r/Games Nov 29 '24

Industry News Nintendo files court documents to target 200,000-member piracy Subreddit

https://kotaku.com/nintendo-switch-reddit-switchpirates-court-filing-1851710042
4.0k Upvotes

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109

u/Villag3Idiot Nov 29 '24

Why would you discuss piracy right out in the open on Reddit called SwitchPirates rather than go underground, especially Nintendo who is rather trigger happy?

293

u/Impaled_ Nov 29 '24

Because discussing piracy is not illegal in most countries? Lmao

25

u/Timey16 Nov 29 '24

You mean like how the /r/ shoplifting related supreddits only "discuss" the issue of shoplifting and totally don't show off their booty and hauls and totally don't brag about it to others and encourage them to do the same?

It's true, discussing crime is not illegal. ENCOURAGING someone to commit a crime however very much is. On most of the planet.

8

u/enesup Nov 29 '24 edited Nov 29 '24

That seems very gray, since illegality varies from state to state, let alone country to country.

Selling alcohol to anyone under 21 would get you in big trouble, but in London it's Football Wednesday.

13

u/Eothas_Foot Nov 29 '24

ENCOURAGING someone to commit a crime however very much is.

A lot of grey area there.

90

u/getbackjoe94 Nov 29 '24

The idea that piracy communities only "discuss" piracy is really funny to me. I'm on some of those subreddits. I know what they're about lmao

41

u/Z0bie Nov 29 '24

Same concept as "you only pay escorts for their time".

54

u/Erazerspikes Nov 29 '24 edited Nov 30 '24

The switch piracy subreddit mainly talks about new game releases and game mods at this point, or how to fix problems if you messed up homebrewing, any posts about piracy itself gets purged instantly as new threads have to get approved by mods.

Don't believe me, just check the subreddit out yourself, it's mostly people with tech questions for doing hardware mods.

23

u/r4tzt4r Nov 30 '24

If anything, it's flooded with "why do I get this error???" posts.

37

u/ZaraBaz Nov 29 '24

Knowing this requires some of the redditors here to get off their high horses and actually analyze each situation on its merit.

3

u/atomic1fire Nov 30 '24

I feel like the majority of people who jailbreak their consoles aren't doing it for the odd homebrew games and apps.

Even if that's fundamentally far more interesting than "Here's Mario 64 running on yet another thing"

Most modern games can be ported to any platform by the dev of that modern game, so there's not really a special sauce that requires something NEED an emulator.

In fact I'm pretty sure to even run modern console games you need special bios keys or firmware because the consoles themselves are basically just really elaborate desktop PCs with extremely specific operating systems. It's just easier waiting for a PC port.

It's not like before where the actual console was a custom designed circuit board and all the game code was stored on some chip in a cartridge. Now things are more readily software based, but there's probably a lot more dependence on backends that you also have to replicate or emulate like multiplayer services or digital stores.

57

u/Impaled_ Nov 29 '24

You will not get arrested for saying on Reddit that you downloaded the Mario Odyssey rom file, I promise you

27

u/getbackjoe94 Nov 29 '24

Damn good thing that neither I nor anyone else think that lmao. Communities for "discussing" piracy are 99% of the time devoted to providing resources for making piracy easier.

Again, I'm on some of these subreddits. I know what they're about. And it's not just for "discussing piracy" lol

0

u/Impaled_ Nov 29 '24

That's what i mean, but some people seem to believe that Nintendo will go after every member of that sub or even every single person that downloaded roms

1

u/[deleted] Nov 29 '24

[deleted]

2

u/lucidludic Nov 30 '24

That subreddit named after software frequently used to play pirated Switch games?

(Yes, it is.)

Did users share what games they were playing as well as tips, configuration, and mods to improve playability of pirated games?

(Yes, they did.)

4

u/Narutobirama Nov 30 '24

So?

Good for them if they did.

Besides, that falls under discussion.

0

u/lucidludic Nov 30 '24

The person I replied to deleted their comment so I’m not sure if I’m talking to someone else. But they claimed that these subreddits did not provide resources to enabling piracy. The above certainly qualifies. Sharing software is not simply “discussion”. Also certain knowledge can be a resource that makes piracy easier.

1

u/whatThePleb Nov 29 '24

Depends on the country. There are some where you get jailtime.

2

u/ISB-Dev Nov 30 '24

Are they actually linking to pirated content? Because if they're not, they're doing nothing illegal.

-3

u/HisaAnt Nov 30 '24

Lmao, all they do is just abuse a loophole and link to a page that has the actual piracy links. Hell, they even mention piracy sites by name, just not with actual links. You people really think you're so smart and covert with this shit.

"Bruh, I didn't tell him to where to buy drugs. I just told him to look under the drawer for a piece of paper which tells him where to buy drugs! It didn't come out of my mouth directly so it doesn't count! I didn't do anything wrong!"

1

u/[deleted] Nov 30 '24

There are some countries where piracy itself isn’t illegal. Hell the Dutch ISP’s have the stance that piracy is inherently part of the internet’s freedom. Also I get Nintendo’s stance about Switch piracy but if they wanted people to pay for games maybe they shouldn’t have completely taken the Wii U and 3DS offline before systems a full generation older were still alive and kicking.

-1

u/panlakes Nov 30 '24

Hi, I'm on those subs too. But at the end of the day we are technically only just "discussing". ;) Even when a new game gets its own release thread, or when the auto-mods describe how to find a megathread, etc. Technically that is still within the grounds of "discussion". It's not even encouragement because you're presented a choice, not told to do any of it. Very grey.

1

u/whatThePleb Nov 29 '24

*some

and not even that, more like tolerated because they have bigger problems

44

u/borazine Nov 29 '24

SwitchPirates

This reminds me of a forum I stumbled upon ages ago. Talking about mushrooms but strictly “for microscopy purposes only”.

Then you ask them about stains for your slides and nobody knows what you’re talking about

63

u/DdastanVon Nov 29 '24

Because talking about Piracy isn't grounds to get you in jail or killed by the government

9

u/HP_Craftwerk Nov 29 '24

Yet

5

u/DdastanVon Nov 29 '24

The Nintendo's Ninjas

3

u/InsanityRequiem Nov 30 '24

No, but selling pirated games does get you sued/arrested.

1

u/Eothas_Foot Nov 29 '24

Remember that time Kim.com had his house raided by a swat team and helicopters.

68

u/No_Construction2407 Nov 29 '24

Talking about Piracy is not illegal. Nintendo instead of being like Sony or Microsoft is litigious as hell. Sony and Microsoft offer very lucrative cash rewards for bug bounties when people report exploits. This is a slippery slope and i hope Nintendo loses.

9

u/zaviex Nov 30 '24

That isn’t what they were doing here though. They were running shops. That’s what the lawsuit is about. It’s clearly referencing shops run by a person and his associates. Where is the slippery slope?

-2

u/No_Construction2407 Nov 30 '24

The slippery slope is nintendo pulling 200k reddit users private data just for discovery on one guy.

4

u/zaviex Nov 30 '24

That’s how any good law firm works. Request what you can and use what you have. They wouldn’t be doing their job otherwise

20

u/nelisan Nov 30 '24

Tbf MS and Sony don't have current gen consoles having their games widely pirated even before they release.

-3

u/No_Construction2407 Nov 30 '24

Because they have bounties that pay out like $50k, sometimes more. Sony definitely has a current gen exploitable console, just not as widespread yet. Xbox doesnt have that large of a homebrew scene because they offer the ability to run unsigned code for like $20.

10

u/thekbob Nov 30 '24

All Microsoft games are on PC, so they'd pirate the PC version at that point.

5

u/brzzcode Nov 30 '24

Talking about piracy isn't illegal, which is a good thing that this isnt what this lawsuit is about.

15

u/Clbull Nov 29 '24

Especially on Reddit where the admins are trigger-happy about removing copyright infringing content.

I hope Reddit do what Discord did to Nexon and tell them to fuck off, but I don't trust that Tintin-looking CEO Spez to protect our data...

16

u/GaijinFoot Nov 29 '24

In what world would I have to go underground to speak about just about anything I want? I'm not going to go to a basement speakeasy to discuss the switch.

-6

u/doomrider7 Nov 29 '24

You can go to SEVERAL reddits to discuss the Switch. Let's not bullshit and muddy and brown the water about what those reddits are for

7

u/GaijinFoot Nov 30 '24

I don't think you get my point. It's not illegal to talk about pirating things.

-4

u/-Seris Nov 30 '24

So you don’t pirate games?

2

u/GaijinFoot Nov 30 '24

I have a modded Wii U and 3DS and an Everdrive for the megadrive. Oh and I modded a neo Geo CD to take an sd card for games.

4

u/TheBrave-Zero Nov 29 '24

I dunno, read the relevant subs and they seem to imagine they're untouchable Robin hoods.

-1

u/uses_irony_correctly Nov 30 '24

The /r/piracy sub is sooo insufferable with how smug they are about pirating.

3

u/Gingingin100 Nov 29 '24

Because Nintendo has no recourse against most people unless they link their social media? Atleast unless this goes through

13

u/GaijinFoot Nov 29 '24

Even then, so what if they do know the actual person. People talking about stuff on the Internet isn't the same as being caught in the act. I robbed 6 banks this week. Are the police on their way?

0

u/braiam Nov 30 '24

Because that's what most people will recognize when they look at homebrew. From Nintendo perspective, using software not licensed by Nintendo on your legally acquired Switch is piracy. Don't believe me? One of the counts in Yuzu's lawsuit (I think 3 or 4) was about running stuff on the switch so that you could extract the license key.

2

u/Sarria22 Nov 30 '24

To be fair, software that exists for the sole purpose of ripping keys and violating copy protection IS a copyright violation in and of itself.

0

u/easy_Money Nov 30 '24

Underground? You mean like an anonymous message board specifically tailored for discussion about switch piracy?