Nintendo is seeking $4.5 million in a default judgment against a former moderator of the SwitchPirates subreddit, James C. Williams (also known as Archbox). The company claims Williams operated pirate game shops and distributed circumvention software that enabled Nintendo Switch piracy.
At first, this seems like the usual Nintendo crackdown on piracy. It resembles the $2.4 million settlement between the company and the Switch emulator Yuzu developers in 2024, also for copyright infringement, which led to the shutdown of the emulator’s distribution. The same kind of agreement happened around a second emulator, Ryujinx, which saw the same fate as Yuzu.
But there’s something different about Nintendo’s action against Williams. He never responded to Nintendo’s complaints or attempted to reach an agreement, so Nintendo is now asking the Federal Court in Seattle, Washington, to rule in the company’s favor in the lawsuit, essentially because the defendant has abandoned his defense.
The copyright lawsuit the company filed against him is from June 28, 2024, according to the motion. Nintendo now claims it has exhausted all its options to contact Williams since then, and that he had enough time to defend against the company’s claims, which he refused to do. Now, if the court decides this new Nintendo motion is valid, Williams will owe Nintendo $4.5 million in damages for copyright infringement.
Much like a sports team would win a match if its opponent didn’t show up to play, Nintendo may win this lawsuit because Williams never showed up to court. His failure to respond led the gaming community to criticize him rather than Nintendo.
“To be fair, this guy was an idiot,” a Redditor wrote. “He got a cease and desist letter and ignored it. He could have walked away, so it’s 100% his own fault.” Another commenter added, “And as you auto-lose (basically) when defaulting, you lose all leverage for settlement. An extremely dumb decision by the defendant.” A third user was harsher about Williams’ decision, saying, “That is just immensely stupid.”
The hardcore gaming community is generally against Nintendo’s aggressive defense of its copyright through lawsuits, highlighted in trackers like Sued by Nintendo. But the players have also blasted other defendants in similar legal actions, such as when a Switch modder defended himself in court and lost a $2 million case.
If the court rules in favor of Nintendo against Williams, his last hope is to appeal and explain why he didn’t respond. But for the time being, it looks likely that Nintendo will win this lawsuit by default.
