Nintendo Co. Ltd. announced on Tuesday that the Australian man accused of illegally uploading the new Super Mario Bros. game has agreed to pay $1.3 million under a settlement deal facilitated by the US Federal Court.
It will be recalled that 24-year-old James Burt illegally uploaded the new Super Mario game for the Wii console to the Internet six days before its official global release.
In a statement, Nintendo spokesman said that the legal proceeding at the US Federal Court has led to the settlement with Burt, saying that the accused agreed to pay at least $1.5 million by way of damages due to massive losses in sales brought by his action.
According to reports, Burt was able to upload the new Super Mario game when a local shop accidentally put the game on display six days prior to its release.
After discovering that the game was already made available online, the company has put into action their computer experts to trace the origin of the upload.
The company said that Burt has breached anti-piracy and copyright laws by hacking into the game and illegally sharing it on the Internet through peer-to-peer networks.
Usually, the company will only release games in Australia six months after it was released in major gaming markets like Japan and United States. It was the first time that Australians were ahead of the release.
“The case was not isolated in Australia. It was actually a global issue now. To date, many of the Wii users were able to download the new Super Mario Bros. game causing major losses to the company and the industry as well,” Nintendo Australia Managing Director Rose Lappin said in an interview.
“Once upload on the Internet, it becomes anyone’s really,” Lappin added.
Aside from the settlement amount, Burt was ordered by the court to pay $100, 000 legal fee of Nintendo.