User:DeadPixel/sandbox/RomUniverse

Background
RomUniverse was a site created by Matthew Storman that distributed ROMs of old games for many systems. The problem with this site was that it charged money for premium accounts, which would allow faster access to the ROMs.

Lawsuit From Nintendo
In September 2019, Nintendo, a company known for having a stance against free to download ROMs, filed a lawsuit against RomUniverse. While many people have usually criticized Nintendo for taking down ROM sites, they were in support of this lawsuit due to the previously mentioned problem with the site (some people still criticized Nintendo for this, but those people were unaware of the premium price). The lawsuit stated that Storman profited off of pirated games owned by Nintendo. Storman decided to fight Nintendo in court without hiring an attorney. He denied the fact that he distributed ROMs and broke the law. These denials failed after it was shown that he previously admitted to distributing ROMs. The site allegedly gained $30,000-36,000 in revenue from premium accounts. Storman was declared guilty for for direct, contributory, and vicarious copyright infringement, as well as trademark infringement. Nintendo demanded over $15 million in damages, but the judge ruled that Stroman should pay a smaller sum. Storman was forced to pay over $2.1 million in damages.