A Washington federal court has ordered James C. Williams, a former prominent moderator of the Reddit community r/SwitchPirates operating under the online moniker "Archbox," to pay Nintendo $4.5 million in damages. The comprehensive default judgment, handed down this week, also features a permanent injunction that legally bars Williams from distributing pirated video games, providing circumvention tools, or encouraging others to utilize such software. While the ruling marks a sweeping legal victory for the gaming giant, whether Nintendo will actually be able to recoup the multi-million-dollar figure remains uncertain, largely because Williams chose not to answer the allegations throughout the proceedings.
Nintendo has long maintained an aggressive legal and operational stance, utilizing every available resource to prevent gamers from playing unauthorized and pirated software on its immensely popular Switch console. This multifaceted strategy typically involves deploying a steady stream of cease-and-desist letters and targeted digital takedown notices to web hosts, repository operators, and community leaders. However, when these preliminary measures fail to curb widespread intellectual property infringement, the company has consistently demonstrated its willingness to escalate matters by filing formal civil lawsuits in federal courts.
The legal battle concerning Williams began in June 2024, when Nintendo initiated a lawsuit in a U.S. District Court in Washington against the Arizona resident. In its legal filings, the company accused Williams of operating several online "pirate shops" that provided the general public with access to vast libraries of unauthorized, pirated Nintendo Switch games. According to the allegations detailed in the complaint, Williams actively promoted these illicit distribution hubs on the r/SwitchPirates subreddit, where he served as a leading and influential moderator.
Furthermore, Nintendo asserted that Williams did not merely host and promote the pirate shops, but actively assisted community users in installing technical circumvention software. The complaint alleged that he solicited eShop gift card "donations" from community members to purchase legitimate retail games, which were subsequently decrypted, uploaded, and added to the repositories for mass distribution. Despite being properly served and aware of the pending legal action—evidenced by his hiring of legal counsel specifically to object to a Google subpoena—Williams ultimately chose not to respond to the formal complaint. This failure to answer prompted Nintendo to file a motion for a default judgment last October, seeking the statutory maximum of $4.5 million in damages alongside a permanent injunction.
Judge Grants Default Judgment
U.S. District Court Judge Lauren King granted Nintendo’s motion in full, cementing a complete legal victory for the publisher. In her written order, Judge King underscored the fact that the defendant was fully aware of the ongoing litigation, given that he had retained an attorney earlier in the process to contest the Google subpoena, yet still inexplicably failed to file an answer to the underlying complaint.
Williams’ extensive historical activity on the Reddit platform ultimately worked heavily against him, with the court citing several of his public posts directly within the official order. These archived social media statements demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt that the defendant was entirely cognizant of the copyrighted nature of the material he was handling and distributed the files regardless of those legal protections. In one particularly striking post highlighted in the court documents, Williams openly referred to himself as a "pirate" and explicitly stated that he was "n’t going to give Nintendo $50 for a game."
$4.5 Million Damages Award
When formulating its financial demands, Nintendo requested the statutory maximum of $150,000 per infringed work across a catalog of 30 specific titles. This curated list of games included major first-party blockbusters such as The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe, and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate.
Judge King ultimately agreed with Nintendo’s assessment of the scope of the infringement. Given that retail prices for major titles hover around $50 per game, cumulative lost sales resulting from widespread mass distribution could easily climb into the hundreds of thousands of dollars, rendering the maximum statutory damages request a reasonable and realistic estimate of Nintendo’s actual financial losses. This evidence of substantial potential economic harm, combined with his self-incriminating online statements, convinced the judge that Williams’ infringing activities were entirely willful. Consequently, she deemed the $4.5 million award to be fully appropriate, serving in part as a necessary punitive measure.
"Williams’ egregious infringement activities merit substantial punishment here," Judge King concluded in her ruling. In a notable procedural nuance, Nintendo opted not to seek additional damages under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) or demand the reimbursement of its mounting attorneys’ fees, framing this decision as a gesture of reasonableness. The court took explicit note of this restraint, observing that Nintendo’s moderate approach regarding ancillary fees worked favorably in supporting the decision to grant the maximum statutory copyright infringement damages.
Shops and Reddit Account Already Gone
Beyond the substantial financial penalty, Judge King also issued a permanent injunction. This binding legal order strictly prohibits Williams from distributing any pirated Nintendo game whatsoever, extending far beyond the initial 30 titles listed in the complaint. It also outlaws the distribution of any software, scripts, or tools designed to circumvent the technical protection measures safeguarding Nintendo’s hardware and software ecosystem.
The injunction further bars Williams from encouraging or assisting other internet users in downloading pirated games or digital circumvention tools. To enforce these sweeping restrictions effectively, the court order mandates that Williams permanently disable his pirate shops and shutter all online accounts that he previously utilized to distribute, market, or promote the infringing materials.
The mandate specifically encompasses his primary Reddit account, alongside designated profiles across various other popular digital platforms, including Instagram, X, TikTok, Discord, and Telegram, which the court identified as having been leveraged for infringing activities. In practice, however, compliance with these operational closures has largely been rendered moot by prior events. The "archbox" Reddit account had already been self-deleted by the user, and the various pirate repositories highlighted in the lawsuit were taken offline long before the judgment, with the vast majority shutting down in the immediate wake of a cease-and-desist letter issued by Nintendo in March 2024.
By initiating and pursuing the federal lawsuit, Nintendo publicly stated its intention to put a definitive stop to Williams’ specific operations while simultaneously broadcasting a powerful deterrent message to other would-be digital pirates operating within the gaming community. Nevertheless, successfully collecting or recouping the $4.5 million judgment will likely prove exceedingly difficult, particularly given the defendant’s persistent unresponsiveness throughout the judicial process.
Although the final default judgment falls entirely in Nintendo’s favor, the underlying legal claims were never formally tested through an adversarial trial or evidentiary hearing. Because Williams elected not to respond or present a defense, the court simply accepted the factual allegations outlined in Nintendo’s complaint as true by default, resulting in a completely uncontested win for the publisher.
This particular conclusion stands in notable contrast to Nintendo’s parallel intellectual property lawsuit against Modded Hardware, which was filed on the exact same day in June 2024. That separate legal action reached a definitive conclusion last year when its operator elected to enter into a settlement agreement, agreeing to a $2 million judgment to resolve Nintendo’s copyright claims outside of a default ruling.
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