Nintendo is seeking $4.5 million in damages from a Reddit moderator it says widely pirated Switch games
The user is accused of copying and distributing pirated Switch games
Nintendo is seeking $4.5 million in damages from a Reddit moderator accused of copying and distributing pirated Switch games, as well as the means to play them.
According to a document filed with the US District Court for the Western District of Washington (as spotted by OatmealDome), Nintendo is asking for a default judgement on James Williams, known online as Archbox, after he failed to respond to a lawsuit filed last year.
Nintendo claims that Williams “long has been involved in creating, operating, supporting, and promoting a network of Pirate Shops which have offered to the public extensive libraries of pirated Nintendo Switch games for free download”.
“Since 2019, Williams has been either directly or indirectly the owner, manager, operator, creator, administrator, supplier, and/or overseer of several online Pirate Shops, and has worked to actively promote these Pirate Shops to communities consisting of many thousands of individuals,” it said.
Nintendo also states that Williams was “a leading (if not primary) moderator” of the SwitchPirates Reddit group, which eventually grew to 190,000 members, claiming that he posted thousands of messages on the group page, including asking for “donations” of Nintendo eShop gift cards so he could buy more Switch games to pirate.
The complaint claims that Williams operated, owned or administered at least four Pirate Shops (and was involved in numerous others), some of which offered ‘Pro’ tiers for donating eShop gift cards, which would in turn offer access to other games not publicly available.
It says that Williams was the “primary representative and only lead member” of Missing Dumps, an online community focused on receiving eShop gift cards to essentially fill the gaps in Pirate Shops by buying games that hadn’t yet been pirated.
As well as creating and distributing the pirated games, Nintendo also claims that Williams was involved in “creating, promoting and distributing” the circumvention software needed to play the games found on Pirate Shops, including helping to find foreign mirror sites to avoid takedowns.
Nintendo contacted Williams in March 2024, demanding he immediately shut down his ‘Pirate Shops’, where extensive libraries of pirated Switch games were made available for download.
According to Nintendo, Williams “acknowledged his conduct violated NOA’s rights and stated that he would work with NOA to satisfy its demands”, but “did not, however, agree to cease his conduct, and in fact denied his involvement with the Pirate Shops in several respects”.
Nintendo says that when it asked Williams to confirm in writing that he would agree with Nintendo’s demands, he “became combative and uncooperative”, and that after he failed to respond to a final opportunity to comply Nintendo filed a lawsuit in June 2024 accusing him of numerous counts of copyright infringement, circumvention and trafficking in circumvention devices.
Since then, Nintendo says it only had contact from Williams’ attorney once in January 2025, and that it’s “had no further contact” with either Williams or his attorney after that. As a result of Williams’ failure to defend the case, it’s asked the court to enter a default judgment in favour of Nintendo.
Further reading
Nintendo has asked for a permanent injunction on Williams’ actions, as well as monetary damages of $4.5 million, claiming that Williams “has engaged in the infringing and unlawful reproduction and distribution of hundreds or thousands of copyrighted Nintendo Switch Games,” and that through Pirate Shops has “distributed or facilitated the distribution of thousands, if not hundreds of thousands, of unauthorized copies of such Nintendo Switch Games”.
Nintendo says that previous statements made by Williams online – including one instance where he wrote that “most of us who hacked our Switch are, like you said, pirates and aren’t going to give Nintendo $50 for a game” – prove that his conduct was willful, and that “plausible allegations of willfulness are all that is required on a motion for default judgment”.
The Copyright Act states that instead of calculating actual damages and profits owed, a copyright owner can instead as for an award of statutory damages of up to $30,000 per infringement, or $150,000 if it’s shown to be willful.
Claiming that it could therefore be liable for $150,000 damages for every single game Williams infringed, Nintendo has instead just focused on 30 key first-party titles that were distributed by Williams, and is asking for damages of $150,000 for each title, hence the total of $4.5 million.
It also says that it has decided not to seek statutory damages for Williams’ alleged trafficking of circumvention software, “even though such damages could be several million dollars”, and is instead just focusing on the copying and distribution of 30 games.
The motion for entry of default judgment by the court is set to be heard on October 24.
