Nintendo Wins Lawsuit Against Pirate Jesse Keighin for Streaming Leaked Games

In a striking victory for intellectual property rights, Nintendo has secured a lawsuit against Jesse “EveryGameGuru” Keighin, a notorious gamer who gained infamy for pirating and livestreaming Nintendo games before their official release. Keighin’s brash comments on social media, boasting about his piracy and claiming that “you might run a corporation, but I run the streets,” have become emblematic of the arrogance many associate with modern piracy.

Now, after being found guilty, Keighin is on the hook for a hefty $17,500 in damages.

Keighin’s case has sparked a heated debate over digital piracy, intellectual property rights, and the lengths companies must go to protect their products. It all began last November when Nintendo filed a lawsuit in a Colorado court, accusing Keighin of illegally streaming and distributing pirated copies of their games, including high-profile titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, Super Mario Party Jamboree, and Mario & Luigi: Brothership. According to the lawsuit, Keighin streamed at least 10 pirated Nintendo games before their official release dates and even went so far as to instruct viewers on how to acquire these games through illegal emulators, including Yuzu and Ryujinx.

Since 2022, Keighin allegedly streamed these pirated games over 50 times, gaining an audience eager to bypass Nintendo’s protective measures. Not only did he provide access to the games, but he also trafficked in circumvention devices like the aforementioned emulators. Nintendo argued that his actions resulted in millions of dollars in damages, stemming from lost sales and the undermining of their intellectual property protections.

The court, however, did not grant all of Nintendo’s requests. It rejected an injunction against unspecified “third parties” and refused to order the destruction of the piracy tools used by Keighin. The court found these demands unclear and unreasonable without more information about who these third parties were or what exactly constituted the circumvention devices. Despite this, an injunction was issued against Keighin, preventing him from continuing to infringe upon Nintendo’s copyrights by streaming pirated games or distributing emulators and other circumvention tools.

Keighin did not mount any defense or objections, and the court’s decision now stands as final. In the larger context, this ruling comes on the heels of another legal battle in which Nintendo is suing a Reddit moderator for $4.5 million over similar piracy-related actions. While the $17,500 awarded to Nintendo in the Keighin case may seem small in comparison to the scale of the damages the company claims to have suffered, it sends a clear message: piracy will not be tolerated.

Keighin’s own words, “You might run a corporation, but I run the streets,” have certainly aged poorly, as the legal system has proven that corporations, particularly those with the resources of a company like Nintendo, can swiftly bring such street-level defiance to a halt. Ironically, it now appears that Nintendo, not Keighin, is in control of the streets.

For many gamers and digital rights advocates, this case has sparked a broader conversation about the ethics of piracy and the role of major corporations in policing it. While some argue that piracy is only justifiable when games are no longer commercially available, the overwhelming majority see it as an infringement on intellectual property that harms both the creators and the industry as a whole. In the case of Nintendo, whose business relies heavily on the success of its game sales, the damage caused by piracy is not trivial.

Ultimately, the case serves as a reminder that while individuals might feel emboldened by their ability to bypass digital protections, the legal and financial repercussions of piracy can be severe. As for Keighin, his days of “running the streets” are likely over. With a $17,500 price tag now attached to his actions, it’s safe to say he won’t be boasting anytime soon.