Nintendo to ROM sites: Forget cease-and-desist, now we're suing
Nintendo's attitude toward ROM releases—either original games' files or fan-made edits—has often erred on the side of litigiousness. But in most cases, the game producer has settled on cease-and-desist orders or DMCA claims to protect its IP.
This week saw the company grow bolder with its legal action, as Nintendo of America filed a lawsuit (PDF) on Thursday seeking millions in damages over classic games' files being served via websites.
The Arizona suit, as reported by TorrentFreak, alleges "brazen and mass-scale infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property rights" by the sites LoveROMs and LoveRetro. These sites combine ROM downloads and in-browser emulators to deliver one-stop gaming access, and the lawsuit includes screenshots and interface explanations to demonstrate exactly how the sites' users can gain access to "thousands of [Nintendo] video games, related copyrighted works, and images."
Also at Tom's Hardware.
(Score: 2) by boltronics on Tuesday July 24 2018, @03:36AM (3 children)
Here I was thinking that Nintendo didn't care about older games these days? Aside from the S/NES Classics (which have a fixed number of games that cannot be officially updated), Nintendo haven't released any Virtual Console titles for the switch - which is the main reason I keep my Wii-U around.
I hear the upcoming Switch subscription service will try to entice users by making a small selection of the classic games available, so that may be a factor.
There's also the problem of some games like TMNT for the NES that are no longer available on the Wii-U Virtual Console for sale due to licensing issues, apparently in this case related to Konami's use of the TNMT property. Unless you want to purchase an actual old-school NES and physical cartridge of the game (which is both expensive and a pain to deal with), ROM sites would be your only option. I guess if Nintendo isn't allowed to sell it, nobody can have it.
It's GNU/Linux dammit!
(Score: 2, Touché) by anubi on Tuesday July 24 2018, @04:59AM (2 children)
Nintendo needs more people like ME!
I'm sure Nintendo is very pleased to know I haven't pirated not even ONE of their videogames, even obsolete ones.
Not only that, I don't even own a thing I can play them on if I did!
( Actually, I find videogames a terrible waste of time, and refuse to mess with them, I'd rather be designing my Arduino/Raspberri PI compatible I/O boards. )
Time for more Executive-Class thinking here... maybe with enough discouragement of people who are interested in your product, there will be more people like ME!
Lawyers await your handshake and retainer fees. Let's do the Executive Leadership thing while you still have people who give a damn about your product. Shake the hand. Sue your congregation. If you can sour the milk enough, no one will be left drinking it and your problem has been solved!
This is a good example of that "Thinking Outside the Box" that makes the Organizational and Leadership Skills of the Executive so much more valuable than the other members of the team.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]
(Score: 3, Informative) by Magic Oddball on Tuesday July 24 2018, @07:33AM (1 child)
That would mean that you don't have a Raspberry Pi, a computer manufactured after 1995, an Android tablet, or an Android smartphone.
Those are different kinds of hobbies altogether. Video games are more parallel to reading books, masturbating, telling/writing stories, listening to music, playing an instrument, creating artwork, watching sports/videos, playing with pets, surfing the Internet, or other non-productive forms of relaxation. Hopefully you don't limit your recreational time to fully productive things, as I suspect that wouldn't be entirely healthy...
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Tuesday July 24 2018, @08:20AM
My ignorance of the games is showing, I see. Had no idea they would play on an android.
Now, that should make Nintendo super happy. Here I had the means and still did not do it.
But Nintendo's problem is the exact opposite of mine. Everyone knows who Nintendo is, and shells out bucks to buy their boxes.
And as far as productive activity goes, I spend way way way too much time on walks, and my bucket list is to go out and visit a lot of places I've heard of, but never seen, like Sedona, Arizona, Supai, Arizona ( Part of Grand Canyon ), get a National Parks pass, and get in that diesel van I just bought and go all over the place in it.
Right now, I have to complete my interface modules because everything I have, including my van, will have them in it. For my house, sprinkler controllers, security, lights, thermostat, etc. For the van, transmission controller, another one doing security, another doing engine monitoring. It will be a demo showing typical things my modules will do, and how to set them up to do other things. I'd like to sell 'em to farmers. For little things like watching animal pens and checking up on other things to make sure they are working properly. Is the temperature OK? Humidity? Do they have water? Are the fans running? That sort of thing. Logged. Exceptions sent to their phone via SMS. Accept instructions via SMS. Or maybe light beams. Hit your LED flashlight on a sensor to open or close a gate ( the interface recognizes the flashlight's PWM LED driver ). Or maybe it will recognize a radio transmitter on your truck. That sort of thing.
When I take my road trip, I want to look for somewhere I would like to take my designs and circuit boards and set up a little production factory to assemble, demonstrate, and sell them. You know, some peaceful place in the middle of nowhere. I do not have to have a high skilled workforce for this - I can train 'em. What I make is nothing a high-school kid should find confusing. Its a specialty thing... cuz I can't make 'em cheap, just the parts alone add up quick as I use the precision ones. But I can make 'em reliable and trustworthy where the person who buys them programs and controls them, with no one else in on the deal. And made such that they interfaces are flexible enough that should needs change, the appropriate I/O boards can be added/deleted per whim. I may have to import someone though for Propeller programming. I also use those as programmable interface drivers. And I can use Raspberry PI's as well, but its mostly Arduino due to power considerations and simplicity. Actually, my designs are so simple that the only thing I have going for me is economies of scale. Once someone has my stuff in their hand, they can reverse it just by looking at it. But I buy my PCB by the hundreds, and they will need one or two.
I just want to wind my life up in a simple lifestyle that I can do what I do out of a barn. Its quite obvious to me should I work in a corporation, I would not be allowed to do what I do best, and will have to spend my life gussying up for appearance's sake, substance be damned. Every corporation I have worked in valued their suit-guys a helluva lot more than their tool-guys, and I am a lab rat. I have a hard time doing suit-work, which usually requires me to, well, "stretch the truth"?
I guess my dream would be to stir up enough market that Atmel would spin off a special version of their chip with the interfaces I need built right into the silicon and get a company started that would be able to train hundreds of people to roll their own machines and not be dependent on those "locking them in" to proprietary cloud services.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]