Website owner who offered ROMs settles with Nintendo for $12 million 12

The owners of the defunct websites Loveroms.com and LoveRetro.co have signed an agreement with Nintendo that will bury the legal battle axe. The owners pay Nintendo $12.2 million.

Both websites only have a notice, with the telling headline ‘Apologies to Nintendo’. The notice states that the websites have historically offered illegal copies of Nintendo games, infringing Nintendo’s copyright. The owner of the websites, Jacob Mathias, says he acknowledges that Nintendo has suffered damage as a result and reports that all activities are discontinued.

The people behind the websites and Nintendo have reached an agreement whereby Nintendo will receive a compensation of $ 12.2 million. It is not clear how such a high settlement amount was reached; TorrentFreak speculates that this was partly done after negotiations from Nintendo, to deter any other similar websites. It seems unlikely that Jacob Mathias and his wife can afford this amount.

In addition to payment of the settlement amount, all Nintendo games and emulators must be transferred, as well as the right to the two websites. This ends the pending legal proceedings that Nintendo initiated in July. Nintendo then sued owner Jacob Mathias and his Arizona-based company Mathias Designs for copyright infringement.

The Japanese game company has filed a lawsuit in federal court in Arizona for both websites to be shut down. In addition, Nintendo filed a claim that compensation of USD 150,000 per game and USD 2 million in damages must be paid for each trademark used. TorrentFreak reported that this could add up to as much as $100 million. That potential doomsday scenario, and the undoubtedly high additional attorneys’ fees, was probably the reason for reaching a settlement.