https://kotaku.com/nintendo-shuts-down-smash-tournament-over-some-absurd-b-1845719656
Not sure why this isn't frontpage news.
Not sure why this isn't frontpage news.
Nintendo shuts down an online melee tournament in the middle of a pandemic
- Thread starter DarkKaine
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To be fair, Nintendo are in their right here. They could've just turned a blind eye, but this is sadly a clear case of DMCA violation and potential copyright infringement (depends on whether all these people dumped their own copies of the game or pirated it, but chances are not everyone dumped their own copies) and Nintendo is not the kind of company to turn a blind eye to that.
It sucks that the end result does nothing but hurt the community and fanbase of one of their big franchises. But they should've known this would happen when they decided to host a tournament requiring the use of an emulator and ISOs, so it's kind of their own fault. There's no way Nintendo would turn a blind eye to that, it was just a matter of how long it would take them to realize. And whether they could finish the tournament before any DMCA complaints were filed.
I expect that the hosts of the tournament very much saw this coming, and the news sites are simply overreacting to the news.
It sucks that the end result does nothing but hurt the community and fanbase of one of their big franchises. But they should've known this would happen when they decided to host a tournament requiring the use of an emulator and ISOs, so it's kind of their own fault. There's no way Nintendo would turn a blind eye to that, it was just a matter of how long it would take them to realize. And whether they could finish the tournament before any DMCA complaints were filed.
I expect that the hosts of the tournament very much saw this coming, and the news sites are simply overreacting to the news.
Last edited by The Real Jdbye,
Isn't this community about promoting homebrew software and whatnot?
I can see why you're "former" staff.
@The Real Jdbye: It's literally the same people that played this game 15 years ago, that now just shifted to online. And everyone has at least one melee disc. None of the websites or discords link to ISO's and have guides on how to dump your own, and emulation has never been illegal. They're just being babies because this new mod actually makes the online playable as opposed to ultimate's shitty lagfest.
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There you go, there's your answer.
Nintendo shutting down a tournament because you had to pirate the game isn't newsworthy, it's just another day for Nintendo.
If you want something frontpaged, the best way is by writing a post in the proper format, posting it in USN, and requesting it be front paged by a (mag) staff member. There is no guarantee they will front page it even if it's well written and follows the proper format but it gives you a much higher chance than asking them to basically write the post themselves, for news they are not personally interested in, because then they have to do actual work.
You have a point. It feels like the site has been shifting from posting mainly homebrew and scene news, to posting them less and less, and posting more general gaming news instead, and I don't like that change. General gaming news is fine but not at the cost of the homebrew and scene related news that made this site so famous in the first place. And then when something actually happens, it's "not front page worthy"?
The community is still largely made up of pirates, homebrew enthusiasts and the sort, and I think most of them would find this news interesting, even if it's not exactly huge news.
It doesn't help if they own a Melee disc, if they download an ISO it's still piracy just the same. Morally it's fine, but the law says otherwise. And even ripping your own copy is a DMCA violation, but of course DMCA doesn't apply in every country (many have their own version of it, though), if the hosts are based in the US though, then they have to follow US law.
Look at it from the perspective of the fan base, this is probably pretty important news to them. And a lot of the members on this site are Nintendo fans and many of those will be into Smash as well. Plus the fact that many of them are into emulation. It's the perfect place for news like this.
I'm personally of the opinion that when a law only hurts the fan base and community around a game and does no good then that law should be changed. The fact that things like this happening are perfectly normal and accepted is kinda sad. You can be pretty certain that 99.9% of those people are existing Melee players, used to playing on a real GameCube or Wii with a real disc, so Nintendo got their money from them, and the tournament would not be held digitally using an emulator were it not for the current situation. But the alternative would have been cancelling it for this year, and potentially the next couple too if things don't improve. So while I do think Nintendo are in their right considering the law, the law itself is kind of in the wrong. No Melee player wants a tournament to be held digitally rather than physically, with all the latency and potential hiccups that adds, they were forced into it by the current situation. They are not pirates. Some of them might be, sure, but by and large they are not pirates.
I'm not saying get rid of copyright law and DMCA, but maybe make it legal to obtain an identical copy to physical media you already own, since for all intents and purposes, there is no real way to distinguish an illegally obtained copy from an identical backup you made yourself, so why should there be a legal distinction? Also, there should be an exception in the DMCA for personally made backups, or simply clarifying in detail what "circumvention of copy protection" actually means in the law, because at the moment, it's not entirely clear if that includes the installation of homebrew that would be required in order to make the backup (as the discs themselves have no copy protection as far as I know) or if the emulator itself can somehow be argued to be circumventing copy protection. Circumventing copy protection to me means modifying the source material (ie cracking) or somehow indirectly fooling it to think that it's legitimate. The discs have no legitimacy checks, these are all in the optical drive and in the firmware of the actual console, so to me that's not circumventing anything, because the checks were never in the emulator to begin with. But DMCA law seems to be a bit vague on that point, clarifying it in detail so that it more specifically pertains to cracking and such would be a good change.
I think what makes this news, is not just that it happened, but the circumstances that led to here. It's just been a really bad time for e-Sports this year, and I can't really fault either party in this case, they both did the best they could given the circumstances and current law.
Last edited by The Real Jdbye,
I don't know if this everyday actually.
ROM site being smacked down, fan game using all the trademarks, mod installer also slipping in a thing full of games... that is everyday.
Tournaments I see troubled less often. It is within reason but most times I see tournaments bothered it is usually for betting issues rather than copyright issues. That said most do make a song and dance about needing original games and if this is tacitly endorsing/suggesting then meh. Note it if you want, see it as confirmation that Nintendo's legal team are possibly getting those billable hours in. As far as anything to question or expand upon. Seeing less of it. Would be interested to see what damages they claim to have though should it have made it to full case.
ROM site being smacked down, fan game using all the trademarks, mod installer also slipping in a thing full of games... that is everyday.
Tournaments I see troubled less often. It is within reason but most times I see tournaments bothered it is usually for betting issues rather than copyright issues. That said most do make a song and dance about needing original games and if this is tacitly endorsing/suggesting then meh. Note it if you want, see it as confirmation that Nintendo's legal team are possibly getting those billable hours in. As far as anything to question or expand upon. Seeing less of it. Would be interested to see what damages they claim to have though should it have made it to full case.
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