The Big N Takes Fighting Pirates to the Next Level
If you were thinking of doing a little homebrew for a sweet new Switch theme – you may want to hold off. A man in London, England was arrested this month over his modded Switch unit.
Nintendo is notorious for coming after pirates – just this year they sued two major ROM sites (and eventually settled for $12.2 million dollars) took Pirated game sellers to court and a man with the coincidental name of Miyamoto was arrested for selling modded Super Famicom Minis. So what about this latest case in the UK?
While most cases are handled by Nintendo’s in-house anti-piracy division, the City of London police stepped in to apprehend this particular gentleman for his modded Switch units and released the following statement:
“PIPCU officers arrested and cautioned a 43 year old man at an address on Rotterdam Road, Lowestoft in relation to copyright offenses. Hard drives, microchips and computer equipment were seized at the same address”
While the modder isn’t named, he is apparently “prominent” within the modding community. It seems in this case though,they were cautioned and no further actions will be taken against him.
This came with an additional warning from the police to the public as well – piracy isn’t a crime that only effects video game companies. Buyers of modded consoles are putting themselves at risk of malware or identity theft. The PIPCU advised that folks know who and where they’re buying hardware from, and to “play safe” and “play fair”.
The holidays are a popular time for all sorts of scam and maliciousness, so the warning did come at a fair time for consumers. I’m sure Nintendo is happy that the police were involved in this particular case.
It sounds like production is winding down on Super NES Classic – if you haven’t picked one up, now is the time. Maybe just don’t tell us if you mod it.