Nintendo has accrued another win in its never ending war on piracy. As reported by IGN and VGC, Nintendo was just awarded $4.5 million in damages in its case against James Williams, aka Archbox. Recent court filings from the US District Court for the Western District of Washington show that judge Lauren King sided with the company after Williams failed to respond to the lawsuit at any point over the last two years. Talk about a self own.
“It is ordered and adjudged that default judgment is hereby entered against Defendant James C. Williams,” reads the filing, which also includes a permanent injunction against Williams which bars him from selling pirated Switch games and piracy-assisting software or modded consoles. Williams will now need to close all of his online shops, any social media accounts, and any Discord servers where he advertises his wares. Lest you think this is some big corporation punching down on a little guy, the judge states that Williams was fully aware of the lawsuit since he hired a lawyer to object to a subpoena from Google at one point during the case. His refusal to respond is, seemingly, the main reason he lost.
More than two years ago in June 2024, Nintendo had sued James “Archbox” Williams for allegedly violating digital copyright laws. Accused of leading the Reddit community known as “SwitchPirates,” Nintendo tracked down Williams via law firm Mitchell Silberberg & Knupp and subsequently served him a lawsuit demanding $4.5 million in damages for illegally distributing games. Citing 30 games in its filing, of which the leak of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom was a big one, Nintendo noted that Williams had “engaged in the infringing and unlawful reproduction and distribution of hundreds, or thousands of copyrighted Nintendo Switch Games.” It stuck to 30 since it was likely impossible to determine the value of money lost by Williams’ actions.
“Since 2019, Williams has been either directly or indirectly the owner, manager, operator, creator, administrator, supplier, and/or overseer of several online Pirate Shops, and has worked to actively promote these Pirate Shops to communities consisting of many thousands of individuals,” read Nintendo’s lawsuit. The company claimed he owned, operated, or administered at least four Pirate Shops at one time, not to mention was involved with various other shops, while asking for donations in eShop cards to facilitate his piracy.
Moral of the story here: Respond to your lawsuit if Nintendo sues you.
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Written by Peter Glagowski
Peter has been a freelance gaming and film critic for over seven years. His passion for Nintendo is only matched by the size of his collection.
