What just happened? If you lot hold chiliad fantasies about representing yourself in court against a monolithic corporation, here's a cautionary tale. RomUniverse owner and operator Matthew Storman tried to do just that in a copyright infringement lawsuit brought by Nintendo—and information technology did not get well. He must now pay the company $two.xv 1000000.

It was back in 2022 when Nintendo filed a lawsuit against RomUniverse. The Japanese gaming giant was seeking millions of dollars for copyright and trademark infringement from a site that was reportedly offering memberships for $30 per yr, which immune users to download an unlimited number of ROMs with higher speeds than non-members.

TorrentFreak reports that Nintendo won the case this week, probably helped by Storman'south determination to defend himself. He had tried to invoke the Digital Millennium Copyright Human action's (DMCA) "condom harbor" protections, claiming he was merely a service provider for users sharing files and that RomUniverse did non offering pirated games. Storman also said he never uploaded any ROMs himself.

Undermining Storman's argument was the fact that he'd already admitted in a sworn deposition testimony to uploading the ROM files to his site. He'd also tried to apply the "start sale doctrine" defense force, but that failed as the site was distributing copies of Nintendo'due south games and not Storman's personal property.

Storman had also previously testified that his site made between $30,000 and 36,000 dollars in 2022 and that information technology was making around $800 per calendar month before information technology closed in 2022.

Not as well surprisingly, the approximate in the case sided with Nintendo. The company provided sufficient show to testify Storman is liable for various copyright and trademark infringements. His one bit of skilful news is that the judge decided the $15 1000000 demanded by Nintendo was also high, application it $2.1 million instead. The judge also ruled against a permanent injunction as the site had already been shut down. But for Storman, whose "merely source of income at the time of his degradation was unemployment and food stamps," it's still non the all-time outcome.

Nintendo has long been passionate near defending its IPs. Its most recent case involves Nintendo of America and its president, Bowser—who has the same name as the iconic King of the Koopas—suing a hacker called Bowser.