$1.5 Million dollar fine imposed on Nintendo pirate
James Burt of Queensland Australia was ordered to pay $1.5 million dollars to Nintendo for copying Super Mario Bros videogame for the Wii console and illegally distributing it a week prior to release in Australia.
According to Mr Burt’s MySpace site, he is 24 years old and has worked as a manager at games retailer Electronics Boutique in a store in Brisbane since 2004.
Nintendo said the game file of Super Mario Bros. for the Wii was first uploaded and made available for illegal download on 6 November, 2009, a week before the game’s official Australian release.
James Burt uploaded the game on the internet for download; he was quickly tracked down.Nintendo then acquired a Federal Court order allowing Mr Burt’s premises to be searched, at his premises in Sinnamon Park, Queensland electronic data was recovered linking him to his crime.
In a statement Nintendo said that piracy jeopardises the strength of the video game industry.
“Fewer sales of Nintendo’s hardware and software systems means fewer resources that Nintendo, its licensees, developers and publishers have to create and market new video game products which is ultimately to the detriment of video game enthusiasts.”
I am surprised by the huge fine imposed, but with the video game industries sales down I can see why Nintendo had to take such a stance.
Fine does seem a bit steep, but he did break copyright law. Granted they will probably never get the full judgement from him if his only means of income is his job at EB. But it could be worst, they could have tacked up some jail time on top of the fine.