Earlier this summer, Nintendo filed a lawsuit against Jacob Mathias, otherwise known as the owner of LoveROMS and LoveRETRO, sites that notoriously hosted ROM files of retro Nintendo games. Immediately following the legal suit, both of the aforementioned domains were shut down to prevent further issue. Nintendo's legal action also had effects on other websites that had illegal content hosted on their servers, such as Emuparadise, which removed all download links shortly after the lawsuit was made public. Mathias and his wife, who were both charged on mass copyright infringement, plead guilty to the actions of trademark infringement and damages to Nintendo. They then entered settlement talks in order to find an agreeable amount of money to pay as reparations. Today, the final judgement for the case came in, showing that both Jacob Mathias and Nintendo had agreed for the former to pay $12,230,000 to the latter, over 12 million dollars.

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All copyrighted material owned by the couple must also be forfeited, and ownership of LoveROMs.com and LoveRETRO.co has been signed over to Nintendo of Japan.

Source

 

[Deleted User]

There should be a law (just like with music), that after xx years, it should be free to use and share.

Tell me you stupid Ninty. Where am I supposed to get your OLD FOCKING GAMES???

By buying rereleases or the original cart.

 

[[]KAOS[]Casey]

stuff

The original developers deserve the cash. A lot of these developers/companies are long defunct, or even their staff could be dead.

I can't buy a copy of oh.. I don't know.. Miracle Warriors for the Master System because i loved the game as a kid and have money go to the original devs. I'd have to buy it used. But what If I do want to give the original devs money? I just can't. I would be ok with paying a small license fee.. maybe 5 bucks or something to allow me to legally download a ROM for use in emulators

but that's never happening. If I can give the original devs (or people who did a real port job -- not just wrap a ROM in an emulator) money for one reason or another... I think it's okay to claim money in this lawsuit for it. Do you think downloading a copy of "Mario Teaches Typing" for free on a website is "unfairly competing" with nintendo despite it not being for sale for probably literally 20 years?

 

[supermist]

I'm just curious. Were they making a lot of money via ads and paid premium memberships?

 

[Redhorse]

I know a guy making a living off of selling books ( of a specific field of interest) which are far past copyright, and he is creating an archive at the same time. By doing this, he is making a gold mine for himself and a hub for those of us in that field. He is doing (very)well, sorry I didn't think of this idea first.

more on topic,

I feel N is nothing more than a Big dog barking... P.T. Barnum said "it doesn't matter what they're saying about me as long as they're still talking about me and haven't forgotten [me].." (loosely translated) sending a message to those hacking and cracking our junk. A messege that they don't want us using Roms or messing with their kit. If a few other sites shut down in the process, so much that better.. I don't believe they expect ma and pa barker to fess up with the cashola, when they can probably just go chapter 13/or bankruptcy... and no I don't think he was making millions, if he was there were far better things to parley/funnel that much money to than more roms sites rentals/sales... assuming he had any brains at all.

 

[Hells Malice]

That's the price you pay for doing something illegal. They'll likely have to file for bankruptcy. Pretty unlikely he could ever pay the 12mill.

This was just used to set an example to all sites that illegally distribute copyrighted property.

People mad at Nintendo have no clue how real life works.

 

[osaka35]

There should be a law (just like with music), that after xx years, it should be free to use and share.

Tell me you stupid Ninty. Where am I supposed to get your OLD FOCKING GAMES???

as a rule of thumb, anything made before mickey mouse is usually okay and is a part of public domain (what you're talking about, becoming "free"). anytime mickey mouse comes close to losing copyright, bribes are made and the amount of time a copyright on a product can be held is extended.

copyright holders have no requirement to allow others to purchase their work. they retain complete control over how their work is distributed and sold. so, it sucks, but copyright isn't evil. just a bit broken at the moment

is there a special thing for music that exist outside copyright?

 

[smf]

I doubt they would've taken less than ten mil regardless of how much he had actually made.

He was getting 17 million visits a month and the site was going for a few years while he ran it as a business. I find it hard to feel sorry for him.

 

[ov3rkill]

Yikes! How does this work if you can't pay that amount?

 

[Thulinma]

Wow. So much hate for Nintendo, when it was a judge that decided all this. Nintendo didn't *ask* for 12 million, they were *awarded* 12 million, by an impartial judge.
There is probably a good reason for that amount, since it is required that you show damages in court. Most likely, that number is approximately how much the owner of the website earned by offering the downloads. That makes sense, and yes, that is a measurable amount of money Nintendo lost because of them.
Ironically, if they hadn't made any money doing it, they most likely wouldn't have been made to pay much or anything at all. Doing stuff like this without any commercial intent is generally considered fair use when it makes it to court. It's when you do it for profit that it becomes an issue.

 

[yacepi15]

I think they'll make more money with this case than they would ever make with the Switch Online NES emulator.

 

[Xzi]

The original developers deserve the cash. A lot of these developers/companies are long defunct, or even their staff could be dead.

I can't buy a copy of oh.. I don't know.. Miracle Warriors for the Master System because i loved the game as a kid and have money go to the original devs. I'd have to buy it used. But what If I do want to give the original devs money? I just can't. I would be ok with paying a small license fee.. maybe 5 bucks or something to allow me to legally download a ROM for use in emulators

That's a brilliant idea actually, and I think it might be feasible to negotiate with developers still in existence as long as it only applied to games/software which has gone 20+ years without updates, for example. Of course, stuff like N64 and GCN (quickly coming up on 20 years old) could have a slightly higher price tag per download ($15 - $30), with some portion of that ($5 - $10) still going to the original developers so that third-party ROMs are possible too.

Then again, Nintendo would have more N64/GCN profits on lock down if they'd just release VC for both on Switch.

 

[Deleted member 445482]

I hope someone makes a gofundme to help them pay off their debt because there is no way in hell they could pay off 12 million by themselves.

 

[Paulsar99]

Fuck nintendo for trying to kill the retro scene. Hacking my switch is my way to give my big middle finger to them.

 

[Ty_]

There should be a law (just like with music), that after xx years, it should be free to use and share.

Tell me you stupid Ninty. Where am I supposed to get your OLD FOCKING GAMES???

Suggested exactly this to my GF earlier. I'd say if the copyright owner doesn't re-release a specific game/make it available after 20 years, it should become public domain. This way Sega are covered if they want to re-release Sonic for the 80th time and make money from it, and gamers who want to experience a certain game that is no longer available to them would also be covered.

it's ridiculous that a company that clearly has no interest in a game can still pull this nonsense.

 

[DejaSentj]

No one question how much he and his wife earn. you know women if your job like have nothing they will not go with you...

 

[smf]

Wow. So much hate for Nintendo, when it was a judge that decided all this. Nintendo didn't *ask* for 12 million, they were *awarded* 12 million, by an impartial judge.

Not quite. He settled before the case was heard. He offered $12 million. The court then ordered him to pay it, so that he can't just turn round and claim he never offered it, forcing nintendo to sue him again. Instead non payment would be contempt of court. Settlements in civil and criminal cases are always ordered by the court.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlement_(litigation)

 

[eriol33]

If they do a fundraising, I probably would donate. That's too harsh.

 

[Ty_]

Copyrights last too long, 70 years should be half that for games, music, etc. It's not like they were going to do anything with them anyway, they're just like that bratty kid in Preschool who hoards all the toys so the others can't have them.

I feel like making some videos showcasing the games I downloaded and posting them all over just to piss them off.

You can thank Disney for that, I'm sure originally it was 20 years. They're massive hypocrites BTW, benefiting of public domain works while extending copyright themselves.

 

[Phenj]

that's why piracy is good, kids

 

[Thulinma]

Not quite. He settled before the case was heard. He offered $12 million. The court then ordered him to pay it, so that he can't just turn round and claim he never offered it, forcing nintendo to sue him again. Settlements in civil and criminal cases are always ordered by the court.

Well, then even better: they discussed it and both agreed to this amount. The judge didn't even have to decide. What is the problem here? ¯\_(ツ)_/¯