The Paris Court of Appeal has just confirmed that the DSTORAGE company, which operates the 1fichier.com site, has engaged its civil liability by not blocking access to pirated versions of Nintendo games, as was required in 2021 following a complaint from the Japanese publisher.
Nintendo therefore once again won its case nearly two years after the first verdict was issued, which indicated that the publisher did not have to obtain a prior court decision to have the pirated files removed.
Nintendo vs. DSTORAGE Episode 2
The Paris Court of Appeal, which took charge of the case opposing Nintendo to DSTORAGE, confirmed the judgment of May 25, 2021 which indicated that the company operating 1fichier.com was civilly liable for not having withdrawn access from users. illicit files containing pirated copies of Nintendo games.
The judges also confirmed that Nintendo was not required to obtain a court order to require the shared hosting service to remove the files, nor to provide any copyright or trademark information that does not are not required by law. Consequently, DSTORAGE was ordered to pay 443,750 euros to Nintendo in damages, and to reimburse the 25,000 euros in legal costs incurred by the publisher. DSTORAGE still has the possibility of appealing in cassation to challenge this second decision by exploiting a possible procedural defect or poor application of the law in the judgment rendered.
An important decision for the industry
Rightsholders have been fighting for years against shared hosting providers, whose services are sometimes used to illegally distribute copyrighted content. These same providers generally defend themselves by stating that they are not responsible for what people add to their online storage space, but French justice has once again undermined this line of defense.
By upholding DSTORAGE’s conviction, justice tells all providers that they are held liable when illegal content is available through their service and nothing is done to remove it. For its part, Nintendo is delighted:
” Nintendo welcomes the decision of the Paris Court of Appeal, as it once again sends a clear message that by refusing to delete or withdraw access to unauthorized copies of video games despite prior notification, the services accommodation […] are responsible under French law and must remove or block access to such content […]. The verdict […] is important, not only for Nintendo, but also for the entire gaming industry. »
Nintendo should have a lot to do in the coming weeks with the release of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, which will not fail to be in the sights of pirates.
Source : GamesIndustry
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