Nintendo shuts down Pokémon Prism ROM Hack

[Dayfid]

I'm sorry everyone, but Pokemon Prism is cancelled. Thank you for your support.
https://t.co/rD5LSr1bQA

Source

 

[netovsk]

I like the politeness of the letter. They try to make a point as to why they're doing it rather than "just because we can".

 

[DirtySprite]

I thought they couldn't do anything about ROM hacks :‏(

 

[AxlSt00pid]

I thought they couldn't do anything about ROM hacks :‏(

Ditto.
And if they can, they will have to spend a lot of time removing SM64 and Pokémon romhacks

 

[Trolling]

Love how Nintendo keep shutting down non-profit fangames while doing nothing against the bootlegs and clones.

 

[Arck]

rom hack or fan game ?

 

[kumikochan]

The maker should look up if his/her country does act upon the same copyright act the US does. I know most countries in Europe have a totally different copyright act and that Nintendo legally can't shutdown romhacks in Europe wich they try to do with scare tactics.

 

[FAST6191]

Very interesting development.

This feels like the classic "could cause confusion among members of the general public" (they are using the words official and pokemon and the like) takedown reason. I have not seen it framed around a ROM hack before though, however it seems like that is incidental to Nintendo which is fine. They also specifically mention it has traction elsewhere, though what having a facebook page has to do with anything I am not sure.

Thanks for sharing.

I thought they couldn't do anything about ROM hacks :‏(

This seems like a trademark thing for the reasons I outlined above, however there is all sorts of scope for a hack to fall foul of IP law somewhere.

 

[AxlSt00pid]

rom hack or fan game ?

IIRC it's a romhack of pokémon Gold/Silver

 

[kumikochan]

Well in most European countries Nintendo can do jack shit. I know a guy who had a similar problem and Law clearly states here if you bought the material, you don't earn a single penny off it and credit the Original creator then they can't do anything about it. Nintendo Always claiming themselves above the law in other countries, Always stating US copyright law wich doesn't apply to other countries in their fancy letters trying to scare people.

 

[Demifiend]

Damn, and I was looking forward to it, guess that rom-hacks can't escape the Nintendo Legal Hammer it seems, what's strange though, is that they decided to send the letter just before the date release of the game, my guess is that they probably knew about this way beforehand so that they could send the letter in the worst possible moment, a real shame really.

Hopefully more developers can learn from this so that the next time they release something, they don't announce it, they just release it to the public without any previous advise, although that'd probably make the game less famous, but at least it would be released!

Very interesting development.

This feels like the classic "could cause confusion among members of the general public" (they are using the words official and pokemon and the like) takedown reason. I have not seen it framed around a ROM hack before though, however it seems like that is incidental to Nintendo which is fine. They also specifically mention it has traction elsewhere, though what having a facebook page has to do with anything I am not sure.

Thanks for sharing.


This seems like a trademark thing for the reasons I outlined above, however there is all sorts of scope for a hack to fall foul of IP law somewhere.

That's true but what it seems really weird to me is that they haven't taken these actions with other rom hacks of the same nature, because after all, there are dozens if not hundreds of Pokemon rom hacks lying on the Internet, furthermore, some of them are constantly updated with new updates or versions of the same hack, and this not only applies with Pokemon but also series like Mario, Fire Emblem (Specially the GBA games), Legend of Zelda, etc.

 

[Dayfid]

The maker should look up if his/her country does act upon the same copyright act the US does. I know most countries in Europe have a totally different copyright act and that Nintendo legally can't shutdown romhacks in Europe wich they try to do with scare tactics.

He lives in America.

 

[kumikochan]

He lives in America.

Yeah that's a different story then

 

[FAST6191]

Well in most European countries Nintendo can do jack shit. I know a guy who had a similar problem and Law clearly states here if you bought the material, you don't earn a single penny off it and credit the Original creator then they can't do anything about it. Nintendo Always claiming themselves above the law in other countries, Always stating US copyright law wich doesn't apply to other countries in their fancy letters trying to scare people.

Though US IP law is not my favourite thing its trademark law, which is what this seems to be going for, is pretty well aligned with most of the rest of the world. I can seem Nintendo quite happily being able to write an almost word for word, give or take legal translation requirements, and have a judge in any European country accept this one.
There may or may not be wildly different approaches to derived works (I am not sure I would rely on your interpretation of a law there mind you) but this is not that, this is trademark related and Nintendo have a strong case here.

That's true but what it seems really weird to me is that they haven't taken these actions with other rom hacks of the same nature, because after all, there are dozens if not hundreds of Pokemon rom hacks lying on the Internet, furthermore, some of them are constantly updated with new updates or versions of the same hack, and this not only applies with Pokemon but also series like Mario, Fire Emblem (Specially the GBA games), Legend of Zelda, etc.

Got to start somewhere perhaps? Also how many other ROM hacks are set up in a similar way to this and potentially able to cause confusion among members of the general public.

 

[kumikochan]

I did look up trademark law here and it's definately not the same as trademark law in the states. It clearly says here if you bought the product and don't earn a single penny of it and credit the Original creator for their property then they can't do anything legal. I saw Nintendo always uses US trademark law in their letters wich don't apply to all countries. But they know by doing this people are scared shitless and stop doing what they were doing. Copying material is even legal here in Belgium as long as you don't sell it to earn money of it.

 

[Jayro]

I'm sure it will "leak" eventually, since it's been complete, and they've just been sitting idle for release day. That was their mistake.

If I ever find a copy, I'll add the download link of my personal upload to my sig.

 

[WiiUBricker]

That's why people shouldn't host those projects by themselves. It makes them vulnerable. Use a warez site and nobody can do shit about it.

 

[2ndApex]

Love how Nintendo keep shutting down non-profit fangames while doing nothing against the bootlegs and clones.

People who profit from bootlegs/clones on mobile app stores have the money to go to lawsuits/settlements that Nintendo doesn't want to deal with while people who do fan works for free can't/won't afford that kind of situation. Real fucked up on every end :/

 

[WiiUBricker]

People who profit from bootlegs/clones on mobile app stores have the money to go to lawsuits/settlements that Nintendo doesn't want to deal with while people who do fan works for free can't/won't afford that kind of situation. Real fucked up on every end :/

But Nintendo would win regardless and the legal expenses would have to be paid by the losing party.

 

[Jayro]

Adam should claim his development computer was stolen with a filed police report, and then put the finished game rom onto cheap chinese usb drives, and drop them randomly all over the place in public. Then he can't be held accountable for the rom leaks.

Or just give the finished rom to cartridge bootleggers so we can buy it on AliExpress for $5.