February has seen Nintendo win two court cases against piracy. The first case, against an individual who copied New Super Mario Bros. and uploaded the game online for others to download, resulted in the individual owing $1.5 million in damages to Nintendo. When it was uploaded, the company identified using computer forensics the user responsible, received a Federal Court search warrant, and seized property from the individual's home.
In the second suit, Nintendo took action against a seller of "R4 cards" used to copy games. The infringing website owes $620,000 and must deliver all its offending stock to the company for destruction. In its press release announcing the success, the company revealed that since 2008 it has undertaken over 800 actions in 16 countries and confiscated over half a million Nintendo DS game copiers.
In 2005, the High Court sided with consumers and stated it was legal for users to modify their consoles to play legal or pirated software imported from overseas. With no recourse against console modders, companies like Nintendo have been forced to chase those creating the initial pirated games, or producing or distributing illegal add-on hardware rather than the average consumer.
