this post was submitted on 17 Nov 2024
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Piracy: ꜱᴀɪʟ ᴛʜᴇ ʜɪɢʜ ꜱᴇᴀꜱ

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[–] [email protected] 26 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

The person was running a pirate game selling website based in surprise Arizona named the same as the username that they were posting and moderating (a switch piracy community) on Reddit and the email address associated with their Reddit account was the same one they used to correspond with Nintendo about getting stuff repaired which was sent to their address in surprise Arizona.

Evaluate and make changes to your own life as you see necessary.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Hmm...is Reddit selling email addresses, or were they compelled to provide them by law enforcement?

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 51 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

That's what you call an opsec fail

[–] [email protected] 48 points 7 hours ago (3 children)

Yes, but it is also a bit scary / dystopian that a $62 billion company would go to such great lengths to have one of their own customers thrown in jail for using the product that he paid for in a way that wasn't hurting anyone.

[–] [email protected] 16 points 4 hours ago

Welcome to the mundane, realistic cyberpunk dystopia, hope you paid attention to more than the flashy surface level marketing.

[–] [email protected] 36 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

He didn't just use the product he paid for in a way that doesn't hurt anybody, he sold pirated Nintendo Switch games. This is literally at the start of the article.

It then becomes very easy to say he took revenue from Nintendo (the "they wouldn't have bought it if it cost money" argument doesn't apply), but above all selling pirated material is a shitty thing to do.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Yep. He sold ROMs. I have no sympathy for privateers in "the scene."

[–] [email protected] 11 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

Definitely. It's not even about defending Nintendo.

I hate people who try to profit off of privacy when piracy is available for free.

It reminds me of my university days when people would be selling PDFs of course textbooks...just email a copy of the file!

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 hours ago

Your typo confused the hell out of me.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 5 hours ago (1 children)

I don't think he quite did that, actually. From memory he ran a few "shops", but these didn't really sell anything and were just download portals to install pirated games directly from the internet (rather than downloading to a PC first and then copying to an SD card or installing over USB). However, I think he did take donations for early access to new titles, which would have been hard to get elsewhere at first.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

However, I think he did take donations for early access to new titles,

When video game companies accept money for early access to their games, that's a sale. You give them money, they give you access. I'm not sure why that wouldn't also apply here.

From your description, unless you were allowed to donate $0 for access, that sounds a lot like a sale to me.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago

Hardly dystopian. They just had someone who understands how tech works on staff.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 6 hours ago

Yeah. Rule #1 of doing illegal shit on social media. Don't tie that account to your identity.

[–] [email protected] 17 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Did a shit job being a pirate then if he doxxed himself albeit through many clues

[–] [email protected] 7 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (2 children)

i swear nintendo is the only company that manages to have people deflecting any form of villification, here or literally anywhere on the internet. Truly incredible, people really love them their pokemans and tubby egg rabbits

[–] [email protected] 19 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Pointing out what a moron this guy was is not the same thing as agreeing with Nintendo's shitty legal practices.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago

What are you talking about? Everyone hates Nintendo for this shit.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

nintendrones are the most brainwashed corporate bootlickers I've ever encountered

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Fr fanboying over a corporation is the most sad thing I've seen in a while

[–] [email protected] 2 points 5 hours ago

Haven't read much cyberpunk lit, then.