Australian fined $1.6m for uploading New Super Mario Bros Wii
BlogAn Australian named James Burt illegally uploaded New Super Mario Bros. Wii to the internet on November 6 2009, 6 days before the November 12 release date. The Federal Court of Australia case settled outside of court for Burt to pay Nintendo $1.5m (AUD) in damages as well as $100,000 in court costs.
According to Mr Burt's MySpace site, he is 24 years old and has worked as a manager at games retailer Electronics Boutique in a store in Brisbane since 2004.
If the above professional journalism is true, this would help explain how James managed to get a copy early. I'm not entirely sure if there is much of a point fining an individual 1.6 million dollars given that your average store manager doesn't have that kind of money just lying around. Still if the federal court deems this appropriate that's what he's stuck with.
Let that be a lesson to all of you; crime doesn't pay.
Source: The Australian.
Edit: according to a national news article on TV this evening it appears the man simply purchased the game somewhere that broke the street date. He wanted to prove it to his mates so he uploaded it. I'm sure you can all work out the rest.
Australian fined $1.6m for uploading Super Mario Bros Wii
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