@HobbitGamer what makes you think anything you say do or think holds any value? Go away.

@goggles789 observations are quite valid; funny to see @anti-matter get all his feathers fluffed over nothing.

@Anti-Matter you’re having a freak out akin to ChrisChan. Do grow up and ride off with that feathered horse you rode in on, ya yutz.

Edit: and take that creepy Pikachu doll with you; good grief, you act like a child with your asinine posts..

@Yorumi Modifying the firmware in video game systems to play pirated games or even your own backups is illegal. It's safer to just not but if anyone is thinking about it, contact the DMCA and let them know what your intentions are first and see how they react.

@goggles789 I was just being silly. As for the 50 year public domain release thing, I know Disney lobbied to have that changed years and years back, but I’m not sure what it is now. I know it’s longer, cause Mickey was about to enter public when they did it. Our US copyright laws are pretty ridiculous anyway.

@ElectricGhost Well, that’s just unkind to say. I was being silly, but whatevs.

@ElectricGhost Thank you.

@HobbitGamer It’s 70 years after the author dies. There are some exclusions depending on the year though. For example things made around 1987-1999 or so expire after 5 years and become public domain. Have a merry Christmas!

@HobbitGamer you were being flippant. Stop it.

@goggles789 you’re welcome, bud. Somebody’s gotta stand up to logic and reason. I stand by ya, laddie.

@Anti-Matter Please never stop being Engrishy XD

@ElectricGhost haha, thanks and you too!!

@rdrunner1178 You need a higher high horse.

@IHateTombs Exactly. They could be putting their efforts into improving what they already have, instead of wasting resources on some dude selling preloaded systems, etc.

@Alantor28 lol it's the antidote to bad microtransactions and awful collections/remakes. Can't believe people bought megaman legacy collection when anniversary had more stuff 10+ years ago. But then people still buy the square enix mobile remakes full price despite them taking stuff out of the game (final fantasy tactics at least did things properly even without the PSP's multiplayer). I'm talking more about dragon quest 3 without mini medals and sugoroku, which make playing it worthless. I know they also had to overhaul Chrono trigger as well.

Nintendo won't really create a market for DS stuff and will discontinue the classics, so why should I tie both hands behind my back because I liked Mario as a child yet cannot play super Mario all stars on classic snes mini without modding? That package sold the snes as a great bundle, and even added super Mario world at a later date, but classics only gave world.

@goggles789 thanks for getting it. I argued that modding safeguards vs bad remakes where they take out stuff, and yeah out of print = out of options. Can't believe people are crazy enough to pay eShop original game boy Pokemon games for $10 and not demand the remakes be available. Would've been a fair price for SoulSilver or HeartGold to be $10. Then of course there are those who prefer a physical copy that won't magically disappear, or be patched with some BS update (ie your favorite smash character gets nerfed, and even with a physical copy, you can't even choose what version to play offline).

At least this time it wasn't Florida Man.

@Alantor28

I would dare say there are much worse things in life than copying some pixels

@goggles789
Or stoop to be being a “low-life”, I guess? Whether you think playing ROMs is wrong or not, actually taking someone else’s copyrighted material that has been duplicated and then selling it is in fact piracy. Grow up!

@rdrunner1178 Agreed. While playing ROMs is okay, taking someone else's material and duplicating it and then selling it is piracy and is illegal in all ways.

@MrVariant Ah, I didn’t think of that! You’re right! Sometimes remakes get changed so much it hurts the original. I recall the PSP version of Castlevania: Rondo of Blood, where they went 2.5d and it ruined the overall aesthetic of the game. Though, at least in that case I think the original was an unlockable. Anyway, still a very good point. Thank you!

@rdrunner1178 I don’t know who you were replying to, but I don’t support selling another persons copywritten material. It’s a long thread, so maybe you got the wrong user.

Nintendo need to stop this making it only one console at a time. If we only wanted nes games, we would have said that. We clearly say we want more consoles(classic games) and Nintendo don't listen. This is why this happens, less consoles means more people getting games in illegal ways.

@HobbitGamer I was stating why piracy should be illegal. They didn't have to be rude about it or support piracy.

@goggles789
Who knows? Maybe something got crossed somewhere. I responded to comment #93 which was your comment to me about getting a higher horse, which was in response to my comment about people calling out Nintendo for this. When in fact, this guy broke the law whether some people disagree with the laws or not.

@goggles789 Nintendo life just advertised Sega ages phantasy star for the switch which is bs given these games are rereleased before (gba for phantasy star 1-3, Sega Genesis collection for ps2/psp for 2-4). I posted some comparison pics based on the ps2 Sega ages 2500 remakes. Don't trust Sega as they will skimp like they did in shining force 3. https://www.instagram.com/p/BrXXCDqhPtk/?utm_source=ig_share_sheet&igshid=1wp5koad7omlv

@rdrunner1178 Ah, it came off as confusing because I was hammering away at so many other posters. But, now that I see where you are coming from. Yes, you need a higher high horse!! lol

@MrVariant Thanks for the heads up!

@goggles789 @ElectricGhost I just did a bit on Chris Chan and I can see how Ghost drew the comparison with @Anti-Matter and the sonichu creator. Both act like insufferable manchildren with delusions of grandeur and unhealthy obsessions. It’s absolutely hilarious.

@Anti-Matter you really need to grow up.

@Anti-Matter you don’t have the moral high ground and you certainly lost all credibility after seeing you act like a child, throwing a temper tantrum in comment threads simply because some people disagree with you...

@Anti-Matter you clearly have no clue how any of this works. You should learn to think before you speak.