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When 54-year-old Gary Bowser pleaded guilty to his role in helping Team Xecuter with their piracy-enabling line of console accessories, he realized he would likely never pay back the $14.5 million he owed Nintendo in civil and criminal penalties. In a new interview with The Guardian, though, Bowser says he began making $25 monthly payments toward those massive fines even while serving a related prison sentence.
Last year, Bowser was released after serving 14 months of that 40-month sentence (in addition to 16 months of pre-trial detention), which was spread across several different prisons. During part of that stay, Bowser tells The Guardian, he was paid $1 an hour for four-hour shifts counseling other prisoners on suicide watch.
[...] Nintendo lawyers were upfront that they pushed for jail time for Bowser to "send a message that there are consequences for participating in a sustained effort to undermine the video game industry."
[...] Bowser also maintains that he wasn't directly involved with the coding or manufacture of Team Xecuter's products and only worked on incidental details like product testing, promotion, and website coding. Speaking to Ars in 2020, Aurora, a writer for hacking news site Wololo, described Bowser as "kind of a PR guy" for Team Xecuter. Despite this, Bowser said taking a plea deal on just two charges saved him the time and money of fighting all 14 charges made against him in court.
[...] Now that he's free, Bowser says he has been relying on friends and a GoFundMe[https://www.gofundme.com/f/garyopa-restarting-his-life] page to pay for rent and necessities as he looks for a job. That search could be somewhat hampered by his criminal record and by terms of the plea deal that prevent him from working with any modern gaming hardware.
Despite this, Bowser told The Guardian that his current circumstances are still preferable to a period of homelessness he experienced during his 20s. And while console hacking might be out for Bowser, he is reportedly still "tinkering away with old-school Texas Instruments calculators" to pass the time.
Alternate source with GoFundMe link (added to the story above): Nintendo Sued a Man So Severely That He Can Only Survive on GoFundMe
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(Score: 2) by crafoo on Monday February 05 2024, @04:14PM (8 children)
they instituted the plea deal system, which I believe is entirely evil and unconstitutional. with this method you are not judged by 12 of your peers but an almost certainly corrupt judge and gaggle of bureaucrats. an actual jury would bring common sense into the process and allow the populace to disregard laws they feel are unjust. as was intended.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Monday February 05 2024, @04:56PM (4 children)
Fair point; although one is not required to make such a plea, it is always a possibility to fall back on the court.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Tuesday February 06 2024, @10:06AM (3 children)
Consider the fine print in those "contracts of adhesion" that many businesses demand agreement to ( usually in the "Terms and Conditions" behind the "agree" button when visiting a business on the web ) where you agree to "binding arbitration" aka "Kangaroo Kourt" and waive any right to a jury trial.
When I see that kind of business talk in a contract, all sorts of red flags go up, almost as if they were flat telling me they have already prepared for my disappointment should I buy their offering.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday February 06 2024, @10:22AM (1 child)
Hmm, I have never noticed that and I do (sometimes) read the T&Cs. But perhaps it is one of those USian things? I couldn't find much detail about it from a UK point of view.
(Score: 2) by PiMuNu on Tuesday February 06 2024, @10:25AM
ps: OTOH TFA refers to US case so UK or elsewhere law is somewhat irrelevant.
(Score: 2) by tekk on Wednesday February 07 2024, @12:18AM
A lot of those, hilariously, have been getting removed from contracts. To ensure the correct ruling, it's written in there that the corporation will pay for the arbitration.
....turns out if you get a class-action amount of people demanding that the company pay for arbitration, that costs the company a whole lot.
(Score: 3, Informative) by PinkyGigglebrain on Monday February 05 2024, @10:55PM (2 children)
Those usually picked for juries wouldn't know "common sense" if it came up and smacked them in the face. Both the Prosecution and Defense usually excuse any juror that shows any kind of intelligence or critical thinking ability. They want the jury stacked with those who can be easily manipulated by a good emotional argument rather than a factual one.
And sadly the Right of a juror to nullify [wikipedia.org] is, to the best of my current knowledge, only in the United States of America, and even then most of the US population are unaware of that power as knowledge of it is no longer included in the briefing/instructions given to jury when they are sworn in and the subject never gets taught anywhere outside law schools.
"Beware those who would deny you Knowledge, For in their hearts they dream themselves your Master."
(Score: 3, Informative) by tekk on Tuesday February 06 2024, @12:06AM
As far as I'm aware that'd be possible in any system of juries. "Jury Nullification" is simply another word for passing a not-guilty verdict regardless of the person's guilt. In Scotland they have a 3rd option which is a bit cleaner: Not Proven. Basically "We weren't convinced by the prosecution."
(Score: 2) by tangomargarine on Tuesday February 06 2024, @03:55PM
In fact, supposedly that "do you have any beliefs that would prevent you from ruling in accordance with the law" (or however they phrase it) question when questioning the potential jurors is specifically to nail you if you say "no" and then bring up jury nullification later as perjuring yourself.
CGP Grey - The Law You Won't Be Told [youtube.com]
"Is that really true?" "I just spent the last hour telling you to think for yourself! Didn't you hear anything I said?"