Nintendo Hacker Lawsuit Promises A Bowser Vs. Bowser Brawl
Nintendo of America and CEO Doug Bowser have filed a lawsuit against Gary Bowser, a leader of a hacking group called Xecuter. The popular game developer alleged that Gary Bowser's actions infringed on Nintendo's copyrights, and those of several other developers, by selling hacked operating systems. That's right. It's Bowser vs. Bowser.
Several members of the hacking group were arrested and charged with eleven felony counts by the US Department of Justice last year after an investigation held by both the FBI and Homeland Security. According to the DOJ press release, "the indictment alleges the defendants were leaders of a criminal enterprise that developed and sold illegal devices that hacked popular videogame consoles so they could be used to play unauthorized, or pirated, copies of videogames."
Three of Xecuter's leaders were named in the indictment: Max Louarn, Yuanning Chen, and Gary Bowser. Now Nintendo is going after Gary Bowser personally, charging him with two trafficking counts and one count of copyright violation.
According to the preliminary statement, "the purpose of the Circumvention Devices and the SX OS–developed, manufactured and trafficked under the Defendant's leadership–is to hijack the Nintendo Switch by interrupting and bypassing its technological security features and protections. This thereby allows the Nintendo Switch to be used for massive intellectual property theft and infringement."
The statement goes on to say that Nintendo is seeking damages of $2,500 per anti-trafficking violation and $150,000 for each individual violation of Nintendo's copyright.
It's no surprise that Nintendo wants to defend its, product though. The company has been shifting toward cloud based gaming and their profits depend on keeping the Switch secure. Nintendo has also never been a company to shy away from a lawsuit when its intellectual property is in danger — like when it sued Twitch streamer and TikTok star Pokeprincxss, or when it filed a suit against a Japanese company called MariCar, which provided Mario Kart themed tours of Tokyo. This isn't even the first time Nintendo of America has cracked down on this sort of thing, either. It also filed two different lawsuits against other hacked Nintendo Switch resellers just last year.
Still, it's hard to ignore the meme potential of this Bowser vs. Bowser legal brawl. Doug Bowser may not have been around long enough to have inspired the name for everyone's favorite evil dragon, but he's certainly not going to sit around while some other Bowser steals his princess.