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Got $1.5 M to spare?

By Chris Bennett, Tudor Carsten, Michael R. Coburn, Sarah Dale-Harris, Pablo Guzman, Danielle (Dani) Lemon, Chris Metcalfe and David Spratley

If so, keep it safe by making sure that Nintendo doesn't catch you pirating Wii games

Super Mario Bros. Wii was officially released in Australia on November 12, 2009. It turns out, however, that some fortunate Australian gamers may have had their hands on it as early as November 6, 2009. How did they get so lucky? As it turns out, an enterprising Aussie somehow managed to obtain, and then crack and upload said game, contrary (surprise surprise) to Australia's Copyright Act. Nintendo was not impressed, to put it lightly. As set out in an official Nintendo press release "[o]n 23 November, Nintendo obtained a Federal Court search order in respect of the individual's residential premises. This led to the seizure of property from those premises in order to gain further evidence against the individual." Presumably, due to the strength of the evidence obtained (or some really good lawyering), the "individual" in question ended up settling with Nintendo for $1.5 M (AU). Ouch.

GameSpot coverage here.

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Full post as published by Video Game Law Blog on February 11, 2010 (boomark / email).