Nintendo has walked away from a UK lawsuit victorious, a win that ultimately means five of the country’s major ISPs are now required to “block or at least impede access” to certain websites that facilitate piracy on the Nintendo Switch.
The ruling, picked up by Eurogamer early this morning, specifically requires ISPs to shut off access to four websites that either distribute pirated Switch games or help modify Switch consoles to play pirated games.
“Today, the UK High Court found the sale and distribution of ‘circumvention’ devices for the Nintendo Switch unlawful. Nintendo is pleased that the UK High Court has confirmed that dealing in devices or software that enable piracy on Nintendo Switch systems is unlawful,” a Nintendo spokesperson tells Eurogamer.
Specifically, the court found that the websites in question targeted people within the UK, infringed on Nintendo’s copyrights, and had no legal justification for the modifications being offered.
The legal ruling is the latest in Nintendo’s saga against piracy purveyors, a battle that has tried to snuff out both Switch piracy and piracy of older classic games. Leading up to this lawsuit, the company moved to ban Switch consoles that took advantage of a hardware exploit found on older systems, and has been attempting to curb hackers’ efforts to crack the system since.
To name just a few of those legal efforts, Nintendo landed a win in a Canadian lawsuit against a site a few years back for distributing piracy-enabling flashcarts, filed DMCA takedowns against the parties behind the homebrew 3DS app Freeshop, and won a copyright and trademark infringement case against the emulation sites LoveROMS and LoveRETRO, all within the past few years.