SEGA gets $10,000 from piracy court case

SEGA won their piracy lawsuit against the site called MAPHIA, which SEGA claimed “allowed for, and actively encouraged, the upload and download of unauthorized versions of copyrighted Sega video games.” So what did SEGA walk away with? $10,000 dollars and paid legal fees. Slam dunk.

This isn’t a case of people backing up games. Sherman, the owner of the site, sold made profit by selling games copiers. So he basically sold hardware to allow people to copy video games, or so it seems. Sherman wasn’t found guilty of direct infringement though, he got ‘contributory infringement’. This means that he knew the copying was happening and the purpose of the site was to sell game copiers.

Sherman also had to face trademark infringement because the SEGA trademark was used. The court ruled “a likelihood of consumer confusion regarding hte sponsorship and origin of the game files available.

SEGA would have been entitled to triple the amount in damages if it could have proved their other claims, but the court said they couldn’t. I’m on the fence about this court case, I’m against piracy, but this guy wasn’t really pirating himself. What do you guys think?

[Source: ShackNews]

Ad:

7 responses to “SEGA gets $10,000 from piracy court case

  1. segaismysavior says:

    Reminds me of the R4 cartridge for DS. It was meant to "let users play homemade games," but that wasn't so much what it was used for. I don't recall any company getting money out of it though, just that it couldn't be sold anymore.

  2. sonichedgehog88 says:

    Fyi, you've got a little nudity in your pic (bewb action on the right).

    Just in case you hadn't noticed and were trying to keep everything clean.

    • George says:

      Yeah, I just noticed. Damn, edited the picture. Thanks for the heads up. I even photoshopped and didn't notice.

  3. Elk810 says:

    Is that Lil' Wayne in that picture? If it is, then it's pretty ironic since he told an interviewer he had a modded Xbox loaded with retro games on it.

    Also, some girl in the pic is showing off her knockers if you didn't notice.

  4. Elk810 says:

    Bye-Bye Booby Lady

  5. Arc Christelle says:

    Got the Original just in time!!!! YES!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *