Nintendo wins court battle against site involved with game piracy
Nintendo has declared victory against a website it took to court over game piracy.
The company had taken issue with Dstorage since it previously demanded the sharehosting website operator to remove unauthorized games it was hosting. Since nothing was done, legal action was pursued.
The Paris Judicial Court previously sided with Nintendo in May 2021. However, as a follow-up, the Court of Appeals has ordered Dstorage to pay €442,750 to Nintendo along with €25,000 in legal fees. Dstorage can appeal, but otherwise the case will draw to a close.
Nintendo said in a statement:
Nintendo is pleased with the decision of the Paris Court of Appeals, as it again sends a clear message that in refusing to remove or withdraw access to unauthorised copies of video games despite prior notification, sharehosting services such as Dstorage (1fichier) are liable under French law and must remove or block access to such content and may be liable to pay compensation to those rights holders whose intellectual property rights have been infringed,” the company wrote in its statement.
The Court’s finding of liability against Dstorage is significant not only for Nintendo, but also for the entire games industry. It will prevent sharehosters like 1Fichier from claiming that a prior decision from a court will be needed before pirated content has to be taken down, and additionally the Court decision confirms what rights holders have to give notice of when claiming that notified content infringes copyright or trademark rights.
