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

 

[Kubas_inko]

Why is Nintendo protecting their properties?!?1?!
Unforgivable!!!

Most people wouldn't mind it, if ninty still sold the games so that you can actually get them.

 

[ThoD]

How did they even come up with the 12 million? I mean, put together all of the AVAILABLE titles by Nintendo currently on WiiU/3DS/Switch and I HIGHLY doubt the sales are anywhere close to that. You can't sue for damages when you aren't even losing money from it, at least you shouldn't be able to... Either sell the darn games yourself already properly instead of only selling like 100 of the THOUSANDS you got or let people be!

And what do they even gain by ruining someone's life by getting them so deep in debt even their grandchildren won't be able to pay it off? They think they are gonna "scare" the million other ROM sites somehow?

 

[proffk]

This news may lead to more rom sites closing down and making it harder for end user to find retro games. I believe its the boom of mini consoles & retro gaming that has lead to this. Like emuparadise was online for over 12 years before suddenly shutting down. But still these roms are nintendos or contents owners ip and they have all the rite in the eyes of the law.

 

[the_randomizer]

This kind of bullshit makes me glad I download ROMs all the time. Boo hoo, get over it, Nintendo.

 

[NeoSlyde]

This news may lead to more rom sites closing down and making it harder for end user to find retro games. I believe its the boom of mini consoles & retro gaming that has lead to this. Like emuparadise was online for over 12 years before suddenly shutting down. But still these roms are nintendos or contents owners ip and they have all the rite in the eyes of the law.

Torrents

 

[Kubas_inko]

Seriously tho. Ninty, close any site you want, but give us a fucking way of getting the games then!!!

 

[tiamat999]

Why is Nintendo protecting their properties?!?1?!
Unforgivable!!!

Really how about selling those old games again in a good easy way for me to buy em.
Id love to buy super mario collection but hey

 

[proffk]

Torrents

Torrents die if not seeded for a long time. NZB is the way to go no matter how old the file is you can always grab it depending of your retention. On the subject of buying older games. They are now classed as antiques and prices have gone up. how can average gamer play these older games when they are no longer made, expensive in physical form. Did the judge think about that. Take little samson on nes or snatcher on sega cd they are expensive in physical form.

 

[the_randomizer]

Why is Nintendo protecting their properties?!?1?!
Unforgivable!!!

It's not so much that as it is their stupid-ass refusal to put more games on a digital storefront, locking games or simply never allowing people to buy them. No wonder people pirate. I can't
stand it when people act like Nintendo is a victim, when they have lost very little, if any revenue from old games being pirated.

 

[DarkCoffe64]

I think with a debt like that, don't even effing bother.
Unless you're a super ultra billionare, there's no way you'll ever be able to pay it.
Sooo... *shrug*
Fuck ya Nintendo, I hope ya go under soon

 

[xs4all]

Not sure what the law is over there, but can't they file for bankruptcy and not pay a cent? But $12mil, that is a fare amount of spare change, funny how Nintendo lawyers who think a simple family couple can afford to cough up that much of $$$.

 

[ThoD]

Why can't Ninty just do what Sony did with PSx games on PSP? Basically have almost every single game available for you to just buy! The 3DS for example already has the software to run VC games regardless of what they are (proven by how you can literally inject any game you want into it), so why couldn't they just offer it on the eshop normally instead of HEAVILY limiting what games one can get? And if they did this along with simply making the pricing decent instead of 5€ for a 30 year old game, they'd actually make a TON more money compared to just going after ROM sites...

 

[the_randomizer]

Nintendo: "But muh intellectual properties! "

To hell with them for only giving Switch users boring AF NES games and nothing else. I'm glad to have an SD2SNES.

 

[omegasoul6]

It's not so much that as it is their stupid-ass refusal to put more games on a digital storefront, locking games or simply never allowing people to buy them. No wonder people pirate. I can't
stand it when people act like Nintendo is a victim, when they have lost very little, if any revenue from old games being pirated.

I get that and all, Nintendo definitely needs to figure out a better way of distributing their retro games. But regardless it's still not Jacob Mathias & LoveROMS/LoveRETRO's property to distribute, he should've known Nintendo would've came after him from the very beginning.
A company has an obligation to protect their copyrighted/trademarked content, it sucks for the guy, but I can't be bothered to feel bad for him when he should've already known the consequences.

 

[the_randomizer]

I get that and all, Nintendo definitely needs to figure out a better way of distributing their retro games. But regardless it's still not Jacob Mathias & LoveROMS/LoveRETRO's property to distribute, he should've known Nintendo would've came after him from the very beginning.
A company has an obligation to protect their copyrighted/trademarked content, it sucks for the guy, but I can't be bothered to feel bad for him when he should've already known the consequences.

And how the actual hell do they expect him to pay the lawsuit? No one has twelve million dollars, and ruining someone's life financially over old games Nintendo won't distribute isn't going to fix a damn thing. I'm sorry, but I don't feel bad for Nintendo at all.

 

[Kubas_inko]

I get that and all, Nintendo definitely needs to figure out a better way of distributing their retro games. But regardless it's still not Jacob Mathias & LoveROMS/LoveRETRO's property to distribute, he should've known Nintendo would've came after him from the very beginning.
A company has an obligation to protect their copyrighted/trademarked content, it sucks for the guy, but I can't be bothered to feel bad for him when he should've already known the consequences.

"Being on Ninty side."
I can't take you seriously then.

 

[Sonic Angel Knight]

Permission to give obligatory "Feels Bad man" please?

 

[omegasoul6]

And how the actual hell do they expect him to pay the lawsuit? No one has twelve million dollars, and ruining someone's life financially over old games Nintendo won't distribute isn't going to fix a damn thing. I'm sorry, but I don't feel bad for Nintendo at all.

Again, he should've thought about that before he distributed another company's property, it's common sense.
I don't feel bad for either party to be honest.

 

[Lazyboss]

I think the Switch will be the last console I buy from them. Nintendo you lost a customer. Thanks for not playing your games in the future.

Becareful my friend, they may put a case on you for not buying their shit and damage their business.
People get sued for anything those days.

 

[the_randomizer]

Again, he should've thought about that before he distributed another company's property, it's common sense.
I don't feel bad for either party to be honest.

Even so, he could have at least used a fake ID or gave more anonymity using a VPN, proxy, etc, if he's gonna do it at all. ROMs could be argued as a means of preserving games otherwise unavailable.

They can take that 12 million and stuff it up where the sun don't shine.