Nintendo Sues Owner of 2 Prominent ROM-Hosting Sites

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Nintendo has filed a lawsuit through the federal court in the state of Arizona against the owner of 2 major ROM hosting sites, Jacob Mathias, and his Arizona-based company, Mathias Designs L.L.C. The company is being sued for unfair competition, as well as trademark and copyright infringement for featuring readily accessible retro ROMs, proprietary BIOS software, and copyrighted musical recordings and sounds.

This includes the copyrighted BIOS files for the Gameboy Advance, Gameboy Color, and Nintendo DS systems. Defendants also make a vast library of unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s copyrighted musical works

These contents are reportedly uploaded and maintained directly by Mathias's company on a regular basis. In the motion, Nintendo also claims that the defendant is profiteering off of the popularity and subsequent ad-revenue of his sites, with one site regularly reaching over 17 million visitors per month. This is popularity gained, of course, exclusively from providing Nintendo's copyrighted content, that being both in the form of software as well as copyrighted visual logos to advertise the content.

Under the count of "unfair competition", Nintendo claims that:
Defendants’ conduct constitutes unfair competition that is contrary to honest practice in commercial matters under Arizona common law. Specifically, Defendants have traded on Nintendo’s reputation for quality and integrity in order to pass off their unauthorized copies of Nintendo video games and other copyrighted works to consumers. By advertising these copies as genuine Nintendo products, Defendants have actively misled consumers about the true source of these copies.

Nintendo is seeking compensation of $150,000 in statutory damages, on top of up to $2,000,000 for the infringement of each Nintendo trademark. Because there are more than 140 copyrighted titles and 40 trademarks reportedly being infringed, this could possibly result in upwards of $100 million in damages when totaled. In addition, they are demanding that Mathias provide them information on the sources of any and all infringing material hosted on his sites. Of course, Nintendo also seeks to shut both sites down with this motion. Mathias himself has yet to publicly respond to the allegations.

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Vieela

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But what is gonna happen now? How will the guy ever be able to pay so much money really? Nintendo has literally hundreds of trademarks, and easily half of these are on this particular website. What will be decided?
 

k3rizz3k

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Two wildly known websites huh. Looked them up.. I've been sailing the high seas for years, and have never heard of them.
 

Vieela

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I love how there's this giant part of the lawsuit talking about how epic Nintendo is and all the great franchises they brought. Absolutely convenient.
 
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Vieela

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I wonder if there's any way they could win against Nintendo?
Most likely not. Whenever stuff like piracy happens, with big corporations specially, they usually win. Also, there's some countries that take piracy something EXTREMELY serious, like it's robbery. So most likely not to happen.
 

JiveTheTurkey

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How sad when Nintendo cant sell you the same thing over and over because it freely available although you bought once before however Legal it is Greedy.
Definitely but I think greedy would be the MGM Resorts company suing the mass shooting victims so they won't be held liable.
 

cvskid

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Getting the whole website shut down seems a bit extreme. Could just get them to stop hosting nintendo roms like they did with other websites. More than half the series nintendo owns they don't even do anything with anymore so idk what it is they are protecting. Don't see sega or sony flipping out over old games like this.

Can't stop the internet nintendo.
 
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Zense

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I imagine that they're gonna have to stop hosting Nintendo-related ROMs, but their other stuff will remain? :unsure: Correct me if I'm wrong..
 

gman666

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It seems like their claim to fame is the ability to play retro games in-browser. They also charge a membership fee for an ad-free experience. My guess is that this isn't about the availability of warez, but the monetization of in-browser gameplay. Nintendo states "unfair competition" as a basis for the lawsuit.
 

Vieela

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It seems like their claim to fame is the ability to play retro games in-browser. They also charge a membership fee for an ad-free experience. My guess is that this isn't about the availability of warez, but the monetization of in-browser gameplay. Nintendo states "unfair competition" as a basis for the lawsuit.
It's about the warez availability too. It's for each and every single of these reasons: (i got this from the lawsuit, sorry if there's something i copied wrong)
copying, distributing, selling, performing, displaying, playing, or otherwise using any unauthorized copy of a Nintendo copyrighted work, or any derivative thereof, including those works identified in Exhibit A; b. using, inducing, or enabling others to use any unauthorized reproduction or copy of Nintendo’s copyrighted works, including the works identified in Exhibit A; c. constructing, operating, selling, or otherwise providing any product, device, website, or service that contributes to or induces the reproduction, distribution, performance, display, or other use of Nintendo’s copyrighted works, including the works identified in Exhibit A; d. using, or inducing or enabling others to use, any reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation of Nintendo’s trademarks, including those trademarks identified in Exhibit B, in any manner in connection with the manufacture, printing, distribution, advertising, offering for sale or sale of any goods or services, including the use of Nintendo’s trademarks in connection with a website; e. using, or inducing or enabling others to use, Nintendo’s trademarks, including those identified in Exhibit B, or any reproduction, counterfeit, copy, or colorable imitation of said marks in any manner likely to cause others falsely to believe that Defendants’ products or services are connected with Nintendo or legitimate Nintendo products or services bearing Nintendo’s trademarks when they are not, including the use of Nintendo’s trademarks in connection with a website; f. destroying, transferring, altering, moving, returning, concealing, or in any manner secreting any and all unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s copyrighted works and any and all documents and records, including without limitation computer tapes, computer disks, business records, e-mails, social media accounts, social media posts, supplier names and addresses, books of accounts, receipts, and other documentation relating or referring in any way to the distribution, provision, use, or otherwise trafficking in unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s copyrighted works; and g. unfairly competing with Nintendo.
 

gman666

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It's about the warez availability too.
I'm saying that they only took action because of the monetization of in-browser gameplay. I mean look at all the other sites that share warez, Nintendo isn't actively suing these sites. The most unique aspect of the site is that it monetizes gameplay.
 

Vieela

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I'm saying that they only took action because of the monetization of in-browser gameplay. I mean look at all the other sites that share warez, Nintendo isn't actively suing these sites. The most unique aspect of the site is that it monetizes gameplay.
Oh, i get what you mean. Indeed, Nintendo's main reason to be suing them is not only because they are getting profit from it, not only "indirectly" with ads, but seems like they have a subscription too? Including of course, the entire browser emulator too.
 

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