A federal judge ordered former Reddit moderator James “Archbox” Williams to pay Nintendo $4.5 million after he failed to answer a lawsuit alleging he ran shops distributing pirated Switch games. The order permanently bars him from distributing Switch games illegally.
Nintendo’s lawsuit alleged Williams had run the shops since at least 2019, using software to bypass its systems and access more than 30 Switch games, including The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Mario Kart 8 Deluxe and Super Smash Bros. Ultimate. Nintendo sought the statutory maximum of $150,000 per title. Judge Lauren King said Williams knew of the case—he had hired a lawyer to object to a Google subpoena and continued posting on Reddit—but did not respond. She cited well-supported allegations that he knew the games were copyrighted and willfully copied and distributed them.
The permanent injunction also bars Williams from encouraging pirated downloads or attempts to bypass Nintendo’s systems, and orders him to disable his pirate shops and social media accounts. TorrentFreak reported that his Discord, Instagram, Reddit, Telegram, TikTok and X accounts were already gone; some shops had been taken offline after Nintendo sent a cease-and-desist letter in March 2024.
