The convicted man, identified as 58-year-old transportation businessman Fumihiro Otobe, was implicated in violating Nintendo’s trademark rights for soldering modchips to secondhand Switch motherboards and peddling them online for roughly $195 USD. The modified consoles are reported to have been bundled with 27 pirated games, but it’s unclear how many devices Otobe sold before being caught. Polygon (15/04/25)
As always, if you don’t try to make money from, and/or distribute, pirated content then you have nothing to worry about. You haven’t lost anything, you will still be able to modify your own Switch.
Okay, I see. Weird, I don’t remember that being in the article when I read it. Yeah, that was just dumb then. People who sell these things need to stop preloading them.
But now I need to look more into this, is there precedent for Nintendo going after people who sell Jailbroken devices without copyrighted content on them? I think if I ever tried to make a living like this, I would just avoid Nintendo all together. Well, anything 3DS or newer anyway. Those GBA mods these days are 🔥
Weird, I don’t remember that being in the article when I read it.
It’s from a different article, that’s why I linked it at the end of the quote.
is there precedent for Nintendo going after people who sell Jailbroken devices without copyrighted content on them?
Not that I’m aware of. Companies are generally much more concerned about distribution rather than usage, as the former has greater potential to affect them financially. That’s why they try to shut down modding projects, go after re-sellers, threaten people who share (seed/host) pirated content, etc. It’s much more efficient than trying to target individual users one-by-one. In adjacent industries, like the film and music industries, companies target torrent site owners and seeders rather than people who only download pirated content. The definitions and legal precedents around copyright law in particular countries can also make it difficult for companies to go after individual users. Basically every single case I have seen in the decades I’ve been following this stuff involved people who were trying to make money or distribute publically.
Right, that was always my understanding too, but I do know that there are also anti-circumvention laws that play a more direct role in the jailbreaking scene. I’m just not up-to-date on what’s going on with that these days.
As always, if you don’t try to make money from, and/or distribute, pirated content then you have nothing to worry about. You haven’t lost anything, you will still be able to modify your own Switch.
Okay, I see. Weird, I don’t remember that being in the article when I read it. Yeah, that was just dumb then. People who sell these things need to stop preloading them.
But now I need to look more into this, is there precedent for Nintendo going after people who sell Jailbroken devices without copyrighted content on them? I think if I ever tried to make a living like this, I would just avoid Nintendo all together. Well, anything 3DS or newer anyway. Those GBA mods these days are 🔥
It’s from a different article, that’s why I linked it at the end of the quote.
Not that I’m aware of. Companies are generally much more concerned about distribution rather than usage, as the former has greater potential to affect them financially. That’s why they try to shut down modding projects, go after re-sellers, threaten people who share (seed/host) pirated content, etc. It’s much more efficient than trying to target individual users one-by-one. In adjacent industries, like the film and music industries, companies target torrent site owners and seeders rather than people who only download pirated content. The definitions and legal precedents around copyright law in particular countries can also make it difficult for companies to go after individual users. Basically every single case I have seen in the decades I’ve been following this stuff involved people who were trying to make money or distribute publically.
Right, that was always my understanding too, but I do know that there are also anti-circumvention laws that play a more direct role in the jailbreaking scene. I’m just not up-to-date on what’s going on with that these days.