A federal judge in Washington entered a $4.5 million default judgment against James Williams, a Reddit moderator Nintendo alleged ran piracy storefronts for Nintendo Switch video games. Williams, known online as “Archbox,” failed to respond to the lawsuit, and Judge Lauren King ruled in Nintendo’s favor without a trial.
A default judgment is issued when a defendant does not participate in litigation, allowing the court to resolve the case in the plaintiff’s favor. The court awarded Nintendo $150,000 for each of 30 copyrighted games named in the suit, totaling $4.5 million in statutory damages.
What Williams Was Accused Of
Nintendo alleged that Williams became a leading moderator of r/SwitchPirates and used that position to solicit Nintendo eShop gift cards and game copies. Those items, Nintendo claimed, were then copied and funneled into pirate storefronts.
Judge King found that Nintendo had shown Williams promoted online shops offering pirated game files and circumvention software. The court also found he encouraged others to contribute unauthorized titles and assisted in distribution despite knowing the activity violated copyright law.
The games named in the damages calculation include Animal Crossing: New Horizons, Luigi’s Mansion 3, and Pikmin 4.
It is worth noting that Nintendo’s allegations, accepted by the court for purposes of the default, were not tested through an adversarial trial.
The Injunction Goes Further Than the Fine
Judge King’s permanent injunction required Williams to immediately disable online shops he allegedly operated, shops that purportedly offered extensive libraries of pirated Switch games. The order extends to social-media accounts used for distribution across Reddit, Instagram, X, and TikTok.
Williams is permanently barred from distributing, selling, uploading, or advertising any software or hardware used to bypass Nintendo’s copyright protections. Nintendo pursued statutory copyright damages in this motion but did not seek separate damages under the DMCA’s anti-trafficking provision, according to the court filing.
The injunction targets not just the files themselves but the storefronts and promotional accounts used to make piracy accessible and organized. Default judgments of this size are rarely collected in full, but the permanent injunction dismantling Williams’s accounts and storefronts carries immediate operational weight regardless of payment.
Nintendo’s Broader Enforcement Push
In a separate action, a Dutch court recently ruled against the sale of Mig Switch flash cartridges, devices that can enable users to play unauthorized game copies. The court ordered the relevant seller to stop offering them.
The two cases together suggest a broad enforcement approach targeting the tools, the distributors, and the communities built around unauthorized access. Rights holders watching this outcome may find a precedent here, with combined monetary damages and shutdown orders covering both storefronts and promotional accounts pointing toward a model for future copyright enforcement actions.
