Going to jail for “pirating games” is just absurd to me. Nintendo and backers of copyright law clearly using this guy as an example to not fuck with our wares or else we will send our multimillion dollar legal team at you.
Copyright and patent law is holding the west back. Can’t create a product without stepping on some patent trolls alleged “IP”
I’m all for copyright reform though. 70 + life is absurd. Even worse, you penalize people for dying early like MLK.
I don't see why. Why should other countries laws apply in my country?
I don't think most people would say we should abolish copyright completely, but the current situation is just dumb. The copyright term is way too long. And having governments enforce a company's business model at the end of a gun is gross.
At most, there should be financial penalties for violations. Depriving someone of their freedom for making/selling tools that enable copyright infringement is messed up. As is making someone pay a quarter of their income in restitution for the rest of their life.
Don't do that to yourself. You should know better than to present false dichotomies.
we should bring back the militant anti-copyright culture that made “RIAA” and “MPAA” bad words, but this guy really doesn't deserve your tears
Apparently Nintendo made some 15B in revenue last year. Would that punishment be ok if they made 5B? Or 500M? At what point does the punishment become acceptable?
for instance, it is possible to simultaneously think “draconian copyright legislation is bad” and “this particular guy was a crook”
That would mean he did it for the purpose of sailing the high seas, entering and robbing mercantile ships. In actual fact, he did it for the purpose of enabling users to run software not authorized by the manufacturer on physical devices they own.
(All of which is just to say: the association between "intellectual property" infringement and much severer violent crimes is itself a big ruse. Just like the use of the term "property" by the way.)
Roaming the oceans freely, how nice - but the rest is indeed bloody murder and theft, which copying is not.
You might as well just say "acht-oo-ally, a geek bites the heads off chickens."
> With $14.5 million dollars in damages to his name, Bowser may have been released from prison, but the looming specter on Nintendo still stands tall. As Bowser explains in the above video, he will have to pay the company back on a monthly basis, sending “25-30%” of his gross monthly income to Nintendo.
Since this is gross pay, he's not getting credit for taxes owing on the amount that he sends to Nintendo. It isn't clear how interest is calculated. Even a generously small interest rate would make it pretty hard to pay this back 3% would be over $400k per year, just for the interest.
> [...]
> goes on to say how this guy is probably never going to pay the amount back
I don't get what you're saying here. This sure sounds like indentured servitude to me.
A distinction without a difference, it seems. Very few people will earn $14 million over their lifetimes.
[1]: https://wololo.net/2018/06/25/nintendo-switch-team-xecuters-...
https://www.theverge.com/2020/10/2/21499297/team-xecuter-sel...
I’m pretty sure the history of Nintendo is tied in with brothels, gambling, & mild organized crime…
Their current C-suite carrying on with power hungry practices & greed is not particularly surprising.
Sort of like the fact that despite Disney being “The Happiest Place On Earth”, Walt Disney was not known to be a particularly good person…
If only there was a magical benevolent government that always does the right thing and is ready to welcome do-gooder patriots.
I wonder what would happen if someone set up a GoFundMe that people could donate to. Gift tax wouldn't be implicated (that only applies when a single donor gives more than $16k to a single donee), and the transfer would not be income (at least so far as the tax code definition is concerned).
The tax perspective is completely irrelevant here. Gifted money would absolutely be considered by the court to be available to repay the debt.
My question would be is that 30% before or after taxes.
Hopefully that garnish can be reduced or removed entirely going forwards especially if he has family he needs to support
