This article was an interesting read. It goes into detail about Gary Bowser’s life growing up, his role in Team Xecuter, what his life is like today, and his thoughts about his $14.5m fine to Nintendo.
Some choice quotes:
“I started becoming a middleman in between the people doing the development work, and the people actually owning the mod chips, playing the games,” [Gary Bowser] says. “I would get feedback from the testers, and then I would send it to the developers … I can handle people, and that’s why I ended up getting more involved.”
Bowser was charged with fraud over his connection to Team Xecuter. While in custody, he was also hit with a civil suit from Nintendo. Between the civil and criminal cases, he was ordered to pay $14.5m.
Pirates are usually fined in court, but Bowser’s case was meant to draw attention. “The sentence was like a message to other people that [are] still out there, that if they get caught … [they’ll] serve hard time,” he says. As he tells it, Bowser didn’t make or develop the products that sent him to prison; he “just” updated the websites that told people what they could buy, and kept them informed about what was coming next.
Bowser maintains that he could have fought the allegations, and that other members of the hacking group remain at large. But fighting against 13 charges would have cost time and money. It was easier, he claims, to plead guilty and only deal with a couple of the charges. As a part of that agreement, Bowser now has to send Nintendo 20-30% of any money left over after he pays for necessities such as rent.
“I’ll pay them what I can, which won’t be very much money, that’s for sure,” he says. Despite his predicament, Bowser counts his blessings. “It could be a lot worse,” he says. Bowser has now managed to secure housing, and he thinks that after rent, he has a couple of hundred dollars leftover for food and other necessities. He assumes he’ll be turning to food support services.
Downright bizarre that corporations can demand such an extent of a lifetime punishment for non-violent crimes. Truly the law only serves the rich…
It’s friggin sad that most fingers are pointing to either side accusing each other of all sorts of shit, when they should be instead pointed towards about 100 people, and a system. The government is just a distraction, and a subterfuge, while the 1% absolutely raids everything else. Trump vs Biden isn’t the thing we should be focused on right now. It’s the population vs the Corporate West.
The state is a tool, and currently in most of the world it’s a tool of the 1%… people really forget about the French, American, Dutch etc. revolutions? Where the capitalist class violently overtook the state from the aristocracy and rebuilt it to serve them?
Yeah, I might be an idiot on this, but imo Nintendo and whoever judged this case have committed a far more egregious crime. Nothing Bowser did hurt a single soul anywhere near as much as Nintendo and that judge has decided to hurt him in retaliation. Some numbers were slightly less high as some people might speculate they could have been. That’s it. Fuck Nintendo. Fuck their inhumanity and the same of their judge.
Anyone interested in diving deep into the rabbit hole on Team Xecuter and Gary, I highly recommend the Darknet Diaries episode in which Jack interviews Gary and goes through the history.
he will likely die before it’s paid off (especially if interest accumulates). the real ‘sentence’ is being reminded each paycheck.
He should just move to Canada or Mexico.
In the Darknet Diaries episode linked below, Bowser shares his experience living in the Dominican Republic and how that all came to an abrupt and unpleasant end.
