By Sagar V. Mankar Nintendo has filed a federal lawsuit against Ryan Daly, the alleged owner of modding business Modded Hardware, accusing him of facilitating piracy by offering hacked Nintendo consoles and pirated games. According to Torrent Freak, Daly is defending himself in court without a lawyer and has denied owning the company or committing any wrongdoing.
The lawsuit claims Modded Hardware sold hardware and software designed to bypass Nintendo’s copyright protections. Customers allegedly received hacked consoles preloaded with pirated games, including popular titles like Super Mario, The Legend of Zelda, and Metroid. Nintendo argues that such actions enable illegal marketplaces for pirated games to thrive.
Despite previous warnings, Modded Hardware reportedly continued operations. Nintendo states it offered Daly a chance to cease operations in March 2024, but after no action was taken, it issued a final warning in May 2024. With no resolution, the company filed the lawsuit in federal court in Seattle, seeking damages and the immediate shutdown of Modded Hardware.
In his legal response, Daly mostly denied the allegations, citing various defenses, including fair use and invalid copyrights. However, his lack of legal representation raises questions about his ability to counter Nintendo’s claims effectively. The case now moves to the discovery phase, where evidence such as documents and depositions will be examined.
Nintendo has a history of aggressively protecting its intellectual property. In previous cases, it successfully secured $2.1 million in damages from RomUniverse in 2021 and over $12 million from another piracy lawsuit in 2018. Recently, the company also blocked the GameCube and Wii emulator Dolphin from launching on Steam and targeted Switch emulator Yuzu, leading to the takedown of thousands of pirated copies of its games.
Sources: Torrent Freak