Nintendo's lawyers continue earning their paychecks, most recently by filing a suit against Jesse Keighin, AKA EveryGameGuru, for streaming Nintendo games like The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom and Mario & Luigi: Brothership ahead of their release dates, as well as allegedly linking to ROM sites and emulators.
In the colorful words of the filing, via 404 Media, "Defendant is a recidivist pirate who has obtained and streamed Nintendo's leaked games on multiple occasions."
Nintendo previously used copyright takedown notices on EveryGameGuru's footage, which the filing notes "often consist merely of him playing Nintendo's leaked games without commentary for extended periods of time." According to Nintendo's claims, he streamed Mario & Luigi: Brothership 16 days before it was released, Super Mario Party Jamboree six days before it was released, and The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom five days before it was released, among others.
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EveryGameGuru responded to the takedowns by sending Nintendo an email with the heading "I have a thousand burner channels" in which he wrote "We can do this all day". After that, the filing continues, "Defendant began adding a CashApp handle to his streams, continuing to seek to profit off of his unauthorized streaming of Nintendo's games. On top of his own flagrant piracy, he has also posted links to repositories of pirated game files ('ROMs') encouraging and inducing his followers and viewers to unlawfully reproduce Nintendo's games."
It wasn't just piracy Nintendo objected to, but the promotion of emulators. The filing named the Yuzu and Ryujinx emulators in particular, claiming that linking to them counted as "trafficking in that unlawful software". Nintendo's campaign against these emulators resulted in them both being shut down last year, with Yuzu settling a lawsuit for $2.4 million followed by Ryujinx being taken offline at Nintendo's demand, presumably to avoid a similar situation. Since then, the company has been playing DMCA whack-a-mole with copies of Yuzu posted on Github.
Nintendo has demanded $150,000 from EveryGameGuru for each unauthorized public performance and reproduction of protected works, which at 404 Media's estimation of at least 50 streams means $7.5 million, with another $2,500 for each alleged circumvention of technological measures, though it reserves the right to "elect to receive actual damages as well as Defendant's profits" to the value of "amounts to be proven at trial."
In the words of to a statement given to Polygon by a Nintendo of America spokesperson, "Nintendo is passionate about protecting the creative works of game developers and publishers who expend significant time and effort to create experiences that bring smiles to all."
