The French Court has decided in favor of Nintendo in a case that involves a file storage site and its management of Nintendo pirate games.
The decision had been previously taken by the Paris Court of Appeals in April 2023, and the Court found that Dstorage SAS was responsible for not eliminating or blocking access to pirated copies of Nintendo Games distributed through its 1ichier.com website.
The court ordered Dstorage to pay € 442,750 to Nintendo in compensation, plus € 27,000 to cover legal expenses, but the company decided to appeal the verdict, instead of accepting it.
Now, CASSATION COUR, the highest judicial court in France, has decided that Dstorage SAS is really responsible for the storage of unauthorized copies of Nintendo games, and their inability to eliminate or block access to them after Nintendo demanded that he reduce the content.
The decision effectively means that the participation sites in the French soil and in Europe (including 1phier.com) must quickly eliminate or block access to the illegal content when requested, and if they do not, they can pay compensation to the holders of effective rights.
In a statement, Nintendo said he was “satisfied with the conclusion of the court’s responsibility against Dstorage,” and added that “he believes that it is significant not only for Nintendo, but for the entire games industry.”
“He will ask that shatsters such as 1phier.com claim that he did it during the procedures on the merits that a prior decision of a court is needed before the pirated content must be eliminated, and confirms the rights that the holders must notify when claiming that the content notifies the copyright or the rights of commercial brands,” he said.
“Together with his recent decision of January 15, 2025, confirming that an important French Bank had legitimately ended a payment processing agreement with 1Fichier.com due to the lack of antipirable measures, the French Supreme Court leaves no doubt that shares such as 1ichier.com are not a safe refuge to store and share illegal content.”
The result is the last one of a series of legal decisions that have gone in favor of Nintendo, since it continues to fight against piracy and emulation of its software and hardware.
Last year he demanded the creator of the popular Nintendo Switch Yuzu emulator, alleging Zelda’s legend: the tears of the kingdom had been pirated more than one million times in the week and a half before its launch. Subsequently, the company issued a DMCA notice in Github that led the site to eliminate 8,535 repositories containing versions of the emulator.
Nintendo then placed his sights in the Switch Ryujinx emulator, which was subsequently closed by its main developer after Nintendo contacted him, offering “an agreement to stop working on the project, eliminate the organization and all assets related to the one who has control.”
