Nintendo of America on Friday filed a lawsuit against Gary Bowser, a “leader” of the hackers Team Xecuter. Bowser and another member of Team Xecuter, Max Louarn, were arrested and charged with 11 crimes in 2020. The new lawsuit alleges that Bowser infringed Nintendo’s copyright in creating and selling his hacks. The lawsuit, filed in a Seattle court, seeks to charge Bowser with two counts of trafficking and copyright infringement.
Nintendo described Operation Bowser as an “international pirate ring” that sells Nintendo Switch hacking devices designed to circumvent the company’s security measures, allowing buyers to run Nintendo Switch pirated games. Nintendo has previously filed several lawsuits against hackers – including the SX Pro, SX Core and SX Lite, three devices that are used to hack Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite.
According to the lawsuit, Bowser has been creating and selling Nintendo hacking devices since at least 2013, when it distributed a device designed to hack the Nintendo 3DS. Throughout the process, Nintendo documented a long history of Bowser Switch hacks, as well as a breakdown of how the devices work.
Nintendo has focused much of its legal efforts on resellers in the past, with multiple lawsuits filed in recent years, one of which has earned the company a $ 2 million settlement. On Thursday, Nintendo won an order for a November lawsuit targeting an Amazon reseller.
Earlier, Nintendo called piracy and Nintendo Switch piracy a “serious, worsening international problem.” In a lawsuit on Friday, lawyers wrote that Bowser products “continue to threaten piracy over 79 million Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch Lite consoles.”
The Xecuter team operates as a for-profit company, selling kits used to hack Nintendo devices. Some video game conservatives claim that video game piracy can be used to document and preserve games, but Team Xecuter has always been a controversial organization because of its methods, as Ars Technica reported in May.
Nintendo is seeking damages – $ 2,500 for each device trafficked, as well as $ 150,000 for each copyright infringement. Of course, Nintendo wants to permanently stop Bowser’s operations.
Polygon contacted Nintendo for more information.