Nintendo is seeking an injunction and default judgement against a streamer it previously filed a lawsuit against for allegedly broadcasting leaked Nintendo games before they were even released.
The lawsuit was first filed against Jesse "Every Game Guru" Keighin in November last year, but as spotted by TorrentFreak, Nintendo has now requested a default judgement after Keighin "evaded service" and "failed to respond" to Nintendo's complaint.
Furthermore, the company alleges: "By his failure to respond, Defendant has admitted the factual allegations in Nintendo's complaint and the Court must accept the complaint's well-pleaded allegations regarding liability as true."
Previously, Nintendo alleged that "starting in as early as 2022, Defendant has streamed unauthorized gameplay of at least ten of Nintendo's leaked games before their publication, and more than fifty times in total." It was claimed that these included Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door, The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, and Super Mario Party Jamboree.
On top of that, Keighin was accused of "providing users links to circumvention software (Nintendo Switch emulators), Nintendo’s proprietary cryptographic keys (prod.keys), and pirated ROM repositories," and by doing so, "giving his viewers everything they need to pirate as many games as they wish."
While Nintendo previously sought $150,000 for each alleged violation of the Copyright Act, as well as a further $2,500 for each alleged violation of the Copyright Act's anti-circumvention and anti-trafficking provisions, it's now demanding less. Specifically, it's seeking "an award of $10,000 for infringement of Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door," which the company calls "particularly reasonable since Nintendo is electing not to seek damages for infringement of the other nine works as to which Nintendo has established liability."
On top of that, Nintendo also seeks a "statutory damages award" of $7,500 in regard to its "circumvention and trafficking claims." That's $500 for each of the 15 violations Nintendo alleges has happened – one for each of the 10 games allegedly streamed by Keighin at least once, and then the apparent distribution of four links to Nintendo Switch emulators, as well as one to prod.keys.
As well as the total of $17,500 it demands, Nintendo seeks a "permanent injunction" to stop Keighin from "engaging in further violations of Nintendo's rights." Specifically, this would prevent the defendant from, amongst other things, streaming Nintendo's copyrighted works, and it would also require him to "destroy all circumvention devices" he owns.
This request hasn't been granted at the time of writing – it was first filed on Friday, April 18, so we'll have to wait and see how the court responds.
