Back in 2019, we wrote about Nintendos efforts to shut down the website RomUniverse, which was hosting and even selling premium access to pirated copies of Nintendo games. That case is now over, the site is gone and Nintendo has been awarded $US2.1 million ($3 million) in damages.
As Torrentfreak report, RomUniverses Matthew Storman actually decided to try and fight Nintendo in court, and whats more, to do so without an attorney. That did not go well for Storman, where his defence based around disputing that he uploaded any files to said website was swiftly picked apart by Nintendos actual lawyers, who were able to point to Stormans own sworn deposition where he admitted to…uploading ROM files to his site.
While Nintendo originally sought damages of $US90,000 ($115,434) for each of the 49 games discovered on the website, the judge awarded the company $US35,000 ($44,891) for each, saying that since Storman had already shut down the website and was currently unemployed, that figure was sufficient. Nintendo was also awarded a single sum of $US400,000 ($513,040) for statutory trademark damages.
Its important to note here that Storman wasnt simply hosting pirated copies of Nintendo games, he was also selling premium access to them, where $US30 could get users faster access to ROM files. During the last year of RomUniverses operation, Storman says he earned between $US30,000-$US36,000 ($46,174) from these payments.
