Nintendo Sues Console ROM Sites For ‘Mass’ Copyright Infringement

July 30th, 2018, 21:10 Posted By: wraggster

It seems that Nintendo are getting pissy against sites offering roms of their Systems, heres the news:

• The sites are among the most notorious online hubs for pirated games, according to Nintendo, and face millions of dollars in potential damages. With the launch of NES Classic Games on their Nintendo Switch coming up soon in September, it means we are in for another wave of crackdowns by big 'N' over any site that offers Emulators or Retro ROMs for playing Nintendo games on other platforms.

  This week, Nintendo took two of these sites to court. In a complaint filed at a federal court in Arizona, the game publisher sues LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.co for copyright and trademark infringement.
  
  Both sites are believed to be operated by Jacob Mathias and his Arizona company Mathias Designs LLC. They offer access to a wide variety of ROMs, including many Nintendo games.
  
  “The LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites are among the most open and notorious online hubs for pirated video games,” Nintendo writes in the complaint.
  
  “Through the LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites, Defendants reproduce, distribute, publicly perform and display a staggering number of unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video games, all without Nintendo’s permission.”
  
  In addition to the copyrighted games, the sites also distribute proprietary BIOS software, while using trademarked logos and characters, Nintendo notes.
  
  While some ROMs sites may be hobby projects, Nintendo sees these two sites as professional operations that profit from its works.
  
  “Defendants are not casual gamers but are instead sophisticated parties with extensive knowledge of Nintendo’s intellectual property and the video game industry more generally,” the company notes.
  
  Through the lawsuit, which also lists a count of unfair competition, Nintendo hopes to shut both sites down. The company requests statutory damages of $150,000 per infringing Nintendo game and up to $2,000,000 for each trademark infringement.
  
  This means that, with more than 140 copyrighted titles and 40 trademarks on the record, theoretical damages could go up to a staggering $100 million.
  
  Nintendo further requests a permanent injunction ordering the sites to stop their infringing activities while handing over domain names to the game publisher. At the same time, Nintendo wants the operator of the sites to reveal the sources for the infringing ROMs.
  Click to expand...
  

  As noted above, Nintendo is demanding a list of all 'uploaders' that filled up the site with these nasty illegal backup ROMs, so if you were nice sharing member, get ready to receive a letter if the site's owner caves into all the pressure from the lawyers, but so far he still fighting and operating the sites.
  
  NEWS SOURCE: Nintendo Sues Console ROM Sites For ‘Mass’ Copyright Infringement (via) TorrentFreak
  
  via https://www.maxconsole.com/threads/n...ngement.47524/

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