ROM Hack Question: Current State of ROM hacking

[TheToaster]

After the cease and desist order given by Nintendo to the creator of "Pokemon Prism", I am wondering about the current state of ROM hacking. In the past, Nintendo didn't give a fuck about ROM hacks, why do they now? DCMA has rarely ever been involved in ROM hacks in the past. First of all, the game was a FUCKING ROM HACK, which is just a patch that the user got and had to actually download the original ROM itself. I have two main questions:

1.) If the creator of Pokemon Prism were to release his game early before the specified release date (or, better yet, not specify a release date or advertise the ROM hack in the first place), would he be in risk of a potential lawsuit from Big-N?

2.)If a ROM hack were to be posted on GBATemp and became fairly popular, would the creator of this particular ROM hack be in risk of a lawsuit from Nintendo?

 

[deishido]

After the cease and desist order given by Nintendo to the creator of "Pokemon Prism", I am wondering about the current state of ROM hacking. In the past, Nintendo didn't give a fuck about ROM hacks, why do they now? DCMA has rarely ever been involved in ROM hacks in the past. First of all, the game was a FUCKING ROM HACK, which is just a patch that the user got and had to actually download the original ROM itself. I have two main questions:

1.) If the creator of Pokemon Prism were to release his game early before the specified release date (or, better yet, not specify a release date or advertise the ROM hack in the first place), would he be in risk of a potential lawsuit from Big-N?

2.)If a ROM hack were to be posted on GBATemp and became fairly popular, would the creator of this particular ROM hack be in risk of a lawsuit from Nintendo?

1) yes, because they have already recieved and acknowledged the C&D order.

2) yes, although it will probably be business as usual unless they make a huge deal over it like having twitch stream it, or doing a huge promotional video or putting up an exact release date without putting out any kind of nightlies or anything in 6 years.

 

[TheToaster]

1) yes, because they have already recieved and acknowledged the C&D order.

2) yes, although it will probably be business as usual unless they make a huge deal over it like having twitch stream it, or doing a huge promotional video or putting up an exact release date without putting out any kind of nightlies or anything in 6 years.

Does this apply to homebrew as well? Meaning if a 3DS homebrew game (in either CIA or 3DSX format) were to be released that uses Nintendo intellectual property such as names, textures, logos, etc, would they also be at risk?

 

[FAST6191]

1.) If the creator of Pokemon Prism were to release his game early before the specified release date (or, better yet, not specify a release date or advertise the ROM hack in the first place), would he be in risk of a potential lawsuit from Big-N?

2.)If a ROM hack were to be posted on GBATemp and became fairly popular, would the creator of this particular ROM hack be in risk of a lawsuit from Nintendo?

1) Though at this point it is not a court order not complying at some level with a legal request like this does not tend to make your life easier.

2) The reason it looks like this was singled out was because it used the pokemon name, used things and otherwise appeared to act like an official game. This risks confusion with members of the general public and Nintendo has to act.

Yes if a piece of homebrew fell foul of trademark or copyright laws it could well see a cease and desist issued. The present one is a trademark related affair but copyright is still a thing that exists throughout it all.