Nintendo is suing a man who streamed pirated copies of Zelda and more

Jesse Keighin enjoyed streaming Nintendo Switch games online before they were officially released and then gloating about it right to Nintendo’s face, according to one new lawsuit filed by the Mario maker in Colorado District Court earlier this week. “[I] “I can do this all day,” he reportedly wrote in a letter to Nintendo. The company has responded with a lawsuit that could cost him up to $7.5 million.

As first reported by 404 mediaThe lawsuit accuses Keighin of streaming leaked Switch games, including this month’s games Mario & Luigi: Brotherhoodbefore release with emulation software, up to 50 times in the last two years. Nintendo is seeking $150,000 in damages for each instance of alleged copyright infringement.

“All of these streams were unauthorized and jeopardized Nintendo’s legitimate pre-release marketing,” the lawsuit, filed Nov. 6, says. “They also promote and encourage the downloading of pirated copies of unreleased games. “The defendant’s streams often just consist of him playing the leaked Nintendo games for long periods of time without comment.”

A screenshot of the Nintendo lawsuit shows a post about pirated games.

A sample social media post from Keighin shared in Nintendo’s lawsuit.
Screenshot: Nintendo/Kotaku

Recently, Nintendo has renewed its goal to combat emulation, leaks and piracy by players The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom before release on PC to fans who share art book scans before release on Discord servers. This year alone is it has killed two popular Switch emulators with legal threats that quickly shut them down.

But Keighin might not have provoked the full wrath of Nintendo’s legal team if he hadn’t constantly mocked the company. The lawsuit claims that shortly after the company shut down his monetized YouTube channel and other accounts, the streamer told Nintendo he would help people find “newer and updated copies” of the abandoned Switch emulators to give them to help pirate games.

“I love you! CAPITALISM IS CANCER! MY CHANNEL IS BEING DELETED FOR SHARING GAMEPLAY VIDEOS! THIS IS YOUR REWARD!” Keighin wrote in one of his posts. If you’ve never heard of him, it’s probably because his social media accounts were small and his reach was very, very limited. It certainly does appears As if his continued opposition to the switch maker caused the company to make an example of him. Gary Bowser, who Nintendo helped expose piracy years ago, owes the company millions he will probably never be able to pay back.

“We can confirm that we have filed a lawsuit against an individual who has clearly violated and continues to violate Nintendo’s intellectual property rights and our game content policies,” a Nintendo spokesperson said in a statement My city. “Nintendo is committed to protecting the creative works of game developers and publishers who dedicate considerable time and effort to creating experiences that put smiles on everyone’s faces.”

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