# Nintendo sues paid ROM site ROM Universe



## weatMod (Sep 13, 2019)

https://torrentfreak.com/nintendo-sues-romuniverse-for-mass-copyright-infringement/

Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the alleged operator of the popular pirate site RomUniverse. The game company accuses the site of brazen and mass-scale copyright infringement of its games and hopes to shut it down. RomUniverse, which also offers pirated ebooks and movies, sells paid memberships to those who want unlimited downloads.






Last year Nintendo made headlines worldwide when it filed a lawsuit against the popular ROM sites LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.co.

The legal action effectively shut the sites down with many other platorms voluntarily following suit.

Not all game pirate sites were shaken up by the legal action though. RomUniverse, a site that’s been around for a decade, saw its visitor numbers rise and announced that it would continue to offer Nintendo ROMs.

Fast forward a year and Nintendo is now taking RomUniverse to court. In a complaint filed at a federal court in California, the Japanese gaming giant accuses the site’s alleged operator, Matthew Storman, of “brazen” and “mass-scale” copyright and trademark infringement.

“The Website is among the most visited and notorious online hubs for pirated Nintendo video games. Through the Website, Defendants reproduce, distribute, monetize, and offer for download thousands of unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video games,” the complaint reads.

Nintendo states that the site, which has 375,000 members, offers downloads for nearly every video game system it has ever produced.

The complaint specifically notes that “hundreds of thousands of copies” have been illegally downloaded through RomUniverse, including nearly 300,000 copies of pirated Nintendo Switch games and more than 500,000 copies of pirated Nintendo 3DS games.

Users of the site can download one file per week for free. Those who want more have to sign up for a paid membership. After an “upgrade” of $30, members are allowed to download as many files as they want. This includes games, but also ebooks and the latest Hollywood movies.





As said before, RomUniverse wasn’t impressed by the legal threats Nintendo issued against other sites last year. This didn’t go unnoticed to the game publisher, which specifically mentions the operator’s defiance in its complaint.

“In 2018, around the time that Nintendo successfully enforced its intellectual property rights against other infringing ROM websites, defendant Storman bragged that his Website would continue to offer Nintendo ROMs,” Nintendo writes.

Through the lawsuit, which also lists a count of unfair competition, Nintendo hopes to shut RomUniverse down. The company also requests statutory damages of $150,000 per infringing Nintendo game and up to $2,000,000 for each trademark infringement.

This means that, with dozens of copyrighted titles and trademarks on the record, theoretical damages are well over $100 million.

Finally, Nintendo further asks for a permanent injunction ordering the site and its operator(s) to stop their infringing activities while handing over their domain names to the game publisher.

Update: RomAdmin from RomUniverse informed us that he hasn’t received anything from Nintendo, no recent takedown notices either. The site does respond to takedown notices.

“We’ve always immediately taken down questionable material, per their take down notices,” RomAdmin told TorrentFreak.

_—_


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## the_randomizer (Sep 13, 2019)

Well, what did they expect? I mean it's one thing to just be a ROM site, but to have paid ROMs, yeah, that's a death wish.


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## zoogie (Sep 13, 2019)

I've noticed that nintendo goes on these lawsuit crusades in concentrated timeframes.
Yep, it's usually right before the holiday shopping season. Makes sense.


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## RHOPKINS13 (Sep 13, 2019)

A paid ROM site? When there are places offering fullsets for free? I'm rooting for Nintendo this time, go ahead, shut them down! Don't let those paid ROM sites take those freeloader's hard-earned money!


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## ThoD (Sep 13, 2019)

zoogie said:


> I've noticed that nintendo goes on these lawsuit crusades in concentrated timeframes.
> Yep, it's usually right before the holiday shopping season. Makes sense.


What doesn't make sense is how 99% of said games that are available aren't even sold in any way, shape or form by Nintendo anymore, as they refuse to do the whole "Virtual Console" thing properly and allow ALL games ever released to be played as VC titles, not like 30 or so a YEAR when it's close to 54000 titles (all Nintendo retro titles that still have valid copyrights for redistribution, counting all retro Nintendo games in general goes WAY above that)...


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## the_randomizer (Sep 13, 2019)

What's the matter ROMUniverse? Too fuckin  lazy to release them for free?


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## Stealphie (Sep 13, 2019)

RHOPKINS13 said:


> A paid ROM site? When there are places offering fullsets for free? I'm rooting for Nintendo this time, go ahead, shut them down! Don't let those paid ROM sites take those freeloader's hard-earned money!


i agree


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## cyn (Sep 13, 2019)

a *PAID *rom site? that's just asking to get every company's legal team's eyes locked right onto you. 

hope they get taken down, the same people looking for roms aren't the people who are gonna pay for a specific site.


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## ghjfdtg (Sep 13, 2019)

Paid warez should not exist because it goes against the very idea of getting the content for free and these cancerous uploaders are trying to make a quick buck with reuploads of stuff others released for free.


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## Deleted User (Sep 13, 2019)

imagine paying for backups


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## the_randomizer (Sep 13, 2019)

Good riddance to bad ROM sites


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## chrisrlink (Sep 13, 2019)

for once i don't have a bad bone in my body for this site nor feel sorry for the scumbag


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## Boured (Sep 13, 2019)

Really? Paid roms?This isn't just illegal, this is advanced illegal.


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## ThoD (Sep 13, 2019)

ONLY good thing about this site was that you could find certain games that weren't available anywhere else like certain Japan-only or lesser-known NDS titles... Although since I have them backed up now, site could just go ahead and shut down for all I care


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## Bladexdsl (Sep 13, 2019)

bwahahahah serves them fucking right for charging for roms when they should be free. fucking parasites they are giving us pirates a bad name .

take em down ninty!


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## NoNAND (Sep 14, 2019)

Serves them right. Being a ROM site on its own poses such risks, but providing paid ROMs? Pfft that doesn't make sense to me. Why should I buy the game on a sketchy website as a "ROM" while I can opt for the digital download version on Nintendo's official store at any given time.


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## Deleted User (Sep 14, 2019)

yeah, definitely rooting for nintendo on this one, paid roms is a dumb concept if you're considering that it's not the owners/developers/publishers of the game selling them

paid roms themselves are fine if they're in the form of virtual console or a commercial emulator like the one sega has on steam, just... not pirated roms

whoever thought this was a good idea before making it go live should've gotten sacked long ago


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## NoNAND (Sep 14, 2019)

Bladexdsl said:


> bwahahahah serves them fucking right for charging for roms when they should be free. fucking parasites they are giving us pirates a bad name .
> 
> take em down ninty!


this one is going down for sure. it hasn't even got support from pirate communities. filthy scammers.


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## Mythical (Sep 15, 2019)

ThoD said:


> ONLY good thing about this site was that you could find certain games that weren't available anywhere else like certain Japan-only or lesser-known NDS titles... Although since I have them backed up now, site could just go ahead and shut down for all I care


any hidden gems I should know about?
and yeah pretty stupid, because this just is asking for it. I mean what else would you expect


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## Jayro (Sep 15, 2019)

Unless they're a USA-based company, they can tell Nintendo to fuck right off and give 'em the finger.


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## ThoD (Sep 15, 2019)

MythicalData said:


> any hidden gems I should know about?
> and yeah pretty stupid, because this just is asking for it. I mean what else would you expect


Well, depends on the system honestly. For NDS, the only true hidden gem is the original 7th Dragon which is a great game despite being one of the hardest games of all time (to the point people had to mod-in a super easy mode because the "Normal" difficulty for it was about 15 times harder than any of the old Etrian Odysseys' "hard" difficulty just to give you a reference). For GBA, Serious Sam was a nice Doom clone, the Summon Night games were just super interesting at least for the most part, the old Fire Emblem games such as Sword of Seals (from back when the series was actually good and especially that third one that was Japan-only), Batman Vengeance (port of the PC game but someone much more fun to play than original), the Mother 1+2 dual game cartridge and Mother 3 (I mean, of course, not hidden, but hardly anyone plays the GBA version despite being the superior one), Samurai Deeper Kyo (based on that really easily forgotten classic amazing anime and is a fun top down slash and hack), pretty much ALL Yu-Gi-Oh! games besides that Duel Academy one and that will do for now because there are close to 100 games I could recommend out of the ~18000 titles the system had. For older games I'll just suggest Yu-Gi-Oh! Dark Duel Stories (I loved this game since it allowed you to create your very own monster cards, which was fun) on the GBC and Mario Picross (the father of all other picross games and possibly the hardest and most punishing one) also on the GBC. If you want recommendations for a specific system besides those, just let me know


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## Bladexdsl (Sep 19, 2019)

NoNAND said:


> this one is going down for sure. it hasn't even got support from pirate communities. filthy scammers.


they broke the pirates rule never charge for warez or roms. they will be cast out!


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## Silent_Gunner (Sep 23, 2019)

the_randomizer said:


> Well, what did they expect? I mean it's one thing to just be a ROM site, but to have paid ROMs, yeah, that's a death wish.



If I was Joseph Joestar, I'd be all like, "and your next line will be "what dumbasses we were!""


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## godreborn (Sep 23, 2019)

makes me wonder if Nintendo downloaded the roms for nes/snes online from a website similar to this one, then sues them after they got what they needed.


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## RedBlueGreen (Sep 30, 2019)

cyn said:


> a *PAID *rom site? that's just asking to get every company's legal team's eyes locked right onto you.
> 
> hope they get taken down, the same people looking for roms aren't the people who are gonna pay for a specific site.


They just might if it's the only option they have. Which it isn't. As far as paying to pirate goes, if people are going to do it, a bunch of people should go in on the fee so the site gets substantially less. Or one person pays and then shares the account.


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## godreborn (Sep 30, 2019)

nintendo is like a crazy, ex lover.  nintendo: "if I can't or won't sell you these games at inflated prices on the eshop, then no one else will be making money off of them either."


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## Tweaker_Modding (Oct 5, 2019)

i’m usually against nintendo taking down rom sites but considering this is fucking paid by all means nintendo take it down they deserve it since they’re illegally making money of your franchises and games


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## IncredulousP (Oct 5, 2019)

ghjfdtg said:


> Paid warez should not exist because it goes against the very idea of getting the content for free and these cancerous uploaders are trying to make a quick buck with reuploads of stuff others released for free.


Yes, everyone should just use free servers with free hardware and free electricity to host said warez.


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## kurtdouglas (Nov 26, 2019)

Remember kids, if you're going to steal it don't charge for it. Give that shit away.


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## Jayro (Nov 26, 2019)

I have a tool that can reveal the true URL buried under that shitty adf.ly link, so the assholes who make those links won't get a fuckin'dime from me.


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## enarky (Nov 26, 2019)

I hope these people go down spectacularly. Can't wait for the inevitable donation begging. I just hope Nintendo did their homework and doesn't just sue some poor sod acting as front for the real people behind that site. Not that he doesn't deserve it.


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## Stealphie (Nov 26, 2019)

Jayro said:


> I have a tool that can reveal the true URL buried under that shitty adf.ly link, so the assholes who make those links won't get a fuckin'dime from me.


same


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## the_randomizer (Nov 26, 2019)

Jayro said:


> I have a tool that can reveal the true URL buried under that shitty adf.ly link, so the assholes who make those links won't get a fuckin'dime from me.



AdFly ads can piss off and die


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## Nobody_Important4u (Nov 26, 2019)

Normally i would be pissed at big N but these guys just broke the eternal rule of piracy


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## WiikeyHacker (Nov 29, 2019)

next stop is the switch custom firmware installer teams (both of them)


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## Deleted User (Nov 29, 2019)

You guys are all fine with piracy sites that have ads though, how is them cutting out the middle man any worse? I'm of the mindset that all piracy is allowed, or none at all. There is no honour among thieves. Sites cost money to run, especially sites that have a wide database of roms. I personally wouldn't pay a dime to them as they probably were a scam site, but I really don't see this being any different to sites that have ads/tracking, if anything at least they aren't selling your personal data without your consent lol


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## WiikeyHacker (Nov 29, 2019)

Sorry but im against it it hurts developers stealing content you dont legally own  only modding i support is the custom themes and backgrounds with sound those are impressive.


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## Azael_inf (Nov 30, 2019)

king_leo said:


> You guys are all fine with piracy sites that have ads though, how is them cutting out the middle man any worse? I'm of the mindset that all piracy is allowed, or none at all. There is no honour among thieves. Sites cost money to run, especially sites that have a wide database of roms. I personally wouldn't pay a dime to them as they probably were a scam site, but I really don't see this being any different to sites that have ads/tracking, if anything at least they aren't selling your personal data without your consent lol


See, here's the thing. I don't have to spend money to look at an ad.


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## ThoD (Dec 2, 2019)

king_leo said:


> You guys are all fine with piracy sites that have ads though, how is them cutting out the middle man any worse? I'm of the mindset that all piracy is allowed, or none at all. There is no honour among thieves. Sites cost money to run, especially sites that have a wide database of roms. I personally wouldn't pay a dime to them as they probably were a scam site, but I really don't see this being any different to sites that have ads/tracking, if anything at least they aren't selling your personal data without your consent lol


Ads are fine as long as they aren't ad-walls/survey walls (the stupid "verify with phone" BS ads that prevent you from using the page), especially nowadays that XJZ got discontinued (possibly THE best way to avoid BS on pages, was a nice little script that would hide windows from pages, like forced popups and whatnot allowing you to actually click on links to download without having to go through hell first possibly getting a virus also). Paying directly is bad, but ads on the side of the page or something to ensure the site gets the money it needs to stay up isn't a bad thing, the problem is when a site that has pirated stuff asks for money from people looking to pirate, aka the ones who don't plan to pay, why pay a site after all instead of just getting the game if you are paying anyways?:/


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## FAST6191 (Jan 2, 2020)

Leonard French (actual copyright lawyer) did a nice run through of some of the goings on with the court case and some of the quite bizarre defences being offered.


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