Jacob and Cristian Mathias are the defendants in a $12 million dollar Nintendo lawsuit in which they lost. The husband and wife found themselves wrapped up in the Nintendo lawsuit for running two websites offering up pirated Nintendo ROMs. The couple admitted to having committed copyright and trademark infringement while running their websites LoveROMS.com and LoveRetro.co. Both of those websites were still up and running until July 2018.
The couple offered up popular Nintendo ROMs such as Mario Kart 64, Donkey Kong Country, Pokémon Yellow, and Super Mario World. The couple operated the websites under their company, Mathias Designs. After Nintendo threatened legal action, the sites went into maintenance mode.
The eyebrow-raising $12.23m ruling, originally discovered by TorrentFreak, has likely been set as an example to deter others. (And indeed, a number of other ROM sites have since vanished from the internet.) Whether the Mathiases will have to actually pay the full amount is not known, however – other cases have been quietly settled behind the scenes for much less.
This particular Nintendo lawsuit and its verdict sends a strong message to others who might be operating or passing pirated games. Both of the sites in question have been taken down and as eurogamer points out, one of them was replaced with an apology to Nintendo.
“Our website, LoveROMS.com/LoveRetro.co, previously offered and performed unauthorised copies of Nintendo games, in violation of Nintendo’s copyrights and trademarks. LoveROMS.com/LoveRetro.co acknowledges that it caused harm to Nintendo, its partners, and customers by offering infringing copies of Nintendo games and has agreed to cease all such activities. To access legitimate Nintendo games online, please visit www.nintendo.com for information about the Nintendo Game Store.”
What do you think of the verdict and the fine in this Nintendo lawsuit? Let us know in the comments below or on Google+, Twitter, or Facebook.
Last Updated on February 3, 2021.
