The investigation as to who managed to leak the Pokemon Sword and Shield guidebook continues. As reported upon last month, The Pokemon Company International took the initial steps to begin a lawsuit against a group of users who managed to leak images pertaining to Pokemon Sword and Shield, weeks prior to release. These images originated from an official guidebook, with the contents so closely guarded, that it released a week after the aforementioned games. When the images were shared online and went viral, The Pokemon Company and its representing law firm claimed that it caused "irreparable injury" to the company and brand. Previously, they were seeking a subpoena against both Discord and 4Chan, where the leaks supposedly originated. The motion has now been granted, and both sites/services will now be required to give any information that could lead to the identification of the three leakers.

Before the Court is Plaintiff The Pokémon Company International, Inc.’s (“TPCi”) Ex Parte Motion for Expedited Discovery. Having considered TPCi’s Motion and all other pleadings and papers on file in this matter, this Court hereby GRANTS the Motion. TPCi may serve subpoenas on Discord, 4chan, and DimensioNz#3307 before the Parties’ Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 26(f) conference.

Source

Tags: [COMPANY=/company/the-pokemon-company-international]The Pokémon Company International[/COMPANY]

 

[MasterJ360]

Going after those who leaked pictures of the game is kinda silly to me considering we have been leaking scans for years. All of a sudden they want to sue us b/c it happens to be a Switch game. This generation is so corrupted of power you might get sued just for data mining if it becomes true.

 

[FAST6191]

Going after those who leaked pictures of the game is kinda silly to me considering we have been leaking scans for years. All of a sudden they want to sue us b/c it happens to be a Switch game. This generation is so corrupted of power you might get sued just for data mining if it becomes true.

Do you mean data mining as the real world defines it or the bizarre thing some game sites have taken to calling reverse engineering/ROM hacking? Because short of abusing fancy APIs or something I would be stunned to see the former, the latter would also be fairly hard pressed to make things stick.

 

[MasterJ360]

Do you mean data mining as the real world defines it or the bizarre thing some game sites have taken to calling reverse engineering/ROM hacking? Because short of abusing fancy APIs or something I would be stunned to see the former, the latter would also be fairly hard pressed to make things stick.

Analyzing content that has yet been released in a form of hypothesis or theorizing basing on the current knowledge of the game's behavior. Hacking the game isn't required to know that there are other pokemon data are present. Looking at Mew kinda summarized how GameFreak will be dishing out the rest of the legendary pkmn through mystery gift or G-Max events.

 

[Pluupy]

What were the leaked images?

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Nintendo was always like this. They are on a fantasy world power trip.
Shipping games out before their own "release date" and still suing afterwards.

Why not ship all the games out on 14.11.2019 to all shops/consumers instead? I know it is a lot but this works out perfectly fine.

You do not understand how logistics works. No company will go out of their way for that kind of last-second delivery. You expect stores like Target to receive shipments of the games and have store employees assemble the displays will within a single day? You are living in a fantasy world. There are hundreds of other products that stores must attend to alongside a video game.

 

[Om3Ga1337]

@Pluupy There is no other way. Either do it in a single day or don't cry and sue people if they got products before "release date".
And yes, it IS possible for big companies to ship everything in one day, or at least the 1st wave of products.

You my dear live in a dream world instead.

 

[gamer765]

I feel like if an internal employee leaked the pictures, they would be behind a NDA agreement and would be much easier to track than requesting Reddit/4chan for clues, and would use the breaking of the NDA as the reason behind the lawsuit instead of "irreparable damages to their image". But I suppose at this point we can only speculate.

I don't think you comprehend how an NDA works either, or the mammoth of a company that Nintendo is. Nintendo isn't a small time company with 100 employees where tracking an NDA breaker would be a piece of cake. Everyone handling the game, from developers, publishers, janitors, warehouse employees, distributors, reviewers, influencers, shop owners, absolutely anyone that had any contact with the game before it was ready for the public is under NDA. That network expands to thousands of people all over the world. Of course this leak was by individuals under NDA, so by your logic, nailing these people should be a piece of cake. Well done Sherlock! And if you've ever been under NDA, which I'm assuming you haven't, seeing how clueless you are to how this works, there's always a clause as to what happens when you break such NDA. I'm totally for Nintendo catching these guys and giving them what they deserve. If they can't handle an NDA, they shouldn't sign it and should instead take up another project. Ever wondered why mom and pops shops don't carry AAA games on day 1? That's cause the publisher does not trust them to guard the games to even offer them an NDA. Even then, some sort of money transaction/relationship has to be established.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

I don't think you comprehend how an NDA works either, or the mammoth of a company that Nintendo is. Nintendo isn't a small time company with 100 employees where tracking an NDA breaker would be a piece of cake. Everyone handling the game, from developers, publishers, janitors, warehouse employees, distributors, reviewers, influencers, shop owners, absolutely anyone that had any contact with the game before it was ready for the public is under NDA. That network expands to thousands of people all over the world. Of course this leak was by individuals under NDA, so by your logic, nailing these people should be a piece of cake. Well done Sherlock! And if you've ever been under NDA, which I'm assuming you haven't, seeing how clueless you are to how this works, there's always a clause as to what happens when you break such NDA. I'm totally for Nintendo catching these guys and giving them what they deserve. If they can't handle an NDA, they shouldn't sign it and should instead take up another project.

Except the actual leaker might not have been under an NDA. For all we know the box they were shipped in could've had a hole in it when it was delivered to a store, and one could've fallen out, or a store employee could've been careless and dropped one when putting it in a store room. The individual store employee certainly didn't sign an NDA, nor would a delivery person if they shipped it through a regular courier or postal service. So a random employee or person who found the guidebook isn't under an NDA. One could argue if an employee leaked the pictures the store could be under an NDA, but the individual may not be. Hell, it could've even been a stolen package if it was delivered and left at a door.

 

[Garro]

I don't think you comprehend how an NDA works either, or the mammoth of a company that Nintendo is. Nintendo isn't a small time company with 100 employees where tracking an NDA breaker would be a piece of cake. Everyone handling the game, from developers, publishers, janitors, warehouse employees, distributors, reviewers, influencers, shop owners, absolutely anyone that had any contact with the game before it was ready for the public is under NDA. That network expands to thousands of people all over the world. Of course this leak was by individuals under NDA, so by your logic, nailing these people should be a piece of cake. Well done Sherlock! And if you've ever been under NDA, which I'm assuming you haven't, seeing how clueless you are to how this works, there's always a clause as to what happens when you break such NDA. I'm totally for Nintendo catching these guys and giving them what they deserve. If they can't handle an NDA, they shouldn't sign it and should instead take up another project.

We're talking about a guide book whose pictures was leaked 3 weeks prior to the release, not a game. Not to mention this would fall under Pokemon Company (like the title says), not Nintendo, the main reasoning behind being inclined towards this not being a NDA issue is that they're usually dealt with within the company and rarely made public and the reasoning given to the court of "damaging sales" instead of breaking a contract between two parties. But I reiterate, we're just speculating.

I'm not sure what happened to you to feel so personally attacked by some random post but I hope you get the help you deserve. Take care.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

We're talking about a guide book whose pictures was leaked 3 weeks prior to the release, not a game. Not to mention this would fall under Pokemon Company (like the title says), not Nintendo, the main reasoning behind being inclined towards this not being a NDA issue is that they're usually dealt with within the company and rarely made public and the reasoning given to the court of "damaging sales" instead of breaking a contract between two parties. But I reiterate, we're just speculating.

I'm not sure what happened to you to feel so personally attacked by some random post but I hope you get the help you deserve. Take care.

The actual docket says something like "failure to protect trade secrets", though I don't think that argument will hold up in court because the leaker may not have any obligation to protect trade secrets, which is why they're going with causing injury to the reputation of the Pokémon IP and TPCi. Even they know that the leaker might not have sort of agreement with them.

 

[gamer765]

Except the actual leaker might not have been under an NDA. For all we know the box they were shipped in could've had a hole in it when it was delivered to a store, and one could've fallen out, or a store employee could've been careless and dropped one when putting it in a store room. The individual store employee certainly didn't sign an NDA, nor would a delivery person if they shipped it through a regular courier or postal service. So a random employee or person who found the guidebook isn't under an NDA. One could argue if an employee leaked the pictures the store could be under an NDA, but the individual may not be.

Everyone is under NDA. If the leaker was not under NDA, then it is a failure of someone who was under NDA to safeguard the company secrets, so again it falls to someone under NDA. As far as delivery companies go, they are under NDA as well, they have to follow the guidelines set forth by the company shipping the merchandise out. Also they don't just send delivery driver Joe, who is 2 months on the job, to pick up these shipments. They already have a designated person to handle all of that, from where it then gets taken to a warehouse and broken down and distributed as regular/disguised freight to the shops. Again, these shipping containers are usually packed securely, so your theory of a hole in the package doesn't hold water. Let's agree with you for a while and say the package got damaged during transit, the shipping company, which is under NDA, would take the blame, and guess what happens to their future contracts? They get none, because Nintendo will move onto a new shipper. But Nintendo will also investigate as to what happened and can decide whether it wants to take action against the individual or the company as a whole. Sadly, sometimes the individual takes the heat because the company will not want to lose the contract and would rather lose an employee to keep their contracts. It's either protect your employee and lose a big client, or throw your employee under the bus to protect your source of income. I used to work for a cargo company and we always got imports from a major Italian designer label. To keep the chain of trust, we could only release said shipments to a certain delivery company and even then, only to specific drivers designated to pick up the shipment.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

Everyone is under NDA. If the leaker was not under NDA, then it is a failure of someone who was under NDA to safeguard the company secrets, so again it falls to someone under NDA. As far as delivery companies go, they are under NDA as well, they have to follow the guidelines set forth by the company shipping the merchandise out. Also they don't just send delivery driver Joe, who is 2 months on the job, to pick up these shipments. They already have a designated person to handle all of that, from where it then gets taken to a warehouse and broken down and distributed as regular/disguised freight to the shops. Again, these shipping containers are usually packed securely, so your theory of a hole in the package doesn't hold water. Let's agree with you for a while and say the package got damaged during transit, the shipping company, which is under NDA, would take the blame, and guess what happens to their future contracts? They get none, because Nintendo will move onto a new shipper. But Nintendo will also investigate as to what happened and can decide whether it wants to take action against the individual or the company as a whole. Sadly, sometimes the individual takes the heat because the company will not want to lose the contract and would rather lose an employee to keep their contracts. It's either protect your employee and lose a big client, or throw your employee under the bus to protect your source of income.

No, not everyone is under an NDA, everybody who signs an NDA is under it. Unless you can prove the courier signed one, or that every store owner signed one, you can't say everyone is under an NDA. The employees if Game Freak and TPCi are almost certainly under one, and the publisher of the guide book is likely under one as well. The courier that delivered it to the distributors might have been under an NDA. But the distributor might not have made, or might not have the authority to make a second courier sign an NDA, and might not have ensured that literally every store owner had signed an NDA. If the package is damaged and something falls out, or the package is stolen, and the courier didn't sign an NDA they didn't violate any sort of agreement. If the store owner didn't (this could be the case for independently owned stores), then they're definitely not violating an NDA either. There's a good chance the actual leaker isn't under an NDA themselves, and that's what we're actually discussing here We'll see what the actual ruling is when the time comes.

 

[snobbysteven]

Yeah, it's their right to do this. But I feel like they are more so doing this because they are mad about all the backlash they got.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

No, not everyone is under an NDA, everybody who signs an NDA is under it. Unless you can prove the courier signed one, or that every store owner signed one, you can't say everyone is under an NDA.

As someone who has worked in stores (granted, not in a video game shop but I expect this to be nigh universal), a fairly bog standard part of contracts is that if you learn anything that's under an NDA the store you work for signed with a client, that you are required to follow the regulations of that NDA.

--
Also, just want to point out that the "it fell off a truck" defense which you're peddling here is not generally regarded as a serious defense and is typically more seen as a euphenism for theft so uh... yeah.

 

[RedBlueGreen]

As someone who has worked in stores (granted, not in a video game shop but I expect this to be nigh universal), a fairly bog standard part of contracts is that if you learn anything that's under an NDA the store you work for signed with a client, that you are required to follow the regulations of that NDA.

--
Also, just want to point out that the "it fell off a truck" defense which you're peddling here is not generally regarded as a serious defense and is typically more seen as a euphenism for theft so uh... yeah.

That's just it, I'm not exactly saying it was stolen, but it's a possibility. And my point is that if it was stolen, the thief isn't under an NDA, though obviously they would be committing a legitimate crime. If one was dropped outside the person who found it (if that happened) wouldn't be under an NDA either. Nor can we prove every store signed an NDA. Which is exactly my point, we can't prove the actual person who leaked the images is under an NDA.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

That's just it, I'm not exactly saying it was stolen, but it's a possibility. And my point is that if it was stolen, the thief isn't under an NDA, though obviously they would be committing a legitimate crime. If one was dropped outside the person who found it (if that happened) wouldn't be under an NDA either. Nor can we prove every store signed an NDA. Which is exactly my point, we can't prove the actual person who leaked the images is under an NDA.

Which is why they're subpoenaing here. They probably conducted an internal investigation and couldn't find anything and now they use the other venue they have to determine who leaked it, which is subpoenaing Discord, Reddit and 4chan, where the leaks were published.

 

[MetoMeto]

before people get all pissy over this. These people deserve this 10000000%. Don't want to risk getting in trouble? don't leak stuff. And for all of you who will have some smart comment to say.. just think if this was your work that you put a lot of time into only to have some idiot leaked your stuff that had a strict release date. I bet you would sue aas well.

Thats not nice to say to fella gamers and ordinary non company people... not to mention youre defending a company... i mean thats fine...just not nice. unless you work for nintendo.... but whatever...

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Since Mr. Iwata passed away Nintendo became big fat di*ks LoL
Its the agressiveness, and methods and lenghts they go about doing stuff, not thag they shouldnt or should...

Just...wow. I never thought id say that Nintendo became assholes xD

A way to show grattitude for ppl who love their games so much and apreciate it they do stupid stuff.... SUE THEIR ASSES, TROW THEM TO JAIL! YEAH MAN, NINTENDO POWER! lol

Eh...whatever, i dont care...

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Oh bh the way, i hear more about nintendo suing people than about new Metroid game.... at least they release 30 yo games..AGAIN! Well...i guess they have no time because of all sueing....

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they wanted attention
now they're getting attention

If you mean Nintendo...than yes, they sure do..a negative one.

 

[Ev1l0rd]

Thats not nice to say to fella gamers and ordinary non company people... not to mention youre defending a company... i mean thats fine...just not nice. unless you work for nintendo.... but whatever...

If you think that just because people are siding with Nintendo here is automatically "not nice", then I'm sorry but uh... that doesn't always hold up. Don't get me wrong, corporations do plenty of stupid shit but this situation is not at all that. Do stupid shit, deal with the consequences. Leakers did stupid shit, this is the logical consequence.

Since Mr. Iwata passed away Nintendo became big fat di*ks LoL
Its the agressiveness, and methods and lenghts they go about doing stuff, not thag they shouldnt or should...

Just...wow. I never thought id say that Nintendo became assholes xD

A way to show grattitude for ppl who love their games so much and apreciate it they do stupid stuff.... SUE THEIR ASSES, TROW THEM TO JAIL! YEAH MAN, NINTENDO POWER! lol

Eh...whatever, i dont care...

Nobody will go to jail over this. What will happen is that the leakers get a big fat fine and probably won't be able to work in the industry again.

Oh bh the way, i hear more about nintendo suing people than about new Metroid game.... at least they release 30 yo games..AGAIN! Well...i guess they have no time because of all sueing....

This lawsuit doesn't take up any of NOJ/NOAs time, they hire a lawyers office to do this kinda stuff (which is clear since the lawyers office takes care of this to begin with). Also the lawsuit is done by TPC not by Nintendo.

If you mean Nintendo...than yes, they sure do..a negative one.

Only because people keep failing to interpret what this lawsuit is actually about.

 

[MetoMeto]

If you think that just because people are siding with Nintendo here is automatically "not nice", then I'm sorry but uh... that doesn't always hold up. Don't get me wrong, corporations do plenty of stupid shit but this situation is not at all that. Do stupid shit, deal with the consequences. Leakers did stupid shit, this is the logical consequence.


Nobody will go to jail over this. What will happen is that the leakers get a big fat fine and probably won't be able to work in the industry again.


This lawsuit doesn't take up any of NOJ/NOAs time, they hire a lawyers office to do this kinda stuff (which is clear since the lawyers office takes care of this to begin with). Also the lawsuit is done by TPC not by Nintendo.


Only because people keep failing to interpret what this lawsuit is actually about.

Im sorry but Youre using to much logic here, which is fine. Im speaking from apoint of a regular person and how i feel about this. It may be logical what they did and logical to blame the leaker, however thag doesnt make it right.

As ordinary person i dont need to go to technical to see its wrong.

They are just going to far imo, and image of company degrades in mh eyes at least..even though i understand objectivaly whag happened...but as i said, that just wont cut it for me as a regular person watching and buying their games and building positive image of nintendo.

Sega on the other hand is going easier and more user friendly and rewards people who freaking mod their property and even hire so everione can have great experiance and company also.

I guess the bigger they are the bigger dicks they become.

I mean i get what youre saying, and it all makes perfect sense but...it feels wrong. sorry.

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Also...i mean....leaks?!?! give me a break.... lol thats nothing. They are NOT suffering damage Loool

They are literally acting like bullies.

 

[gamer765]

Nor can we prove every store signed an NDA. Which is exactly my point, we can't prove the actual person who leaked the images is under an NDA.

I'm not trying to say that any individual store signed an NDA, but the main company did. That's why all these chain stores get to carry the latest games day one. You won't find an indie store carrying the biggest game of the year, day of release. They'll get the game much much later, and they'll get it from another shop getting rid of their stock for the next big game. Like GameStop headquarters signs an NDA and then a memo goes out to all the shops about their requirements and expectations for the release. Any shop found not to be in compliance gets dealt with by corporate. And usually the courier company is the same one that will distribute the game to the shops. But at that point the shipment is broken down to smaller shipments and mixed in with regular shipments so it's much harder to identify for theft. The way you're imagining things is that every person is signing an individual NDA, but that's not needed, only the company has to sign and then they communicate the requirements to everyone involved in the process. Anyone who can't follow procedure is reassigned to another job not related. You should search up what a CCSF is. A lot of these companies either have one or rely on the services of another established CCSF for protecting their stuff. If they need to use a third party courier not under NDA, they'll use a CCSF. By using a CCSF, all screening and packaging is handled by the CCSF and when they pass it over to the secondary courier, they Don't have to screen it anymore since it's been screened already. All these things have seals on them.

 

[64bitmodels]

Im sorry but Youre using to much logic here, which is fine. Im speaking from apoint of a regular person and how i feel about this. It may be logical what they did and logical to blame the leaker, however thag doesnt make it right.

As ordinary person i dont need to go to technical to see its wrong.

They are just going to far imo, and image of company degrades in mh eyes at least..even though i understand objectivaly whag happened...but as i said, that just wont cut it for me as a regular person watching and buying their games and building positive image of nintendo.

Sega on the other hand is going easier and more user friendly and rewards people who freaking mod their property and even hire so everione can have great experiance and company also.

I guess the bigger they are the bigger dicks they become.

I mean i get what youre saying, and it all makes perfect sense but...it feels wrong. sorry.

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

Also...i mean....leaks?!?! give me a break.... lol thats nothing. They are NOT suffering damage Loool

They are literally acting like bullies.

Yeah because right now Sega's in a shitty state lmao
Mania needed fans to help make the game, forces was horrible and bayonetta 3 has yet to be released
Besides that most of the good staff had left to work at nintendo, (which nintendo really doesn't need considering they're already sitting on millions of dollars and millions of talented devs) so all sega has left are a bunch of ameteur devs who are working their asses off to barely keep the company afloat
OFC they'd go to their fans to help because they're dying
A better example would be capcom, who are a little more strict on their fangames but still have a good company and they're putting out good games, and are loved by fans who AREN'T working at their company
oh how the mighty have fallen