The adage that “a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client” has found a new context in the case of Ryan Daly, a former operator of the now-closed moddedhardware.com. Following a recent ruling in a Washington state District Court, Daly is facing a hefty $2 million penalty owed to Nintendo for violating copyright laws.
The judgment, mutually accepted by both Nintendo and Daly, highlights that he knowingly marketed devices like the MIG Switch and MIG Dumper, designed primarily to evade technological protection measures (TPMs). The court found that these devices had little to no significant commercial purpose outside of circumventing these protections. Furthermore, Daly was implicated in selling and installing mod chips to bypass Nintendo’s digital rights management (DRM), in addition to distributing copies of copyrighted Nintendo games.
Nintendo’s lawsuit claimed that the company initially reached out to Daly regarding the sale of these circumvention devices back in March 2024. At that time, Daly reportedly consented, both verbally and in writing, to cease further sales. However, his continued activities prompted Nintendo to file a lawsuit in June of the following year.
Daly represented himself in the legal proceedings and employed several unconventional defenses. He argued that Nintendo’s copyrights should be deemed invalid, questioned the company’s standing to file the suit, and alleged that any contract with him was obtained through fraudulent means. However, the court reaffirmed Nintendo’s ownership of valid copyrights linked to works protected by TPMs, including its games and the Switch operating system.
In addition to the $2 million fine, the judgment restricts Daly from “obtaining, possessing, accessing, or using” any devices or consoles that circumvent DRM, regardless of selling intentions. He is also prohibited from publishing or linking to any content that provides hacking instructions and cannot engage in reverse engineering of any Nintendo consoles or games. Furthermore, the ownership of Daly’s ModdedHardware.com domain name will be transferred to Nintendo.
This ruling marks another significant legal win for Nintendo, following a previous case in which Gary “GaryOPA” Bowser, a prominent figure in the creation of Team Xecuter’s SX Switch hacking devices, entered into a $4.5 million plea deal. Bowser has since served 14 months out of a 40-month prison sentence in that case and indicated last year that he would likely be repaying Nintendo indefinitely.
