People like Gary Bowser are the reason why we need copyright reform.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
He got briefly caught up with the law during a stint fixing games consoles at flea markets, which nearly implicated him alongside vendors who sold pirated movies.
It was here that Bowser – who, in a case of nominative determinism that feels almost too trite to acknowledge, shares a name with Super Mario’s in-game antagonist – started becoming the face of Nintendo piracy.
In the late 00s he made contact with Team Xecuter, a group that produces dongles used to bypass anti-piracy measures on Nintendo Switch and other consoles, letting them illegally download, modify and play games.
While he says he was only paid a few hundred dollars a month to update their websites, Bowser says the people he worked with weren’t very social and he helped “testers” troubleshoot devices.
“And suddenly I wake up and see three people surrounding my bed with rifles aimed at my head … they dragged me out of the place, put me in the back of a pickup truck and drove me to the Interpol office.”
While inside, Bowser couldn’t always get the medical attention he needed, he claims, and even when he did, the realities of prison still exacerbated his health issues – he has elephantiasis in his left leg.
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I’m always surprised with the enormous show of force in cases like this. I would imagine sending him a letter informing him that he and his lawyer need to show up at the police/fbi/otherAlphabetAgency office on date X would have been sufficient.
Don’t worry, if a big corporation would have defrauded him for a few millions, I’m sure they would have gotten a letter.
Ruby Ridge.
Waco. They sent in fucking tanks, burnt the place down, with kids inside.
Those are two off the top of my head.
With Ruby Ridge the FBI entrapped him, then shot his dog, and then his son who was protecting his dog. Then his wife.
Every cocksucker FBI agent involved should be on billboards, then hanged (the old fashioned way) on the White House lawn.
Don’t know about Ruby Ridge I’ll read up.
But Waco is not in the same ballpark. Sure the US alphabetAgencies should get better at de-escalation.
However comparing a guy why soldered some circuit boards on a flea market and handled a website to a religious cult that was armed to the teeth, who refused to surrender to the police in a 50+ day siege and had prepped their own compound with flammables.
The shooting of dogs while conducting raids is just plain evil.
Edit: holy moly, the ruby ridge thing started with a fuckup of law enforcement, shooting a dog and its owner in the back. Claiming they identified themselves as law enforcement but dressed in CAMO and armed while on their property. No wonder it led to outrage.
This is the same as “castle defense/stand your ground/etc.” vs “no knock warrants” how in the hell can you convict someone for shooting at armed intruders in your house? Even if they are yelling at you… this just adds to the confusion.
a religious cult that was armed to the teeth, who refused to surrender to the police in a 50+ day siege and had prepped their own compound with flammables.
That’s all very likely propaganda spread by the FBI after shit went down. Incidentally these two collosal fuck ups is what inspired the unibomber.
And Timothy McVeigh.
Yea, they were a bit cultish, but most of the propaganda definitely came after the fact/during. I remember thinking “where the hell did this cult stuff come from suddenly?” It had all been in the news for a year before Reno? and Clinton had those people murdered.
And even if they were cultish, none of the PR justifies the feds actions.
And if you haven’t read the Unabombers manifesto… Let’s just say it’ll expose how much the government lies about this stuff.
Hasbro sent the literal Pinkertons after a Youtuber over Magic cards recently.
It’s weird isnt it… that the protection of IP can lead to such stark law enforcement reaction.
IP gets more protection than human beings
Bowser says the people he worked with weren’t very social and he helped testers" troubleshoot devices.
"And suddenly I wake up and see three people surrounding my bed with rifles aimed at my head …
Wow, that escalated quickly
I was shocked too. You really think some nerd who updates websites needs a SWAT team to take him down?! American police are crazy
Those were police in the Dominican Republic. He’s a Canadian national but was living there.
Yep, quite right! I got it mixed up with Puerto Rico in my head which is why I called them American
I like you man, you’re a reasonable fella. I wish Lemmy had superficial awards like Good Samaritan or something.
Thanks! No need for awards, just saying nice things is always nice
he also, improbably, shares it with Nintendo of America’s current president, Doug Bowser
Nintendo really has a thing for Bowsers. They arrested one, and have another as its CEO.
It’s also a character in some of their games! 😅
You don’t say…
It’s true, he’s not lying. I’d know, my dad works for Nintendo.
Hello, cousin!
Hello Mr Bowser.
If only the legal system would also fine companies many times their earning potential for their infractions.
Well they should have fined Facebook for the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a couple of trillions. That would have taught a lot of companies about
ethicshow to not lose all your money.Instead we issue paltry fines to corporations. Simply, because we have convinced the public that corporations are job creators. Who doesn’t love a job creator!?
Me. The people that created my job are fucking morons and have no business creating jobs
I feel sorry for the poor bastard
Hey Nintendo, FUCK YOU
At this point, I refuse to give Nintendo any money. I love their games, but the way they run their company is horrible. Screwing this guy over is just one point on a very long list.
Honestly if I had heard about this case before I bought my switch I probably would have said the same now I feel like I have a piece of Hardware that I barely use anyway that I feel like I shouldn’t have bought.
Granted I feel like this is kind of his own fault, not because of his involvement with it but because it seems like he just literally folded without a fight. I think it’s yet actually fought the charges, yes it would have cost time and money in the long run but I don’t think it would be as bad as what the punishment they gave was.
Here’s a fantastic video from an actual lawyer who talks about this case.
He implies that Bowser isn’t necessarily innocent, but he is probably the fall guy for a much larger operation.
Except, of course, that he is innocent in the sense that what he did shouldn’t have been a crime to begin with.
What he did was nothing more than facilitate console owners’ property right to modify their devices.
I never stated my opinion on the matter. Just restating what a lawyer is saying about the ruling and why it went the way it did.
But the founding fathers put the DMCA in the constitution for a reason!
/s
Here is an alternative Piped link(s):
https://piped.video/j9_1Wl9pjLU?si=tk-6KAjg0FtbJABf
Piped is a privacy-respecting open-source alternative frontend to YouTube.
I’m open-source; check me out at GitHub.
Won’t someone please think about Nintendo!?
I wonder if they send a person out to make sure he is eating gruel.
If I was stupidly rich I’d pay the entire fine to nullify the punishment to Gary. It isn’t about the money to Nintendo; it’s about making an example of him.
You should be allowed to modify your own hardware. Bowser does not “owe” Nintendo, they and the law gave him an offer he can’t refuse.
14 million dollars. What a stupid and useless punishment, even as an example to others. Cruel and unusual. Anyone going to the piracy level of the crew he was involved in isn’t going to be deterred. They’ll take their chances. All this did was make some dude with a hard life suffer more. That’s multiple lifetimes of money that a billion dollar corporation will never see, or need. Way to go, court system. Ruining a life for no good reason.
Just 8.2 lifetimes. No biggie.
All that talk about the punishment fitting the crime in the justice system, unless you ruffle the feathers of some rich corporation.
Is no one going to comment on how ironic it is that the guy’s name is Bowser?
They did comment on that in the article. It’s also the name of Nintendo of America’s president.
Bowser maintains that he could have fought the allegations, and that other members of the hacking group remain at large. … It was easier, he claims, to plead guilty … Bowser now has to send Nintendo 20-30% of any money left over after he pays for necessities such as rent.
… Bowser … thinks that after rent, he has a couple of hundred dollars leftover for food and other necessities. He assumes he’ll be turning to food support services.
Love charities supporting Nintendo. Good making an example out of him! That’ll teach future hackers to use TOR, I mean not do it!
Legally, he’s not allowed to mess around with modern gaming hardware.
I find these things very disgusting. Not sure if that extends to computers in general. But courts can and have basically prevented “hackers” from taking part in modern life or use the skills they are good at to make ends meet.
And make products better
Free Kevin!
He’s dead dude.
No one seems to be enforcing that part of his sentence, judging by the fact he recently came out with a new flashcard for the Nintendo switch, and people already found proof he is behind it
More proof that justice is a multi-tiered system in America. Restrictions over cruel and unusual punishment don’t apply to to the bottom rung of society when you have made the mistake of offending a rich capitalist or corporation.
