Nintendo of America seeks $4.5m in damages from Redditor for copyright violations

Nintendo of America is seeking $4.5 million in damages against Redditor James C. Williams, also known as ‘Archbox’.

Earlier this month, the publisher submitted a filing at the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington requesting monetary damages following a legal battle that began in March 2024.

NOA said it “has been, and continues to be, damaged as a direct and proximate result of Williams’ conduct,” which it claims includes pirating Switch games, promoting distribution across the internet, and trafficking circumvention software.

“These activities have substantially damaged NOA’s overall business and intellectual property rights, as well as the business and intellectual property rights of NOA’s development and publishing partners, and further has caused harm to the many artists, game designers, programmers and others whose livelihoods depend upon the sale of authorized Nintendo products,” the company stated.

In regards to the $4.5 million in damages, NOA said the “amount of money sufficient to remedy [its] injury would be extremely difficult to quantify; but it is indisputable that such amount would be large.”

It continued: “Therefore, the money at stake by this Motion is nowhere near an amount that would compensate NOA for the seriousness of Defendants’ conduct.”

NOA initially sent a cease and desist letter to Williams in March 2024. In response, the filing says Williams “acknowledged his conduct violated NOA’s rights and stated that he would work with NOA to satisfy its demands.”

“He did not, however, agree to cease his conduct, and in fact denied his involvement with the Pirate Shops in several respects. When NOA requested that Defendant confirm in writing that he would comply with NOA’s demands, he became combative and uncooperative.”

The filing notes that NOA gave Williams a “final opportunity to comply with its demands prior to litigation”, and alleged that they “deleted or hid evidence relevant to NOA’s claims, including his GitHub account and social media posts and communications.”

In July 2024, NOA filed a lawsuit against two individuals for allegedly violating its copyright for trading and selling “circumvention devices” – Williams being one of them.

Nintendo targeted more unauthorized Switch shops and modders later that year as a continuation of its lawsuit against Williams, which it won due to a default judgement after Williams didn’t appear in court.