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Nintendo is back again with their classic copyright shenanigans, and this time it's once again against YouTube content creators.
The modding community for Breath of the Wild has been a popular topic and a new way to play the game ever since the release of the original back in 2017, from some meandering but funny mods like adding Waluigi as a model for Link, to mods adding entirely new content in the form of fanmade DLC "Second Wind", the game is being kept very much alive and fresh even 6 years after its original release.

However, Nintendo seems to think otherwise, and they don't like it when people play the game in forms they don't force intend you to, so in their usual grasp and abuse of the copyright system, and taking advantage of YouTube's awful system to dealing with copyright stuff, they blocked several videos of YouTube content creators that dared to showcase any kind of mods regarding Breath of the Wild (and some that also showcased other games, like Pokemon Scarlet/Violet) in this past week. Some creators not only got their videos blocked, but they also started receiving copyright strikes on a handful of their videos, to which, for those unaware, accumulating 3 copyright strikes means the immediate termination of the entire YouTube channel, and having one's entire YT channel at risk is something of great concern.

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This isn't the first time Nintendo does something like this, and most certainly (and sadly), this won't be the last time neither, as Nintendo is well known for their tyrannical use of the copyright system to bend their will, even when both modding and emulation are known to be completely legal as long as there's no direct piracy involved to run the games, and more so since the videos are of a transformative nature and fall under the legal "fair use" term.
These recent attacks from Nintendo to BotW modders seems to be related to the upcoming release of the BotW sequel, Tears of the Kingdom, releasing less than a month away in May 12th, so it seems to be a tactic of sorts to "protect" their IP brand from undesirable usage by them.

Some content creators, like PointCrow, have started to counter-claim these copyright claims by Nintendo, as stated directly through Twitter:

Update: I have appealed these claims. As of now, they are still visible for you to watch -- however, they are not monetized. Hopefully Nintendo releases these claims, as I significantly transform their work and my videos are under fair use.

While the counter-claim can liberate the videos to be watched, they can still be claimed yet again by Nintendo, but this time with a lawsuit in hand, so it remains to be seen if Nintendo will actually continue pursuing this rather abusive use of the copyright system in their favour.

 

[GuiShen]

Meh, clickbait. Old news that nintendo doesn't like their fans.

 

[Kioku]

Meh, clickbait. Old news that nintendo doesn't like their fans.

I don't think you know what clickbait is...

 

[GuiShen]

I don't think you know what clickbait is...

I do.

 

[Noctosphere]

I do.

you totally don't

Post automatically merged: Apr 18, 2023

I do.

real clickbait are either
1 : Not saying what you are going to talk about but to have a title to attract clicks
Eample : You won't believe what Nintendo just did to that youtuber!

2 : Purely lying
Example : A picture of Samus with huge boobs as thumbnail

 

[DarkCoffe64]

no.
you don't understand.

they don't care about the small group of hackers that will always hack. they want to scare the shit out of the 14-16 year olds doing it for the first time.

Oh, yeah, I get what you mean there then. Sigh, man, I remember when I was like that age and, just, all seemed much better... Games, them videogame corpos, life in general... Now I'm sad, mh.

 

[DuoForce]

Honestly this one is on the devs. They KNEW Nintendo was gonna strike 'em yet they still chose to show off the mod way before releasing it. This is exactly how mods get taken down.

Post automatically merged: Apr 19, 2023

hum... yea... no...
I mean, I understand why people pirate their game
But still, we still need to buy them, because if nobody does, then there would not be any more games/consoles...

Nintendo if anything gains money from people pirating their games because a vast majority of people that pirate nintendo games buy them anyways. Think of piracy as a trial or demo, a way to play the game to see if you like it before spending an entire $70

 

[Noctosphere]

Honestly this one is on the devs. They KNEW Nintendo was gonna strike 'em yet they still chose to show off the mod way before releasing it. This is exactly how mods get taken down.

Post automatically merged: Apr 19, 2023

Nintendo if anything gains money from people pirating their games because a vast majority of people that pirate nintendo games buy them anyways. Think of piracy as a trial or demo, a way to play the game to see if you like it before spending an entire $70

i wholeheartedly agree with this way to do

 

[Marc_LFD]

Nintendo doesn't do and it doesn't let others do it too. What a great company that is.

Post automatically merged: Apr 19, 2023

That's why I never brought a single game from them since the SNES, thanks to the hacking communities, nintendo doesn't deserve players support.

If Nintendo could, they'd demand to take down your comment.

Post automatically merged: Apr 19, 2023

I will buy two copies of TotK and throw them both away, because fuck Nintendo.

At that point, you paid for it so they don't care what you do... Unless you pirate it. Trash it? They're probably okay with that.

 

[lebrawurschd]

That’s manufactured consent. Nintendo put users in a situation where you either agree or get nothing from the product they spent their money on. And if you don’t agree, then they’ve left zero alternatives. Nintendo has also spent more time shutting down fans than encouraging them. Clearly these mods have a demand and Nintendo doesn’t care to work with those demands. Nintendo ignores basically all community feedback on their products and even seems to be actively avoiding them or half-ass implementing them. Sure, you are correct that all of this violates the TOS but honestly Nintendo created this problem. Quite honestly, fans are seeing Nintendo spending more time enforcing their TOS over supporting their products. Games like Animal Crossing have pretty much stopped seeing support. The promises to support games like the Pokémon series has fallen flat. The Switch still lacks features. The rambling list could go on for days while Nintendo spends their time sending their legal team after people for even thinking about their games.

its not about nintendo you have the same kind of ToS with anything Sony has a dont modify your shit term microsoft has one heck even some mobile manufactors have them
you are simply not allowed to modify the software on the console

 

[LightBeam]

I will buy two copies of TotK and throw them both away, because fuck Nintendo.

What's the point of doing that

 

[Tiger21820]

This is what happens when you are too vocal about your current-gen mods and nintendo fan projects! If you want your projects to live a long life, first thing you gotta do is KEEP IT SECRET!!!

Keep your project pages and downloads in the deep web, password protect the whole website, and ONLY grant access to those you choose, NEVER EVER UPLOAD VIDEOS ON YOUTUBE OR POST ABOUT IT ON TWITTER OR FACEBOOK, and the BIGGEST RULE EVER: BLACKLIST ALL OF NINTENDO'S IP ADDRESSES SO EVERY TIME THEY ATTEMPT TO ACCESS THE PROJECT PAGE, IT'LL RETURN A 403 FORBIDDEN RESPONSE!

This is how you create a nintendo fan project safely: Make it as HARD AS YOU CAN FOR THE UNDESIRABLES (NINTENDO) to find the project, and if they find it, BLACKLIST THE HECK OUT OF THEM SO HARD THAT THEY WILL THINK THEY JUST IMAGINED that they stumbled upon your project and can do little to ever take action on you!

After that, PROFIT BABY!!!*

*Results may vary, complete anonymity for nintendo fan projects is not guaranteed as there are blabber mouths who don't know when to shut-up or nintendo themselves being dirty cyber hackers, and ending your project

 

[Bladexdsl]

I will buy two copies of TotK and throw them both away, because fuck Nintendo.

that's the stupidest thing i have ever heard. isn't the purpose to not give them a fucking cent?!

 

[ganons]

I will buy two copies of TotK and throw them both away, because fuck Nintendo.

Unless you're trolling, that's just stupid.

 

[FAST6191]

I went in the earlier one but hey.

This seems like a fairly standard application of probably trademark law. If the videos, seemingly named for the games themselves, displayed things the average customer (which does extend to clueless parents and grandmas) then seeing things it can't do could quite happily qualify as the "could cause confusion in customers" test that underpins an awful lot of trademark concerns. As others noted it is fairly standard terms in a lot of game footage usage agreements.

Not really on the bubble or untested waters (general footage being largely this, outside of obvious reviews and such) from where I sit.

just imagine buying a car and someone saying you cant put on an aftermarket muffler because it violates the terms of service. this whole discussion is nuts. slaves dont own anything and cant do anything with anything they are able to access.

They already do, though usually put under warranty law. Strictly speaking they would have to show that your mods broke the thing (mufflers being ostensibly part of the exhaust system then it does trouble the engine) but most rely on the end users not knowing that and not caring to fight it, console makers doing this as well if things are modded.
For higher end cars you also have things where people are not to sell them for X months, though that is an agreement entered into.
Car makers also seem to going in for the DLC, and frustrating third party repair.

 

[novortices]

Is it morally wrong to like Nintendo and purchase and enjoy their games now? I mean I agree that Nintendo's treatment of their fanbases and fan projects is awful, and their business practices are questionable, but does that make me part of the problem if I continue to buy their games?