Nintendo is suing streamer Jesse Keighin for repeatedly streaming pirated Nintendo games ahead of their release dates, according to a new lawsuit. Nintendo said Keighin, who goes by Every Game Guru across streaming and social media platforms, has streamed 10 then-unreleased Nintendo games over the past 10 years, with titles as recent as Mario & Luigi Brothership, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and Super Mario Party Jamboree. He also instructed his viewers on how to get these games early, too — something Nintendo alleged is “trafficking” in illegal “circumvention devices,” like emulators and keys to access the games.
The lawsuit is seemingly in line with Nintendo’s recently updated rules for sharing video of gameplay; the new guidelines make it clear the company doesn’t want pirated or unreleased content spreading online. This crackdown isn’t surprising considering Nintendo’s litigious history: The company is currently suing Palworld developer Pocketpair for copyright infringement and has led an aggressive campaign to shut down emulators and take down pirated copies of its games. The company has taken on everyone from ROM and hacked-device distributors to emulation developers to leakers and now livestreamers. Nintendo frequently issues Digital Millennium Copyright Act takedown notices to YouTube and Twitch streamers that share or stream unreleased content (a move designed to remove the content in question from a channel) but the case filed Wednesday may be one of the first instances of the company taking a streamer to court over their broadcasts.
Nintendo said in the lawsuit this sort of infringement has caused “millions of dollars” worth of damage to the company through “lost video game sales.”
“Streaming leaked games prior to their publication normalizes and encourages prerelease piracy—Defendant is signaling to viewers that they too should acquire a pirated copy and play the game now, without waiting for its release and without paying for it,” Nintendo’s lawyers wrote. “Prerelease piracy harms law-abiding Nintendo customers who may have been waiting for a particular game release for months or years, and then may see gameplay and spoilers online that ruin their own surprise and delight when experiencing the game.”
Nintendo has issued takedown notices to Keighin’s various broadcasts, which span YouTube, Twitch, Kick, Loco, and other live streaming sites. In response to those notices, Keighin reportedly told Nintendo he had “a thousand burner accounts” and that he could “do this all day,” Nintendo alleged in the lawsuit. He’s allegedly streamed pirated, unreleased games more than 50 times in the past two years: Mario & Luigi Brothership 16 days ahead of its Nov. 7 release date, Super Mario Party Jamboree six days before its Oct. 17 release date, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom five days ahead of its Sept. 26 release date, Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door two days before its May 23 release date, Mario vs. Donkey Kong one day prior to its Feb. 16 release date, Super Mario RPG seven days ahead of its Nov. 17 release date, Super Mario Bros. Wonder five days before its Oct. 20, 2023 release date, Pikmin 4 two days before its July 21, 2023 release date, Splatoon 3 three days prior to its Sept. 9, 2022 release date, and Mario Strikes: Battle League two days before its June 10, 2022 release date. He’s allegedly playing these games on a Windows PC or a hacked Nintendo Switch, Nintendo stated in the suit, meaning that he’s also allegedly circumventing Nintendo’s technological measures to prevent piracy.
According to the filing, Nintendo wants the court to shut down Keighin’s operations entirely — take down streams and videos and seize emulators, hacked devices, and hard drives where the alleged illegally obtained games are stored. It’s seeking $150,000 for each alleged violation of Nintendo’s rights outlined in the Copyright Act and $2,500 for each alleged violation of the Copyright Act’s anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions. Alternatively, Nintendo also could elect to take “actual damages,” i.e. money it’s lost and Keighin’s profits, “in amounts to be proven at trial.”
Neither Nintendo nor Keighin have responded to Polygon’s request for comment.
Source：https://www.polygon.com/news/476472/nintendo-lawsuit-pirated-games-streamed
