If someone breaks into a warehouse and makes off with a pallet of cartridges, and then those carts are recovered, would it be strange if Nintendo resold those carts? It's their property at the end of the day.

Aside from that thought exercise, like many "internet facts" this one also might not be true, and repeating it doesn't really help either "side."

https://medium.com/@AberrantWolf/mario-illegal-roms-and-medi...