Nintendo is yet again back into its old copyright takedowns, issuing DMCAs.
This time, the affected site has been SteamGridDB, which many people have been using to create image assets for Steam and non-Steam games when added manually into it. Many more use it to link their ROMs through emulation into Steam as non-Steam games.

The Steam Grid database website has gained popularity over the years, more so due to the recent surge in Steam Deck users and their use of EmuDeck to setup their emulation libraries. EmuDeck itself provides a tool called Steam Rom Manager, which allows the user to configure their Steam image assets based on a community database that supplies all of the images detected from a specific ROM name, and from there the images are applied into Steam itself based on the grabbed images from the database if it finds a match.

At the moment, the website received DMCA takedowns for the following Switch games' images:

• Pokemon Scarlet & Violet
• Splatoon 3
• Super Mario Odyssey
• The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild
• Xenoblade Chronicles 3

Other consoles and games haven't been affected.
SteamGridDB didn't offer any kind of ROM downloads nor links to them, the only offered material are plain images for a wide variety of games, and many of them are user-supplied and/or custom made by several users and supporters.

With this, Nintendo has started DMCA'ing websites over images.
Has Nintendo gone too far? What's gonna be next? All mentions of Mario in non-Nintendo websites getting DMCA'd?
Only time will tell.

Breath of the Wild entry at SteamGridDB
BotW Backup at Archive.org
Source

 

[Trojaner]

Well, Nintendont is like all, think they can kill off Pirates, but it has never really worked. One page gets down and short period after that you find enough other sites. Lets say as it is, they just have nothing better todo with there lifes.

 

[smf]

Like it or not, Nintendo own the copyright to artwork. If you want to violate that, then they will fight back.

What is the issue?

 

[Bladexdsl]

What is the issue?

the issue is they are just images. people download wallpapers and their crappy mario images all the time, print them out hang them on their walls etc. the ONLY reason they are going after these guys is because the images are used in emulation so they once again have to enforce their authority. there are still millions of sites out there with their crappy mario pictures and they don't enforce them to close down. it's just sad and pathetic what they have turned into now.

 

[Payne]

you changed nintendo.... and not for the best. i Used to be such a nintendo fanboy, and its not so much the game qulity but just the shitty practices towards fans. its just them being petty about everything. and what bothers me the most is that its not like they are a tiny struggling company, they have BILLIONS and STILL will still "take the penny out a poor mans hand" so to say.
I'll just hang around and reminisce about the good OLD nintendo memories that USE to be.

they may come after your profile picture tho, be careful

 

[KingKrouch]

If the precedence they're setting with this is indicative of anything, they should be going after YouTubers and game journalists next.

 

[n00bsaib0t]

Like it or not, Nintendo own the copyright to artwork. If you want to violate that, then they will fight back.

What is the issue?

Nintendo doesn't own fan art but go off dude

 

[Legitendo]

Imagine drawing art yourself instead of copy-pasting it from Nintendo

 

[smf]

the issue is they are just images. people download wallpapers and their crappy mario images all the time, print them out hang them on their walls etc. the ONLY reason they are going after these guys is because the images are used in emulation so they once again have to enforce their authority. there are still millions of sites out there with their crappy mario pictures and they don't enforce them to close down. it's just sad and pathetic what they have turned into now.

It's irrelevant that they don't close all sites down. I'm sure they don't care that you think they are sad and pathetic for enforcing their legal right.

Nintendo doesn't own fan art but go off dude

Nintendo doesn't own copyright on fan art entirely, but neither does the person who drew it. Copying it would require permission from both.

If the precedence they're setting with this is indicative of anything, they should be going after YouTubers and game journalists next.

game journalists have a limited legal fair use for the purpose of criticism. So it would depend on quite what they were doing.

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

Fairly petty, as usual. This is Nintendo after all, the last time they actually showed a sign of care for their fan base was a long time ago.
I'm not surprised, they've always done shitty things like this. To be honest, i'm more desesperated with people trying to defend Nintendo again.

This goes against various fair use laws, including liberty of press. Cover arts like these are definitely falling under fair use. Especially when they're required to properly archive the game work (as a cover art is arguably required to properly organize a game collection).
Yet people will say random shit like, "they're in their right" and blablabla. I wonder if it's not just Nintendo creating accounts at this point.
Point is, they're not. Just like TakeTwo isn't in their right for taking down Re3.
Simple, those shitty companies don't seem to care about the law anymore. If they can pressure people into thinking they're against the law, even if those people aren't, they'll still try to do it.

And even if they were, by chance in their legal right, they're not in their moral rights still.

So to piss off Nintendo, just reupload those cover arts
Maybe even self-host them if the situation goes bad, don't give up to Nintendo's BS.

Emulation is legal, same for those videos showcasing emulation on the steam deck, same for people that make cover arts that are likely used in emulation. And no emulation ≠ piracy ≠ theft.

Anyways, thanks for giving me another incentive to hack my friend's Switch, so he won't buy your games again

 

[HinaNaru Cutie]

I shall continue forth with my original statements as before, when iwata died nintendo died too - new nintendo is committing suicide well it already did in 2017 lol, but now they are just draining thereselves to death ..squeezing the remains of the juice out is very difficult when things continue to hit the fan.

But seriously imagine Google and Nintendo eating each other lmaoo gonna be a huge meme xD

 

[lolcatzuru]

please talk with your congressman.

they probably would agree with this, i live in a police state.

 

[Bladexdsl]

It's irrelevant that they don't close all sites down. I'm sure they don't care that you think they are sad and pathetic for enforcing their legal right.

you couldn't possibly be any more of a fucking fanboy could you? you have your tongue so far up nintendos ass your tasting their sphincter. i'm done wasting me time WITH SHEEP

 

[CommanderCool]

funny how a company who only can put out 1 good game in 2022 can be so shit for the rest of the year

 

[Clydefrosch]

you couldn't possibly be any more of a fucking fanboy could you? you have your tongue so far up nintendos ass your tasting their sphincter. i'm done wasting me time WITH SHEEP

dude, you're tasting that literally on the very very first millimeter

I shall continue forth with my original statements as before, when iwata died nintendo died too - new nintendo is committing suicide well it already did in 2017 lol, but now they are just draining thereselves to death ..squeezing the remains of the juice out is very difficult when things continue to hit the fan.

But seriously imagine Google and Nintendo eating each other lmaoo gonna be a huge meme xD

i bet they're sitting their crying over all the *checks notes* pirates that pretend like nintendo is dying.

Fairly petty, as usual. This is Nintendo after all, the last time they actually showed a sign of care for their fan base was a long time ago.
I'm not surprised, they've always done shitty things like this. To be honest, i'm more desesperated with people trying to defend Nintendo again.

This goes against various fair use laws, including liberty of press. Cover arts like these are definitely falling under fair use. Especially when they're required to properly archive the game work (as a cover art is arguably required to properly organize a game collection).
Yet people will say random shit like, "they're in their right" and blablabla. I wonder if it's not just Nintendo creating accounts at this point.
Point is, they're not. Just like TakeTwo isn't in their right for taking down Re3.
Simple, those shitty companies don't seem to care about the law anymore. If they can pressure people into thinking they're against the law, even if those people aren't, they'll still try to do it.

And even if they were, by chance in their legal right, they're not in their moral rights still.

So to piss off Nintendo, just reupload those cover arts
Maybe even self-host them if the situation goes bad, don't give up to Nintendo's BS.

Emulation is legal, same for those videos showcasing emulation on the steam deck, same for people that make cover arts that are likely used in emulation. And no emulation ≠ piracy ≠ theft.

Anyways, thanks for giving me another incentive to hack my friend's Switch, so he won't buy your games again

you got the right to archive your stuff, but not by using other peoples data. you get to archive your own individual hardware copy of a game, and you get to achive your personal case inlay if you want, you are not legally entitled to access or even really share your archived stuff, certainly not when the purpose is 99% making piracy more enjoyable for others.

emulators are legal (unless they use nintendo code), but only with your own personal copies of the software having dumped your own keys and not taken any of it from somewhere online (and honestly the thing with the keys is probably debatable).

stringing together a couple of halftruths to arrive at false conclusions doesn't change that if these guys were in their right to host all of this official artwork, they wouldn't need to mind the takedown request.

 

[smf]

you couldn't possibly be any more of a fucking fanboy could you? you have your tongue so far up nintendos ass your tasting their sphincter. i'm done wasting me time WITH SHEEP

So what you're saying is that I should pretend the law isn't on their side, so I can slag them off with you?

Interesting.

 

[spotanjo3]

Nintendo's next system will be banned from me. No more from NIntendo. Nintendo is cruelest and disgusting business ever.

 

[xdarkmario]

they may come after your profile picture tho, be careful

its actually funny you mention that, i hovered over the change icon for like 2 minutes yesterday but decided against it as this account was made LONG ago and i decided to keep it as this was a reminder of my childhood.

 

[MetoMeto]

If they ACTUALLY loose something id understand..but this....they are just being bitches.

Post automatically merged: Nov 21, 2022

what happened to you nintendo? you used to be cool...

Sega used to be Cool. Nintendo was always lame. Its like that quiet kid that later turns put to be a dick.

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

dude, you're tasting that literally on the very very first millimeter


i bet they're sitting their crying over all the *checks notes* pirates that pretend like nintendo is dying.



you got the right to archive your stuff, but not by using other peoples data. you get to archive your own individual hardware copy of a game, and you get to achive your personal case inlay if you want, you are not legally entitled to access or even really share your archived stuff, certainly not when the purpose is 99% making piracy more enjoyable for others.

emulators are legal (unless they use nintendo code), but only with your own personal copies of the software having dumped your own keys and not taken any of it from somewhere online (and honestly the thing with the keys is probably debatable).

stringing together a couple of halftruths to arrive at false conclusions doesn't change that if these guys were in their right to host all of this official artwork, they wouldn't need to mind the takedown request.

Like i said, Nintendo doesn't care about the law. They'd try to takedown emulators if there wasn't jurisprudence for it already.

There are exceptions to the first paragraph but yes indeed. Though we have the moral right to do so even if the law doesn't permit it.

Emulators are always legal. Downloading roms out of the internet isn't, but that's a separate issue. Technically speaking, using a pirated rom in an emulator doesn't make that use of the emulator illegal, it makes the global detention and use of that downloaded file illegal.

I never stringed halftruths and i didn't arrive at false conclusions. Point is, Nintendo has stopped caring for laws for a while now. Taking down switch emulation videos is just a proof of that. Nintendo has absolutely no right, both legally or morally to do so, but you know, they'd rather play the bullies against the players than being responsible for once and stop caring about a non-issue.

 

[smf]

aid, Nintendo doesn't care about the law. They'd try to takedown emulators if there wasn't jurisprudence for it already.

The switch emulators do violate the DMCA, so they would have a legal route.

Just because some emulators have been found to be legal, doesn't mean all emulators are legal.

DMCA wasn't tested during the Sony case, as it wasn't relevant.