Yea more than likely he won't pay too  much of it, probably just most of the costs for trial.  Just file for bankruptcy or something.  Will of course ruin him, but Nintendo won't see most of it.  But it's more of a message to be sent to others rather than regaining lost capital. 

Either way he won't be able to pay back either amount. So it doesn't really matter. Then there is the issue of him being 1 of 50,001 people participating in this crime. Very disproportional don't you think? Obviously these methods of trying to make up for lost ground by suing people by ridiculous amounts aren't working, and another solution should be found. The way some of you are going about this, I hope that you think everybody who steals should get their hand chopped of because "eye for an eye" isn't how the legal system should work, especially so when it is disproportional in the punishers side when you disregard the other 50,000 people participating in the crime just because they can't be caught. 

I haven't had time to read this entire thread and I'm not sure if this has been mentioned but this was an OUT-OF-COURT settlement.

This means that our infamous pirate was presumably given legal advice that the 1.5 million was a pretty good deal and that going to court could have resulted in even more severe punishment. Nintendo didn't have to offer him a deal and if it went to court they could have buried any lawyer this guy could have secured.

You're right.

He got off easy.

Recommended Australian Retail Price for New Super Mario Brothers Wii = $100AU

Number of illegal downloads from this man's pirate source = 50,000

50,000 * 100 = $5,000,000

Assuming Nintendo make half of the game's sales (in the early days of release, they would make at LEAST that, probably two thirds) = $2,000,000

Nintendo comp'd him a million Australian dollars.

Exactly. But that's obviously not even near $5 million. Just for starters, even if every download was a lost sale (wich is a ridiculous, unbased assumption), do you actually think Nintendo get's 100% pure profit on the retail price of games? Right...

He got off easy? Like hell he did, like he says it's ruined his life. Doing a 5 year stretch inside for manslaughter is less devastating than being fined that much.

It's VERY silly to apply maths to this, that's not at all how a punishment should be worked out. There are too many variables as to how much Nintendo have actually lost, i.e nothing because if this guy hadn't of put it up someone else would have and they would have gone there.

A reasonable fine and a short stint in jail would prevent him from ever doing it again, and still put others off.

Not that I would ever pirate, but if I was in that position, i'd refuse to pay unless it was resonable, opting for time inside.

There are a couple more explanations.

The guy could just be really stupid (actually, he is, that's why he was caught) and had very, very stupid lawyers (now this get's quite unlikelly)

Or, as some people said earlier, Nintendo offerd him to settle on this value just for the headline material. He won't pay anything and Nintendo won't ever ask for it. This way it's good for Nintendo (get's lots and lots of anti-piracy pubicity instead of just some thousand dollars) and good for the guy (get's out for free or about that, gets to appear on tv, lays low and stays quite).

Really, there's no way $1.5 million would be awarded on court. If you just factor the fact that Nintendo doesn't get even near 100% of the retail price of games, it would mean about 70% of the downloads would have to actually mean lost sales, wich is a very hard case to deffend, as tehre are still other factors that would put the number down. But it would make sense for him to settle on this value if he was afraid of doing jail time. He most likelly won't pay/won't pay it all, but won't get out of it nearly as well as in the last supposition.

So, again, I think it's absurdly unlikelly that he would have to pay even more had the case gone to court.

This dickhead reminds of people who get parking tickets, they take a chance breaking a law they know full well they shouldnt, they know what will happen if they get caught and then cry about when they get caught.

Though shit! You have no sympathy from me.

What if they had their feet cut ou insted of a ticket, would you still agree?

1 - Current Affair sucks, worst journalism by far in this country.
2 - Uploaded for "billions" of downloaders? what?
3 - Rose Lapen is the most uncharismatic Nintendo executive i have ever seen. Cammy is better.

Sidenote - I bet they didn't report on the courts findings last week that no isp in australia was liable for their customers torrenting of film and music. Thats the best news.