Topic: Nintendo Wins Payment in Piracy Case

[WindyMan]

Uruguayan counterfeiter caught by Nintendo owes the game maker a cool $2.5 million.
 http://www.nintendoworldreport.com/newsArt.cfm?artid=13782

 A URUGUAYAN COUNTERFEITER IS ORDERED TO PAY NINTENDO 2.5 MILLION U.S. DOLLARS    

Montevideo, Uruguay, July 5, 2007 -  A Uruguayan Civil Court Judge recently ordered a major counterfeiter of Nintendo video game products to pay Nintendo 2.5 million U.S. dollars in damages and legal expenses.  The Court determined that the offender and three of his related corporations, were responsible for the sale and distribution of tens of thousands of counterfeit Nintendo products.    

In 2001, the National Board of Intelligence raided four retail shops and a warehouse, seizing seven truck loads of counterfeit Nintendo video game products in Montevideo.   Approximately 30,000 counterfeit Nintendo products were confiscated and valued at over one million US dollars.  The seizure was reportedly the largest carried out in Uruguay of counterfeit video game products.  A principal owner was identified for both the retail shops and the warehouse. Following the seizure, the owner was criminally charged with trademark counterfeiting.  Curiously, the criminal trial ended in 2003 with the granting of an unexplained executive pardon or "gracia".    

In addition to the criminal charges, Nintendo filed a civil action against the owner and his businesses, claiming he was selling and distributing counterfeit Nintendo products on a large scale, obtaining sizeable profits, and damaging Nintendo's reputation. After years of litigation, Nintendo applauds the Court's decision as it serves as an extraordinary example of justice against intellectual property crimes.  Nintendo is pleased that this major counterfeiter will finally have to pay for his illegal activities.    

This action exemplifies Nintendo's commitment to combat the international problem of product piracy," says Jodi Daugherty, senior director, anti-piracy, Nintendo of America. "These types of illegal operations simply will not be tolerated and Nintendo will do everything in its power to protect its business and its customers."

[Ceric]

Good for them.  Stinks about the Criminal Trial though.

[Arbok]

Senior director of anti-piracy for Nintendo of America? Man, I wonder what a normal day is like for that position.

[mantidor]

Anti-piracy is a lost cause in latinamerica, lower your prices on games and consoles and then maybe you will start to see some change.

[KDR_11k]

Yeah but if you make them lower the US will no longer be the land of the cheap! We cannot have that!

[Kairon]

Why is the stuff so expensive? Is there really that much red tape to doing business and importing and etc that they have the charge 700 dollars for the Wii in Brazil?

[Ceric]

Quote
Originally posted by: Arbok
Senior director of anti-piracy for Nintendo of America? Man, I wonder what a normal day is like for that position.

Lots of calls that anger people?  That would be an interesting/stressful position.  Be the fall guy when things like that happen...

[TJ Spyke]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
Why is the stuff so expensive? Is there really that much red tape to doing business and importing and etc that they have the charge 700 dollars for the Wii in Brazil?

It's actually about $1,100 in Brazil. The real price is only about $274, it's the ridiculously high taxes from the Brazilian government that makes it so expensive. So it's the Brazilian government's fault. The Xbox 360 is is almost $1,600 in Brazil.

[Athrun Zala]

Quote
Originally posted by: Kairon
Why is the stuff so expensive? Is there really that much red tape to doing business and importing and etc that they have the charge 700 dollars for the Wii in Brazil?

simple

price of the stuff + shipping & handling + national/regional pride tax + poor population = higher prices

if they actually made things here, they would be a lot cheaper, and people would buy them, especially if given the right incentive (despite the rampart piracy, CDs and DVDs pressed in the region do sell, their prices being similar to those in the US). Case in point, TecToy in Brazil made a deal with Sega a very long time ago, which gave them the rights to build and distribute the machines in the region. What happened? the Master System became crazy popular in Brazil (not so much in the rest of LA due to huge amount of Famiclones), even having exclusive games and system designs (like the MS Super Compact).
And it's not like they couldn't build factories here, moreso taking into account the cheaper wages rates...

Or, they could just keep ingnoring the region (as always), and make sure their systems are easily pirate-able. That way, they will sell by the bucketloads, but won't make any revenue in games (case in point, PS1 and PS2...)