According to a judgment issued on Tuesday, video game company Nintendo has agreed to settle a lawsuit against Gary Bowser, a principal of piracy ring Team Xecuter that offered an operating system allowing users to play almost any pirated Nintendo Switch game for free. The parties stipulated to the agreement earlier this week, setting forth both the monetary settlement and a permanent injunction barring Bowser and his agents from further piracy via Team Xecuter’s SX OS.
The Seattle, Washington lawsuit asserted that Bowser, one of a few members of Team Xecuter, helped operate several websites that offered users “circumvention devices” designed to skirt Nintendo’s copyright protection software that blocks its video games from unauthorized copying and access. April’s suit dubbed Bowser “a leader in the hacking and piracy community targeting Nintendo’s intellectual property more broadly for many years.”
The complaint alleged that Bowser also operated a number of accounts, blogs, and forums, some of which illegally displayed copyrighted images. The suit stated two claims for trafficking of devices in violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act and one for federal copyright infringement for display of protected works.
Now, Bowser has agreed to end the suit in exchange for halting the alleged piracy activities and $10 million. Nintendo is represented by Gordon Tilden Thomas & Cordell LLP and Jenner & Block LLP. Bowser is represented, on a limited basis, by the Federal Public Defender.
