Aussie Game Pirate: No Malice Just Peer Pressure
50,000 illegal downloads of New Super Mario Bros. Wii
The father of the Australian man, James Burt, who uploaded a copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii and now faces £900,000 worth of debt to Nintendo has come to his defence.
Speaking to journalist Asher Moshes, Burt Sr characterised his son in a way reminiscent of every single serial killer you've ever heard of, "As a parent I can tell you that he's a very quiet lad". He continued,"he's a fanatical computer game player - to his detriment", before giving the reasons for the upload.
"It was peer pressure on the internet forums and the blog sites that led him to do a very very silly thing to prove that he'd actually managed to purchase a game before its release date.
"...It was certainly [done] with no malice or intent to make money", said Dad, Richard Burt.
That defence didn't cut any mustard at all with the courts however. Apparently a local game retailer sold him the game "by accident" a week before the official release date.
Burt then uploaded an unplayable copy of the game to a "game hacking site". It was quickly cracked leading to what Nintendo claimed in court were 50,000 downloads in five days.
Moses piece details that, "Nintendo obtained evidence during its investigations that James Burt knew by uploading a copy of the game to a known hacking website that the security measures would be overcome by members of this community to allow the game to be hacked and ultimately downloaded."
So, a quiet lad (24 years old) who wanted to show off... lands up with AU$1,500m in debt plus $100,000 court costs. You wonder if his parents might have warned him about taking on dares.
Speaking to journalist Asher Moshes, Burt Sr characterised his son in a way reminiscent of every single serial killer you've ever heard of, "As a parent I can tell you that he's a very quiet lad". He continued,"he's a fanatical computer game player - to his detriment", before giving the reasons for the upload.
"It was peer pressure on the internet forums and the blog sites that led him to do a very very silly thing to prove that he'd actually managed to purchase a game before its release date.
"...It was certainly [done] with no malice or intent to make money", said Dad, Richard Burt.
That defence didn't cut any mustard at all with the courts however. Apparently a local game retailer sold him the game "by accident" a week before the official release date.
Burt then uploaded an unplayable copy of the game to a "game hacking site". It was quickly cracked leading to what Nintendo claimed in court were 50,000 downloads in five days.
Moses piece details that, "Nintendo obtained evidence during its investigations that James Burt knew by uploading a copy of the game to a known hacking website that the security measures would be overcome by members of this community to allow the game to be hacked and ultimately downloaded."
So, a quiet lad (24 years old) who wanted to show off... lands up with AU$1,500m in debt plus $100,000 court costs. You wonder if his parents might have warned him about taking on dares.
Companies:
Nintendo
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