The Chronic Consumer

I just read that an Australia man who bought an early copy of New Super Mario Bros. Wii, hacked the game, and then uploaded it on the Internet was fined $1 million for his actions. James Burt, 24, also has to pay Nintendo’s legal fees, which fall somewhere in the $100,000 range.

It sounds like the illegal uploader is just a regular guy, so I don’t know that he’ll actually be able to pay back those fines, but Nintendo is probably more concerned with the message at this point. Video game companies, just like movie studios and musicians, are seeing their bottom line damaged by illegal downloads of game titles. By showing that they’ll file suit and go after 7-figure judgments, Nintendo is probably deterring at least a couple of folks from uploading games.