Ouch, thats going to leave a mark! $1,600,000 of them....

 Via the Daily Telegraph: A MAN who bragged about illegally uploading a Super Mario Bros computer game to the internet yesterday agreed to pay manufacturer Nintendo $1.6 million in a landmark anti-piracy court settlement.

James Burt, 24, agreed to pay $1.5 million in damages plus $100,000 in court costs to the gaming giant behind the hugely popular Wii game.

He is the first Australian individual to be sued in the Federal Court for game piracy.

Burt, who works at a Brisbane freight forwarding company, obtained a copy of Super Mario Bros Wii and made it available for download on November 6, a week before the title's official release, through a website since closed down "out of respect for Nintendo".

Nintendo Australia managing director Rose Lappin said the illegal copy was downloaded by more than 50,000 people around the world, causing untold losses.

"It was something we had to take action against as the game was massive and years of development were involved," Ms Lappin said.

"It was a disaster because we'd requested the game early and got it first in the world. When it was downloaded we were all devastated about that and the implications globally."

The Super Mario franchise is one of Nintendo's most popular stable of games.

Super Mario Bros Wii went on to sell more than 10 million copies worldwide in the first two months of its release.

Nintendo Australia became aware of the breach after Burt went online and bragged he had copied the game and made it available for others to easily download. "We just followed that lead," Ms Lappin said.

Ms Lappin said Burt had obtained an early copy of the game through a retailer who had mistakenly put the title on display before its official release.

According to Burt's MySpace page he was once employed by EB Games, Australia's largest computer game retailer. EB Games declined to comment yesterday

The Daily Telegraph contacted Burt. "I am not at liberty to discuss anything to do with the ruling. No further comments." he said in a message via Facebook.

---