Nintendo massive DMCA

[DarkHououmon]

A couple years ago, back in September 2010, some Pokemon fansites were targeted by Nintendo and its lawyers. The site owners were told that what they did not only infringed on Nintendo's rights, but supposedly caused or will cause substantial damage to Nintendo. They were asked to pull all Pokemon related images and videos from their site or suffer further legal action.

ROMs were not the cause of concern here. No, what had Nintendo ruffled is the fact that these sites hosted pictures and content from Pokemon Black and White. While Nintendo claimed that they were worried about spoilers, the DMCA takedown notices were sent after the games were already released. It is unknown why they started in 2010 to do this when they haven't reacted this way during the older Pokemon's initial releases.

I looked this stuff up and at first it seemed really questionable. Could Nintendo have really decided to take down fansites? Well if the site owner of Pokebeach is to be believed, this is certainly the case. In one of their articles regarding the aftermath with Nintendo, they say that the letters, despite supposed spelling mistakes and inconsistencies, was in fact real and the lawyer they spoke to was very real.

If this happened two years ago, why am I bringing it up now? Well because word got out that Nintendo is resuming its attacks on fansites. A site was recently set a DMCA takedown notice and its Pokemon gallery vanished. Serebii.net supposedly recieved a notice to take down their website. Pokemon fanart is being targeted as well. And there is concern that Pokemon creepypasta and fanfiction will be next on the chopping block afterwards.

Sadly, this isn't really all that farfetched. Nintendo is not the first company to go on a "destroy all fan content" of one of their franchises. Years ago, in the 90s, FOX went on a witchhunt for Simpsons fansites. Now this is before the advent of easy video uploading, so there were likely no sites hosting full episodes. Why did FOX order the takedown of Simpson fansites? Pictures. Just because of pictures. FOX felt that any site hosting screenshots of their work infringed on their copyright and was a big enough threat for them to order the takedown of most Simpsons fansites.

What do you guys think of this? Also, if this is more suited for After Midnight, I apologize for posting it here; I wasn't sure if I should put it in After Midnight or Gamers Zone.

[Mumbling]

Are they only targeting Pokemon related websites so far? If that's the case, I wonder why they are not targeting fan websites about Mario, Zelda or other big franchises they own. You'd expect them to take those down too. Especially when you look at the amount of hand-made jewellery that is based off Zelda and sold online.

May I ask what you mean by 'they were worried about spoilers?'. Do you mean that as in that the fans wouldn't want to get the game because they already know the storyline or do you mean that along the lines of spoiling images of pokemon that are yet to be released (for example the recently discovered form of Mewtwo)?

I personally find it rather weird if it's about the 2nd case, since they usually announce those things themselves in Nintendo Direct. (I also see lots of announcements coming from Corocoro but I don't know if that's part of Nintendo).

[DarkHououmon]

That is confusing that they seem to be only targeting Pokemon and not others like Mario and Zelda, unless those are next after they're done with Pokemon.

I'll link to a page from Pokebeach talking about the incident. The aftermath specifically.

http://pokebeach.com/2010/09/nintendo-follow-up


There's one or two more articles talking about this incident. Apparently there were some members who believed that the whole thing was faked. The owner of Pokebeach assures that it is true. But there was at least one person who thought that the Pokebeach site owner is making a lot of the stuff up and is just stirring up drama.

I have not found an official Nintendo statement, so I am not entirely sure of the legitimacy of these claims myself. The disappearance of a Pokemon gallery is suspicious and may confirm Nintendo's targeting rampage on Pokemon fansites. Or the letters are just hoaxes and someone is stirring up trouble.

I already tried looking up information and found nothing 100% conclusive. I would have expected Nintendo to make an official statement regarding Pokemon fansites if they were so worried about that. But supposedly in Nintendo's own automated message if you send them a letter of concern states that they "cannot comment on legal stuff" basically. In other words, Nintendo is saying that, even though they are upset about Pokemon fansites hosting Pokemon pictures, rather than making an official announcement for the sites to cease and desist, they would rather do things the hard way and send individual sites warnings.

It all does seem strange, but some people are not taking any chances. A creepypasta site I go to has recently banned Pokemon related creepypastas for fear of Nintendo targeting them. So even if this all turns out to be fake, some people are taking it really seriously, and thus making it hard to determine the legitimacy of these DMCA takedown notices.

Edit: In this link you can see the letter that was sent to the various Pokemon sites. This letter is suspected by some to be a fake. Others, such as the guy on Pokebeach, says the letter is real.

http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Fans...ngement_notices

[Mumbling]

Since it's only Pokebeach & Serebii so far, I doubt it's legit. Next to that, both sites still host pokemon images. All big pokemon groups on Deviantart seem not to have any issues with it either.

If this turns out to be true, I'd be rather disappointed with Nintendo. Pokemon is a great franchise and I've loved it since I was young. I don't think they should take down fan material or fansites keeping us up to date.

[DarkHououmon]

A third site was targeted but it wasn't yet named. Supposedly there were others, but I'm not entirely sure about that.

I do hope it is fake. A friend of mine is really worried about this. She isn't sure if she's safe even making Pokemon fanart anymore. Well time will tell if this happens to be true or false. Maybe Nintendo will actually at some point release an official statement confirming whether or not these takedowns are real or not.

If they are true, then yeah I would be disappointed in Nintendo as well. It would be one thing if they just wanted to hide spoilers until the American release. That I could see to be at least a little understanding. I'd also understand ROM and full episode takedowns. But to take target Pokemon fansites that are clearly promoting the game for free for them? That is counterintuitive and would only serve to hurt Nintendo in the long run.

[Mumbling]

Yeah, same here about the fanart. I have this challenge going where I try to make all pokemon from clay, but if this turns out to be true I might as well focus on something else.

[pokeplayer984]

Seeing as how Serebii is still posting Episode Pictures, I'm guess it was one of two things.

1 - It was fake and everyone went on with business as usual.

2 - It was real, but there was so much fan backlash against this that Nintendo backed off.

Either way, I think you two are safe with your fanart stuff.  Most don't go after fan content just because of the backlash that can lead to quite a few problems.

Trust me, there are many companies that suffered just because they didn't allow fan content of their stuff to be posted. (Though they will never admit that. )

[DarkHououmon]

The creepypasta site I mentioned recently removed its rule about pokepastas being forbidden. The person who removed the rule believed that the one who posted the rule to begin with was just overreacting and that it wasn't their problem if Nintendo got mad at pokepastas.

I would imagine that the rule could be reinstated if Nintendo does send DMCA notices to this pasta site, though.

[Nick22]

What does DMCA stand For?

[DarkHououmon]

Digital Millennium Copyright Act