Nintendo Awarded Over $12 Million in Successful Lawsuit
Posted on November 13 2018 by Judy Calder
Nintendo has won its lawsuits against two ROM hosting sites, with a total of $12,230,000 being awarded by an Arizona judge.
In July 2018, Nintendo brought forward lawsuits against ROM websites LoveRETRO and LoveROMS, for both hosting copyrighted titles on its servers and for trademark infringement. In a bid to avoid a legal battle, the couple who ran the ROM servers, Jacob and Cristian Mathias, took down both sites and entered into settlement negotiations with the copyright-protective gaming giant.
It has further been reported that both parties have now agreed to a consent judgement. Unsigned judgement documents read, “Plaintiff is hereby awarded judgement against all Defendants, jointly and severally, in the amount of $12,230,000.”
An agreement to a permanent injunction is reportedly in place, preventing the Mathiases from breaching Nintendo copyright again. The Defendants will also hand over both ownership of their sites and all Nintendo games and emulators.
As speculated by both TorrentFreak and IGN, such a high value judgement could be intended to deter other ROM hosting sites who might find themselves caught up in a similar situation, especially since any past settlements of this nature have been lower profile and resulted in lower payouts.
Stay tuned for further developments.
Source: IGN, TorrentFreak
Judy Ann Calder is the Managing Editor at Zelda Dungeon. She joined the ranks back in 2018, bringing some good old British charm to the table.
Contact: judy.calder@zeldadungeon.net
