I really want to see the DMCA shuttered altogether. Right to repair should trump all of these things.
agnishom · 3h ago
A sad day for software freedom
like_any_other · 6h ago
So manufacturers can remotely brick, downgrade, and spy on us, but modifying our own devices is illegal. Consumer rights are in an unbelievably sad place.
cyberpunk · 5h ago
2 million seems like a lot; but he was selling kits to enable piracy, this wasn’t just some hacker playing with his own electronics.
They mention another guy in the article who has to pay nintendo 25-30% of his salary for the rest of his life too. Bananas.
rpdillon · 4h ago
Yeah, companies that treat customers this way earn a permaban from me. I got my whole family into Switch back in 2016. Now? We're all on Steam. The store actually loads properly, the selection is better, games are cheaper, I don't worry about being able to play my games on the next console, and I can hack my Steam Deck to my hearts content, and I can play games from flatpak and GOG.
It's a mad world that Switch 2 is the best selling console of all time.
mbirth · 3h ago
“Enable piracy” in the same way someone selling music cassettes back in the 90s was “enabling piracy”.
commandersaki · 34m ago
Cassettes don't circumvent protection measures.
like_any_other · 16m ago
If I put a fence around property that isn't mine, climbing over that fence isn't illegal. Resisting unjust restraint isn't illegal.
Hilariously, the same cannot be said for digital protection measures.
smt88 · 3h ago
Eh not quite the same. This guy was getting paid to specifically make it possible to play pirated media, and he ignored a cease and desist.
If you scaled this up to a large percentage of Switch consoles, no one would want to make Switch games anymore.
Nintendo is an evil, shitty company that weaponizes the courts, but I love good games/movies/etc. and want creators to be able to profit from them.
AuthAuth · 35m ago
Nothing wrong with that. The problem is with people playing pirated media but its not feasible to go after everysingle person for the cost of a game so they had to trample over consumer rights. This is another case of rights being trampled to protect businesses where they dont need protection.
mbirth · 2h ago
From the article:
> Daly, who sold devices like the MIG Switch and MIG Dumper
So, he just sold the devices that allowed you to make copies of Switch cartridges. Similar to someone selling cassette tapes or CD-/DVD-Rs and CD/DVD burners. He didn't sell illegally copied games or anything that tampers with Nintendo's IP. But as we all know, in front of US courts it's not about who's right but who has more money. And Nintendo has plenty of that.
cazum · 2h ago
It's not even just the US, that just happens to be where most of these companies register their copyrights, and therefore, where the "infringement" occurs.
Many Western countries subscribe to some form of "contributory infringement" law, where someone can be fined tens of thousands per-work-infringed for simply developing or distributing a tool that can be used by someone else to infringe copyright. It's absurd.
lp0_on_fire · 2h ago
Ok. He was getting paid to modify the device owned by someone else. A device NOT OWNED by Nintendo.
like_any_other · 5h ago
The right to modify one's own device includes the right to hire someone else to do it. Meanwhile corporations don't pay a dime for all the fair use and interoperability their DRM prevents, and whatever the hell we want to call the printer ink and tracking dot situation.
DrillShopper · 4h ago
So what if he was selling kits?
It's legal to sell kits along with instructions for modifying a firearm from semi-automatic to automatic fire, and the results of that have been several mass shootings.
So modding your console or selling tools to do it ought to be legal as well. The damage from that is far, FAR smaller than even a single mass shooting.
sarchertech · 4h ago
A YouTube got 5 years in federal prison in 2023 for selling kits to convert a semi automatic rifle into a full automatic. In some cases you can be prosecuted just for possessing all the component parts to covert your rifle, much less selling them with instructions.
A tiny plastic 3d printed “glock switch” is itself actually classified as a machine gun under the law.
A modded fully auto is likely less dangerous in practice, because you will burn through all your ammo without being able to aim properly.
This isn't to handwave away the horror of mass shootings, but most mass shootings are gang related, and largely by those already breaking a number of laws including owning a firearm illegally for those with felony history.
cazum · 5h ago
While I completely agree with the general hacker consensus that you should be able to do whatever you want with your hardware, up to and including buying and selling mod services, I cannot for the life of me understand this guy's thinking.
He's running a business modding people's devices, Nintendo catches on and sends him a cease and desist, and so he stops. Congrats, you have narrowly avoided certain financial ruin, and made a bit of cash in the process!
All forms of business and economic-self-preservation logic would tell this guy to continue ceasing and desisting, but he opens the shop back up shortly after and Nintendo, as they are known to do, sues his ass off.
What exactly did he think was going to happen here?
platevoltage · 5h ago
I'm inclined to agree with you. I modded my Switch. I steal from Nintendo whenever possible. I think they are a terrible company, but this guy should have known better.
They mention another guy in the article who has to pay nintendo 25-30% of his salary for the rest of his life too. Bananas.
It's a mad world that Switch 2 is the best selling console of all time.
Hilariously, the same cannot be said for digital protection measures.
If you scaled this up to a large percentage of Switch consoles, no one would want to make Switch games anymore.
Nintendo is an evil, shitty company that weaponizes the courts, but I love good games/movies/etc. and want creators to be able to profit from them.
> Daly, who sold devices like the MIG Switch and MIG Dumper
So, he just sold the devices that allowed you to make copies of Switch cartridges. Similar to someone selling cassette tapes or CD-/DVD-Rs and CD/DVD burners. He didn't sell illegally copied games or anything that tampers with Nintendo's IP. But as we all know, in front of US courts it's not about who's right but who has more money. And Nintendo has plenty of that.
Many Western countries subscribe to some form of "contributory infringement" law, where someone can be fined tens of thousands per-work-infringed for simply developing or distributing a tool that can be used by someone else to infringe copyright. It's absurd.
It's legal to sell kits along with instructions for modifying a firearm from semi-automatic to automatic fire, and the results of that have been several mass shootings.
So modding your console or selling tools to do it ought to be legal as well. The damage from that is far, FAR smaller than even a single mass shooting.
A tiny plastic 3d printed “glock switch” is itself actually classified as a machine gun under the law.
This isn't to handwave away the horror of mass shootings, but most mass shootings are gang related, and largely by those already breaking a number of laws including owning a firearm illegally for those with felony history.
He's running a business modding people's devices, Nintendo catches on and sends him a cease and desist, and so he stops. Congrats, you have narrowly avoided certain financial ruin, and made a bit of cash in the process!
All forms of business and economic-self-preservation logic would tell this guy to continue ceasing and desisting, but he opens the shop back up shortly after and Nintendo, as they are known to do, sues his ass off.
What exactly did he think was going to happen here?
disgusting the way they go after people