Earlier this summer, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Jacob Mathias, otherwise known as the owner of LoveROMS and LoveRETRO, sites that notoriously hosted ROM files of retro Nintendo games. Immediately following the legal suit, both of the aforementioned domains were shut down to prevent further issue. Nintendo's legal action also had effects on other websites that had illegal content hosted on their servers, such as Emuparadise, which removed all download links shortly after the lawsuit was made public. Mathias and his wife, who were both charged on mass copyright infringement, plead guilty to the actions of trademark infringement and damages to Nintendo. They then entered settlement talks in order to find an agreeable amount of money to pay as reparations. Today, the final judgement for the case came in, showing that both Jacob Mathias and Nintendo had agreed for the former to pay $12,230,000 to the latter, over 12 million dollars.

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All copyrighted material owned by the couple must also be forfeited, and ownership of LoveROMs.com and LoveRETRO.co has been signed over to Nintendo of Japan.

Source

 

[SG854]

It's capitalism for you. If you want communism then there are countries you can go to which offers you that.

Everyone will get a rom equally.

 

[Xzi]

Everyone will get a rom equally.

We must seize the means of ROM production!

 

[Fates-Blade-900]

We must seize the means of ROM production!

I suppose we'd have to acquire, and dump almost all GBA carts, then.

 

[Subtle Demise]

I find it hard to believe that the $12 million covers only Nintendo-published games or games that they acquired the rights to. Just because the roms may have been on their platforms at one point 20-30 years ago does not mean that they own distirbution rights on those roms. I'd venture that many of those old ones are in licensing hell, meaning it's either difficult or impossible to track down who actually owns the copyright on them, due to things like closures and buyouts and name changes and shit. Also, correct me if I'm wrong, but most of the NES and SNES library is third-party, is it not? No way they are making $12 million on just first party games. Something is wrong with the math here. How are the values being calculated anyway? Second-hand collector's market? Because those prices are artificially inflated and really shouldn't be used in any court.

 

[wiewiec]

Maybe nintenda wanna collect roms for their crappy online service

 

[SG854]

We must seize the means of ROM production!

We’ll use government to do it. Tryin stop us now Nintendo, ha ha ha ha.

 

[Augsss]

bad move by nintendo :/

 

[Fates-Blade-900]

HEY! I forgot to mention I found a site long ago (like 6-7 years ago?). That will allow you to stream games tons of retro games, and has a friendly environment.

 

[loveShmups]

well... this action is cruel ... but it's the law on copyrights, I'm afraid !
I'm guessing that the "wild time" of internet is over.... well maybe not in Russia, China, or any Asian country for the moment.
But in a next future, it will the end of the "free to grab" era.
I can understand Nintendo, because I work in a service provision company.
We all pay for drinking water, electricity, telephone.... And i suppose cheating and stealing those resources would be very difficult.
And we all need to get paid in order to put some food on the table, no ?
I guess it's the same idea for Nintendo.
This guy is really unlucky...
i guess he can start a crowdfunding page, in order to pay these 12 millions dollars.
good luck !

 

[k3rizz3k]

While I personally think the amount is excessive, nintenduh has a right to protect their properties. It's bad business not to. Just because a game isn't available through official channels does not mean that you are entitled to it. As crappy as that sounds, it's true. This amount is strictly a deterrent for others, to make them think twice.

 

[MrMcTiller]

HEY! LET'S START A FUNDRAISER TO HELP PAY THE $12 MILLIONS TO BITCHTENDO! Oh wait.... 12,000,000.... that's a lot of zeros.

 

[Glyptofane]

Geez, what the hell?

 

[MarkPrime24]

Good grief. So shutting the site down wasn't enough?

It was a chance for them to suck some money

 

[Xzi]

A lot of the younger folks here probably don't realize that massive lawsuits like this one were common back in the 90s for hosting/distributing MP3s. It's not like copyright suits have ever stopped, but cases this big had become a lot less common.

 

[Saiyan Lusitano]

12 mil? As if a rom website owner has that amount. Better to give him a different punishment, like cleaning the streets of what have you for 12 months.

 

[MarkPrime24]

well... this action is cruel ... but it's the law on copyrights, I'm afraid !
I'm guessing that the "wild time" of internet is over.... well maybe not in Russia, China, or any Asian country for the moment.
But in a next future, it will the end of the "free to grab" era.
I can understand Nintendo, because I work in a service provision company.
We all pay for drinking water, electricity, telephone.... And i suppose cheating and stealing those resources would be very difficult.
And we all need to get paid in order to put some food on the table, no ?
I guess it's the same idea for Nintendo.
This guy is really unlucky...
i guess he can start a crowdfunding page, in order to pay these 12 millions dollars.
good luck !

Piracy will never end or it is more like it can't be ended because it creates a balance

 

[PiracyForTheMasses]

Maybe nintenda wanna collect roms for their crappy online service

I suspect that its not a matter of collecting roms, its a matter of making it to where you cant get these games unless you buy them from nintendo on current gen.

 

[Xzi]

12 mil? As if a rom website owner has that amount. Better to give him a different punishment, like cleaning the streets of what have you for 12 months.

They know they're not gonna get all of it, he'll have to declare bankruptcy sooner rather than later. Again, the point was only to send a message.

 

[AdenTheThird]

It was a chance for them to suck some money

They sure are good at that lol

 

[Fates-Blade-900]

For anyone interested I used this site to game, and it's good, supposedly the founder "Rents" games to people on the site, so he should be legal https://www.vizzed.com/
also the reason for the attack on LoveROMS may be because the NES and SNES classic edition is making sales, who knows, GBA may be next and they didn't want any site hosting the games. (If helpful please like ).