Shocking punishment for Nintendo hacker could last for life
A NINTENDO Switch hacker previously sentenced to 40 months in prison for distributing piracy tools may be paying Nintendo for his crimes for the rest of his life.
Gary Bowser, a prolific Switch hacker part of a group called Team Xecutor, was imprisoned for making and selling copyright circumvention devices for the Nintendo Switch.
He faced 40 months in prison for the crime, and was forced to pay a $4.5million/£3.6million fine to Nintendo.
The court subsequently ordered Bowser to pay a further $10million/£8million to Nintendo in a further ruling on the civil side of the suit.
While Bowser was released from SeaTac Federal Detention Center early on good behaviour, he could be paying for the crime for the rest of his life.
In an interview with a podcaster, Bowser said that Nintendo will be able to garnish 25-30% of his wage earnings until the debt is paid off.
He says that due to the amount of money he owes, he is likely to be paying the money to Nintendo for the rest of his life.
Nintendo has reportedly already started garnishing his wages, having taken $175 from wages earned while imprisoned.
Nintendo has a strong legal team that has no issues going after leakers and hackers, especially if it involves their high value IP and Nintendo Switch games.
The company recently started closing in on a Zelda leaker, who revealed details from an artbook for the upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
The leaker showed off pages from the art book in a Discord server, and it spread around the internet from there.
Nintendo subsequently issued a subpoena requesting the details and contact information for the alleged leaker.
It echoes a legal campaign the company waged against Pokemon Sword and Shield leakers in 2018, after a number of pages from its strategy guide leaked ahead of the game’s launch.
Written by Oliver Brandt on behalf of GLHF.
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