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Nintendo PlayStation (Games) The Courts XBox (Games)

Judge Gives 40-Month Prison Sentence to Nintendo Switch Hacker Called 'Bowser' (hothardware.com) 39

Posted by EditorDavid from the game-over dept.
A U.S. district judge "sentenced a Nintendo Switch hacker to 40 months in federal prison," reports the Independent: Gary Bowser, 52, is one of the leaders of the "Team Xecuter" hacker criminal enterprise, a notorious video game piracy gang, authorities said. The gang sold software to hack and download stolen games to various consoles. Besides the Nintendo Switch console, Team Xecuter also targeted the Nintendo 3DS, the Nintendo Entertainment System Classic Edition, the Sony PlayStation Classic and Microsoft's Xbox.

Bowser, a Canadian citizen, was the public face of the group and handled Team Xecuter's public relations and operated its websites. He was arrested in October 2020 in the Dominican Republic and extradited to the US to stand trial in New Jersey. He pleaded guilty in October 2021 to two criminal counts — conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and to traffic in circumvention devices, and trafficking in circumvention devices. As part of his plea deal, Bowser agreed to pay $4.5m in restitution to Nintendo.

Federal agents said that he caused a loss of about $65m (about £48m) to gaming companies.
"The hacking group was initially adamant that its hardware and software modifications that circumvented copyright protections were intended for homebrew application development, not to enable users to steal software..." notes Hot Hardware.

"Following the guilty plea, Bowser settled a civil lawsuit with Nintendo to the tune of $10 million, on top of the $4.5 million in restitution he already owed."
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Judge Gives 40-Month Prison Sentence to Nintendo Switch Hacker Called 'Bowser' More

Judge Gives 40-Month Prison Sentence to Nintendo Switch Hacker Called 'Bowser'

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  • Judges ruling (Score:5, Funny)

    by puddingebola ( 2036796 ) on Saturday February 12, 2022 @01:51PM (#62262365) Journal
    I feel Bowser has been unfairly maligned by the judge in the case. I'm not defending his kidnapping of Princess Peach, but he deserves some of the distribution rights to Nintendo's software considering the important roll he played in the creation of their game franchise.

  • "Stolen" games (Score:5, Insightful)

    by peppepz ( 1311345 ) on Saturday February 12, 2022 @01:58PM (#62262387)
    Copyright infringement is not theft. And "circumvention devices" shouldn't even be illegal: if I own a device then I should be able to modify it in every way I see fit. If I used a device to perform a copy of copyrighted material, then it should be me to be liable of copyright infringement, not the authors of the device.

    • If I own a device then I should be able to modify it in every way I see fit. If I used a device to perform a copy of copyrighted material, then it should be me to be liable of copyright infringement, not the authors of the device.

      Careful, or they might imprison you as well.

      • I'm from Europe and here, until some years ago, there were no software patents, it was legal to reverse engineer and modify both software and hardware to obtain interoperability, and it was legal to make a backup copy. Nowadays, free trade agreements tend to push the multinational-friendly "intellectual property" laws of America to the rest of the world.

        • it was legal to reverse engineer and modify both software and hardware to obtain interoperability, and it was legal to make a backup copy.
          All that is still legal.

          Nowadays, free trade agreements tend to push the multinational-friendly "intellectual property" laws of America to the rest of the world.
          Correct, but that mostly covers DVDs and such.

          Otherwise Apples Rosetta would be a constant copyright infringement by creating copies and derived works of other companies binary code.

          • Wait a minute, you are right! Not only Rosetta "steals" the software by making a derivative copy, it also "steals" the profits that the legitimate owner of the software would make by selling you a new copy that is compatible with the new architecture! Which is the rationale by which Nintendo et al used to sue emulator authors, IIRC. Are you a lawyer? You might be in for some money.

            • Perhaps you should read copyright law and grasp what I wrote.

              Copyright law has first of all: nothing to do with if anyone makes money from the copies.

              • OK, I'm going to study copyright law right now, so that one day I will be able to grasp how come I get a serious and angry comment in response to a tongue-in-cheek and friendly one.

                • My comment is not angry.
                  And was certainly not meant to sound angry :P

                  The point is that making a Rosetta copy of one piece of code and creating a derived work falls under copy right. However: for exact this purpose, the relevant laws make an exception, and explicitly state that it is allowed for "interoperability reasons"

                  Am I now clear enough without sounding angry?

                  • +1 informative. If you are talking about American law, then this means that in the USA emulators are actually legal, and not "in a grey area" as I have heard so many times (of course, so long as they don't contain copies of system code or, maybe, decryption keys). Very nice to know.

                    My wrong understanding was that "a copy is a copy" and no matter the intent, or the nature, or the durability of the copy, you needed the permission of the copyright owner in order to perform it.

    • It looks much better for big companies like this to go after someone who can conceivably be viewed as a "bad guy", rather than a bunch of average schmoes who may pirate their favorite game (and possibly actually buy more later) possibly because they can't afford it. And since piracy will never end and people will always find a way around anti-tamper measures (especially when game companies have draconian policies, ie Nintendo) they'd be fighting a neverending battle that will lose them PR points on top of t

      • It looks much better for big companies like this to go after someone who can conceivably be viewed as a "bad guy", rather than a bunch of average schmoes who may pirate

        Tell that to the RIAA and MPAA. It's entirely possible Nintendo has also hired some scummy P2P monitoring law firm to send out nastygrams to average folks who pirate their games. At the very least, they do ban modded consoles from their online service.

        Ever since the DMCA, building/selling DRM circumvention devices has been punished rather harshly. You'd think that being able to back up your games for the day Nintendo's cloud support for that console eventually goes *poof* (as Microsoft has already done [gamedeveloper.com])

    • Re:"Stolen" games (Score:4, Insightful)

      by real_nickname ( 6922224 ) on Saturday February 12, 2022 @02:22PM (#62262453)
      Yours devices are the property of big corps, not yours anymore. DRMs are everywhere, nothing belongs to you. Cars are now hard to repair by design. This poor guy is going to jail and states are ok with that.
    • The use of steal in the sense of taking something intangible is almost as old as the word itself (steal an idea). This wasn't something invented by the intellectual property industry but has good literary precedent from the greatest writers. Of course, this is different from the strict legal senses of steal and theft, which indeed apply only to physical objects with a definite owner (you can't steal the text of a book or the air around you).
      • But in the context of video games? I don't think I had heard anyone talking of "stolen games" before the DMCA. I remember hearing about "pirated" or "copied" games, maybe "illegal copies".

        Words are important, because language is a direct representation of thought. A concept does not exist until people assign a name to it. That's why personally I refuse to adopt the terminology pushed by the multinationals' lobbyists.

        • But it's also important to know the story behind a concept. And this concept of ideas and whatnot being "stolen" has existed in English and perhaps other languages for a long time. Understanding this is the key to understanding why the "terminology" adopted by corporate interests has stuck around for so long. We cannot simply choose not to use but have to actively clarify the terms we use, pointing out, for example, that a word has both a figurative and literal (legal) sense.

        • Words are important, I agree; but language also evolves, and insisting it remain static is a bit like trying to push water uphill.

          Some battles are already lost, and there is little point to keep fighting them.

    • Re:"Stolen" games (Score:4, Interesting)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 ) <slashdot@worf.ERDOSnet minus math_god> on Sunday February 13, 2022 @07:36AM (#62263531)

      Copyright infringement is not theft. And "circumvention devices" shouldn't even be illegal: if I own a device then I should be able to modify it in every way I see fit. If I used a device to perform a copy of copyrighted material, then it should be me to be liable of copyright infringement, not the authors of the device.

      You still have all those rights.

      The problem was the guy was selling pre-modified consoles with the explicit purpose of copyright infringement and facilitating it by providing infringing content.

      Selling the chips is one thing, and pretty legal.

      Selling pre-modified units advertised as ready for copyright infringement, as well as providing infringing material, is quite another.

      You'll find modchip sellers almost exclusively say the chips are for allowing homebrew, while this guy was saying the consoles he can provide you the commercial games for low to no cost.

      That was all he had to do - just sell it as consoles ready for home brew and put a bunch of homebrew on it. Don't mention how to download switch games, or mention that you can also do that. And if anyone asks, you wink wink nudge nudge shouldn't use it to do that.

    • You can. None of what you said is illegal. You can hack and tinker all you want. The crime here is distributing the tools to do so.

  • I'm not sure what the current exchange rate is.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      Probably imperial. If it were metric the 40 months would be 40 months. It's a metric after all. Imperial he can get out for good behavior. They can also extend it if he's not good in prison.

  • To "send a message". It appears to have been done in this manner at the request of Nintendo.

    I'm not sure I need to explain why longer sentences for nonviolent crimes at the behest of large corporations is a bad thing, but given that I'm not sure I suppose I'd better.

    I mean maybe we don't want to live in a corporate oligarchy... That's all I'm saying

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dgatwood ( 11270 )

      To "send a message". It appears to have been done in this manner at the request of Nintendo.

      I'm not surprised. And this, right here, is why hacking devices to allow third-party software to run on them is the wrong solution. Lawsuit-happy companies like Nintendo will never willingly allow people to make games that run on their hardware without them getting a cut of the profits, and will always do anything within their power to stop it.

      The only way to win is to change the laws to force all platforms to be open. These battles cannot feasibly be fought in the court of technical supremacy, but rathe

  • suing for ALLEGED loses should OUTLAWED! It's plain simply theft and extortion in majesty of the law.

    • What would you prefer? The word âoeallegedâ means that the claimant, well, claimed the losses. The court decision itself is the point where it goes from being claimed to proven.

      Just as if I go to court for murder, it is only alleged murder until the court decides Iâ(TM)m guilty. At that point, it becomes proven murder.

    • Right, so, if I'm not paying attention in my car, and I hit you while you're crossing the street, and render you quadriplegic, you can't sue me for future loss of income, because it's all theoretical and alleged? How are we supposed to know if you'd ever wind up working again without the accident?

  • The only law that's enforced now is separating a rich guy from a dollar.

  • Thats a wishful thinking of a nintendo corp lawyers.The teenagers that played pirated games wouldn't buy them at all for a normal price or even half that. Most of people dont know how unfair is fight with corporations, if they steal from you 300,000 you can do nothing. But if you steal one game then you're guilty. Plus you need to work for same kind of assholes all your life. And Yes - I know you can always became street musician etc. Otherwise please remember, never work overhours, never pickup phone afte

  • Judge Gives 40-Month Prison Sentence to Nintendo Switch Hacker Called 'Bowser'

    Yes, the hacker went by 'Bowser' because that was his name - Gary Bowser.

    Not everything fits into the same pre-written news template.

  • ...Child molesters, robbers, and murders are being let out of prison for funsies.

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