TL;DR: Nintendo is a well-known hawk on game piracy. The Japanese game maker just celebrated its latest win in a file-sharing-related lawsuit, which ruled that storage companies are legally liable for hosting copyrighted or trademarked content on their web servers, even in France.
Earlier this week, Nintendo emerged victorious in a lawsuit against French file-sharing company Dstorage. The company owns and operates the 1Fichier web service, which hosts pirated Nintendo content. A judge ruled that Dstorage must compensate the game giant for damages and legal fees.
Nintendo's victory comes after years of fighting in the French judiciary system. The console maker got its first big win in 2021 when the Judicial Court of Paris ordered Dstorage to pay €935.000 ($1,013,467 US) after it found illegal copies of Nintendo games on 1Fichier. Dstorage appealed the verdict but lost again in 2023, and the court issued an even larger fine.
The file-sharing company then brought the case before France's highest court, stating that Nintendo needed a specific court order to remove a file hosted on 1Fichier. Dstorage lost again. The French Cour de Cassation ruled that file-sharing companies must remove illegal content from their servers. It explained to Dstorage that IP owners only need to prove they own the content, and refusing to remove the protected files only results in larger damages and penalties.
Nintendo called its victory against Dstorage/1Fichier a significant win for its business and the gaming industry. The company is pleased with the French court's enforcement of liability and accountability principles. Alongside a recent ruling upholding a French bank's right to terminate payment processing for 1Fichier, this decision reinforces that game pirates have no safe haven in France.
"Nintendo's message to consumers is not to download pirate copies of Nintendo games as this increases the risk that this will interfere with the functionality and experience that playing legitimate Nintendo games on authentic Nintendo hardware provides," a Nintendo spokesperson said.
The sentiment is true, but we have seen unofficial conversions and emulations that can provide a vastly better gaming experience on other hardware platforms.
Despite the extreme popularity of game piracy and "illegal" Switch emulation, Nintendo is more than willing to keep fighting unauthorized use of its illustrious gaming IP archive. The Kyoto-based company is now on a quest to make major Switch emulators disappear from the internet, unmask Reddit-hosted piracy groups, and send Switch modders to jail.