Switch pirate dodges Nintendo’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit
Jesse Keighin has defiantly doubled down in the high-staked lawsuit, avoiding being served. Now Nintendo wants to serve the streamer’s grandma.
Last month we shared news of a streamer and YouTuber who is alleged to have repeatedly shared gameplay footage of several pre-release first-party Nintendo games. The somewhat brass-faced individual in question — a Jesse Keighin (known online as EveryGameGuru) — found themselves facing legal action from Nintendo of America. The only issue for Nintendo? He’s avoided being served.
🫣
– Streamer played multiple pirated games online before release;
– Nintendo is seeking damages which could total millions;
– Nintendo lawyers have attempted to serve him papers;
– He has avoided being formally served multiple times now;
– He has bragged online about evading action so far;
– Now Nintendo want to serve via his family members;
– Nintendo has a ton of evidence;
– The court needs to decide how to proceed.
The Switch maker put in a legal challenge against the streamer with the U.S. District Court in early November, stating that Keighin’s repeated streaming of pre-release software on the likes of YouTube and Twitch was harmful to Nintendo and in-turn promoted piracy (such as via emulation tools Yuzu and Ryujinx).
However, over a month on now, and it seems Nintendo is having some trouble getting the guy to actually engage with the lawsuit. Any attempt from Nintendo to serve Keighin directly has fallen flat. Updated filings (shared on Friday, December 13 and seen directly by overkill) show that there has now been five unsuccessful in-person attempts to serve legal papers to the defiant streamer during the past month.
According to this new document, Nintendo understands that 38 year old Keighin “either works from home or is unemployed“, and as such they’re not aware of any additional workplace address where he could be served his papers.
Given these challenges, Nintendo has now requested further court permission to serve the pressing legal documents to Keighin’s close relatives, including his partner, mother, or even grandmother.
“Nintendo has gone to great effort and exercised extreme due diligence in seeking to serve Mr. Keighin, attempting service at five different addresses he is associated with”
This fresh 16-page legal filing also highlights how Nintendo has tried to reach Keighin on an email addresses that he himself has used to communicate directly with Nintendo in the past.
Keighin isn’t just outright ignoring the case though — instead he appears to be doubling down on trash talking Nintendo and the associated law firm that’s assisting with the case. Screenshot evidence shows Keighin posting boastful and derogatory comments online in indirect response to communication efforts from Nintendo — the updated filing refers to this as “threats and hostile language toward outside counsel“.
His online posts (several screenshots of which are in this new filing) highlight his glee at his evasion to date, and note that his plan to evade any liability with this case (which is thought could total several million) is just to declare bankruptcy.
Keighin has confirmed publicly that he is aware of this lawsuit, even going so far as talking with a local news reporter from 9NEWS in his hometown. Following the subsequent publication of this 9NEWS report, it’s noted that Keighin did then start to delete “a substantial amount of his online posts relevant to this suit“.
Nintendo argues that serving via Keighin’s relatives is now appropriate given the streamers apparent evasion tactics and his repeated clear, demonstrated knowledge of the lawsuit. The court will now need to review and decide whether to approve this motion for serving via Keighin’s relatives. I’m sure that’s just what his partner, mom, or grandma wants for Christmas…
Keighin is described in this new court document as “a recidivist infringer of Nintendo’s intellectual property“. Whether you think he is or not (and it sure looks like he is), it seems like Nintendo has plenty of receipts here — so it’s likely just a matter of time before the fuck around stage truly ends and the finding out phase really begins.
Source link