any time I see people enthusiastically taking the side of a company that wields corrupt government as an instrument in order to throw people into prison to Make A Point because Piracy Is Bad it just reminds me how difficult "kill the cop inside your heart" is to actually put into practice. because I see it a lot.
like, for-profit piracy exists. it probably shouldn't. but it's funny how at the end of the day our judicial apparatus decided to teach some poor guy A Lesson because he had the gall to do mundane work as basically a customer service/sales rep selling a product that should be legal. just look at the actual charges they were able to make stick:
Bowser's official indictments include "conspiracy to circumvent technological measures and trafficking in circumvention devices" plus "violating the DMCA’s anti-circumvention provision." Both counts carry a maximum sentence of five years in prison.
one completely made up crime - that basically exists to let the MPAA throw people into prison for format-shifting DVDs, mind you - and then "conspiracy" to commit said made up crime. they couldn't get him with anything else because he was just a random dude who got caught up in other people's bad behavior. But Nintendo Has To Teach You A Lesson, understand? And you've learned the lesson and let a cop take up residence in your heart. He learned his lesson too, spending 2+ years in what was functionally solitary confinement due to his health issues, and now spending the rest of his life paying off a massive unjust debt far in excess of the moderate salary he earned doing ordinary white collar work.
and then while the cop in your heart is defending the MPAA and Nintendo because idk it makes you feel bad to imagine someone getting Tears of the Kingdom for free - every download is a lost $70 sale! plus treble damages to make sure they get it - meanwhile massive swathes of media and game history are destroyed permanently because the rightsholders would rather destroy it than let it be archived, because that means it might get pirated even once, or they wouldn't be able to sell you a half-baked remake of 5% of those games 10 years later at full retail price. okay, sure
like, as a game developer who does earn less money if people pirate my stuff instead of buy it - okay, i get it, really! i think we should encourage people to buy stuff instead of pirate it. but also if we're at the point where we think sending people to prison for being adjacent to software piracy is the way society should work maybe our society shouldn't exist at all. personally i think every censored because I might need to publish a title on the eshop one day to pay rent
