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.

Source

 

[the_randomizer]

You again..............

There you go, making excuses on why you should pirate. If you already own the game, why do you need to download it again? Even if you sold it, why should you get a free copy? JUST PIRATE THE ROMS, no excuses.

Whatever you say. But do a favor and don't type in all caps like that, doesn't really help your case. I pirate whatever the hell I pirate, and I really don't give a damn that it's just Snes games. Somebody spank me for being a naughty boy

You're right, I don't need an excuse, but why are you so bloody condescending to those who do? Did they personally assault you to warrant such a reaction?

 

[GaaraPrime]

Which two sites are they talking about?

 

[the_randomizer]

Which two sites are they talking about?

I'm pretty sure they're places people love to go.

 

[GaaraPrime]

I'm pretty sure they're places people love to go.

Hahahaha. Thanx I've never been to that site. I've always loved paradise.

 

[Bladexdsl]

plenty more where they came from or use usenet everything is on there forever

 

[FAST6191]

or use usenet everything is on there forever

Have you got a good provider for such things? Giganews and astraweb have been removing things for years (it really picked up during the 360 era) and basically everybody else feeds from them, and probably still has low retention rather than the unlimited stuff others see. Or are we having to use hidden and non obvious NZB sites?

 

[Joom]

Good rom sites come and go.. That's exactly why I have complete romsets stored on a few drives. I'd like to avoid finding new sites everytime companies send out cease and desist orders.

This is why I privately host the entire Nintendo library up to the NDS. When Nintendo started C&D'ing popular sites last year, I grabbed everything before it was all gone.

 

[the_randomizer]

I may have "accidentally" stumbled on a site that has entire ROM sets too, hmm, what a shame.

 

[SirNapkin1334]

Hahahaha. Thanx I've never been to that site. I've always loved paradise.

Yeah, but the best sites are the chaotic sites

 

[chrisrlink]

though i somewhat understand the situation who comes up with the damn numbers? no body unless your bill gates or DJT you can't pay that amount how will nintendo get it like if i got sued they'd be lucky to get $400 I'm so poor I have no life/medical insurance so they can't withdraw from that and all my belongings are probably under 1k so yah how the heck they'll get $100mil+ from me at least

 

[Joom]

though i somewhat understand the situation who comes up with the damn numbers? no body unless your bill gates or DJT you can't pay that amount how will nintendo get it like if i got sued they'd be lucky to get $400 I'm so poor I have no life/medical insurance so they can't withdraw from that and all my belongings are probably under 1k so yah how the heck they'll get $100mil+ from me at least

They infer it from assumed ad revenue and other gainings. Based on the amount of traffic, the owner "should" be able to cough it up from the assumed ad revenue. If not, he goes to prison, and case closed.

 

[chrisrlink]

well hope the guy never drops the soap then btw i though the max financial penalty (at least for movies) was $250,000 USD how can game companies make the rules and not stick to the copyright penelty guidelines

edit: here it is

Penalties for copyright infringement include civil and criminal penalties. In general, anyone found liable for civil copyright infringement may be ordered to pay either actual damages or "statutory" damages affixed at not less than $750 and not more than $30,000 per work infringed. For "willful" infringement, a court may award up to $150,000 per work infringed. A court can, in its discretion, also assess costs and attorneys' fees. For details, see Title 17, United States Code, Sections 504, 505.

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

ok so how many offense is in the docket? each offense is 5 yrs