Man sentenced to 4 months in prison for selling cracked Switch consoles

　About the case in which a man, surnamed Lin (hereinafter “Lin”) in Taipei City, cracked Nintendo Switch consoles and provided to customers the service of bypassing Switch consoles’ anti-piracy function, the Taiwan Taipei District Court had heard this case and sentenced Lin to 4-month imprisonment for the offense of providing the service of disarming technological protection measures as defined in subparagraph 2, Article 96-1 of the Copyright Act.  The punishment may be commuted to a fine payment and the illicit proceeds in an amount of TTWD2,492,000 should be confiscated.  For the civil aspect of this case, Lin should pay TWD1,869,000 to Nintendo Co., Ltd. in damages.  This judgment is appealable.  

　As elucidated in the judgment, Lin realized that Nintendo Switch consoles are equipped with anti-piracy function to detect and verify if the game cartridges being read are genuine ones made and authorized by Nintendo Co., Ltd., and pirated cartridges or memory card containing pirated game software are unable to be executed.  From January 8, 2022 through September 9, 2023, Lin ahd purchased modification chips and flexible flat cables from Taobao website and had them imported into Taiwan.  With these components, Lin set up an online store on Shopee with the account, “sadomamo” to engage in the business of offering the technical services of cracking anti-piracy protection.  

　Lin challenged the alleged criminal proceeds of TWD6,866,384 as indicated in the bill of indictment against him, arguing that he is not a professional seller and does not have a business registration so that he cannot issue receipts to customers.  As to his service of modifying Nintendo Switch consoles, if customers do not provide their own Switch consoles, he purchased one for customers and modified it and then delivered the modified console to the customers, which would usually cost him more than TWD10,000 for each modified console.  As such, he claimed that the alleged criminal proceeds of TWD6,866,384 included significant costs of Switch consoles, memory cards, modification chips and other necessary components, and Shopee transaction fees.  After deduction of these costs, what Lin had actually earned amounted to only 3.2% of the total sales amount, which is far less than the alleged sales amount indicated in the bill of indictment.  Moreover, he admitted that he had hired someone to inflate transaction volumes and manipulate reviews.  Lin’s attorney also defended him by contending that Lin’s online store also sold legitimate Switch consoles and provided console repairing service, in addition to the service of modifying Switch consoles.  Therefore, the proceeds of crime should not be determined in an amount of TWD6,866,384.  

　The court held that it is difficult to determine the exact amount of proceeds of crime, which necessitates an estimated calculation of it.  Based on the objective evidence of this case and in terms of the calculation method most favorable to Lin, the court estimated and determined that the service fee for modification each time should be at least TWD4,000, and a total of 623 transactions conducted by Lin would result in the criminal proceeds in the least amount of TWD2,492,000, which should be confiscated in accordance with the Criminal Code.  (Released 2024.10.17) 
/CCS