The alleged owner of Modded Hardware, the company behind many piratedNintendoIPs andSwitch consoles, hasresponded to Nintendo’s legal complaintagainst him without legal counsel.
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Nintendo sued Ryan Daly,the man behind the audacious attempt at self-representation,in July over his alleged company’s creation and distribution of modded Switch consoles, pirated games, mod chips and enabling game piracy.
The companyalso sued “Archbox,” another alleged operator of pirated Nintendo games and consoles stores and mod on r/SwitchPirates subreddit.
Dalyreplied to the majority of Nintendo’s complaints with “denied.”He alsodenied Nintendo’s claim of his ownership over Modded Hardware, saying “[the] defendant is without sufficient information to eitheradmit or deny the allegations of this paragraph, and on that basis, denies them.”
Some screenshots provided by Nintendo showDaly bragging about pirating Nintendo games.
He also invoked 17affirmative defenses- facts that mitigate the damage caused by the defendant’s actions despite them being unlawful - without elaborating on them.
The Japanese company hassaid that it offered Daly a chance to avoid legal trouble by ceasing operations. Despiteallegedly accepting the deal, Modded Hardware continued operations.
Now that Daly has replied, thecase has moved to the discovery process, where bothparties can collect evidence for use in court.
While Daly’sabstaining from legal council is odd, especially against a company with a legal track record like that of Nintendo,it’s unclear if this will continue into court proceedings.
A Line of Court Cases That Goes Around The Corner
In September,Nintendo sued Pocketpairover their game,Palworld,over patent infringement. However, these cases are only a few out ofmany lawsuits filed by the Japanese giantagainstperceived threats to its IPs.
In 1989, Nintendo sued Blockbuster over their game rentals, arguing for copyright infringementdue to copying game manuals.
Nintendo was eventuallyhanded one of itsfew legal losses, given the odd claim made by the prosecution, but that seemed only tointensify Nintendo’s future legal battles.
Years later,in 2015,Nintendo tried, and succeeded for a while, to rake in the money made byYouTubers playing their gamesfor Lets Plays.
At the time, the company argued thatcreators violated the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA)— the same act levied against Modded Hardware and others.
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Although they discontinued this practice after widespread backlash,Nintendo has battledZeldaandSmashmultiplayer mods,hundredsof fan-made games, andcustom controllers.
Nintendo’s actions,despite being legally sound at times, havepushed away many fans and would-be fans from their IPs; someone never told them thatwhat you can do isn’t always what youshoulddo.
Still, Modded Hardware and Co aren’t releasing labors of love;thousands of players and creators probably won’t campaign for the modding company.
As of writing, the Modded Hardware website has been made private.
Without the support of the Nintendo customer base, nor legal council telling him otherwise,the owner of Modded Hardware might find himself millions in debt to Nintendo— whoever he turns out to be.
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