US court orders Reddit moderator to pay Nintendo £3.4 million over Switch piracy

A US District Judge has granted Nintendo a £3.4 million ($4.5 million) default judgment against James Williams, a former Reddit moderator known online as "Archbox", after Williams failed to respond to a lawsuit over alleged Nintendo Switch piracy.

Nintendo alleged that Williams facilitated a network of unauthorised shops offering extensive libraries of pirated Switch games for download. The company identified 30 games it said Williams had pirated, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.

Nintendo sought $150,000 in damages for each of the 30 games, totalling the full $4.5 million judgment. The judge ruled that "Williams' egregious infringement activities merit substantial punishment here" and noted that while Williams did not respond to the lawsuit, he must have been aware of it after hiring a lawyer to object to a Google subpoena.

The court issued a permanent injunction preventing Williams from distributing any pirated Nintendo games, not only the 30 named titles, and barring him from encouraging others to do so. The judge also noted that Nintendo did not separately seek DMCA damages or attorneys' fees, calling it a "gesture of reasonableness" that supported awarding the maximum copyright damages available.