14.5 million and 40 months in prison

Doug Bowser and Gary Bowser are men with the same last name, but in everything else they couldn't be more different. Not only are they not related, they are each on their own side of the saga that has been going on since 2013, but now it has finally gotten at least a partial epilogue.

And who are Doug and Gary? Doug is the president of Nintendo, and Gary is "one of the leading members" of the hacker group Team Xecuter, which has been making Nintendo gray hair since 2013. Namely, the group has produced devices or accessories for Nintendo's Switch, Wii and 3DS consoles, which can be used to bypass copyright protection and play games from illegal ROMs.

The authorities searched for the people behind the Team Xecuter group for a long time, and in 2020 they only exposed them. It should consist of at least three members – Gary Bowser from the USA, Max Louarn from France and Yuanning Chen from China. The Americans were unable to capture Louarn and Chen, but Bowser was charged with eleven counts of piracy. Garry initially denied the wrongdoing, but when he realized the evidence against him was too strong, he pleaded guilty and the court ordered him to pay $4.5 million in restitution to Nintendo and serve 40 months in prison.

But that's not all. Nintendo also filed a civil suit against him, demanding $2,500 for each device sold and $150,000 for each copyright infringement, eventually settling for ten million. So Gary will have to pay a total of 14.5 million dollars and serve another two years in prison (he has already served 16 months).

Nintendo is of course satisfied with the outcome, by publicly thanking law enforcement. They wrote: “Nintendo appreciates the hard work and tireless efforts of federal prosecutors and law enforcement agencies to crack down on illegal activities worldwide that cause serious harm to Nintendo and the video game industry. Nintendo would like to thank the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), the Department of Homeland Security's Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Western District of Washington, the U.S. Department of Justice's Computer Crime and Intellectual Property Division, and the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of International Affairs for their significant input and assistance."

There is another interesting fact about everything - Bowser is the name of King Koopa, one of the enemies of Nintendo's most famous hero - Maria.

Source: Techspot

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