Nintendo Fine Super Mario Pirate $1.5M: The Blame Game
JAMES Burt has agreed to pay Nintendo $1.5 million in damages plus $100,000 in court costs for uploading Super Mario Bros Wii to the internet. Burt’s other claism to fame is that he is “the first Australian individual to be sued in the Federal Court for game piracy.”
Burt has agreed to pay the fee for playing the game. And if he works hard he might just be able to:
Burt, who works at a Brisbane freight forwarding company, obtained a copy of Super Mario Bros Wii and made it available for download on November 6, a week before the title’s official release, through a website since closed down “out of respect for Nintendo”.
Nintendo Australia managing director Rose Lappin says:
“It was something we had to take action against as the game was massive and years of development were involved. It was a disaster because we’d requested the game early and got it first in the world. When it was downloaded we were all devastated about that and the implications globally.”
One might argue that a tech company unable to protect its hi-tech tech from a man with a computer could have done more to secure its product.
Super Mario Bros Wii went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide in the first two months of its release.
Back to Burt and paying off that fine…
Posted: 10th, February 2010 | In: Technology Comment | TrackBack | Permalink
