Nintendo doesn’t like third-party ROM releases. It has been quick to take action against fan-made edits of its original games’ files but that action was previously limited to DMCA notices and cease and desist orders. Now they are ramping things up. The company now appears to have adopted a more aggressive attitude and is straight up suing ROM sites.
TorrentFreak is reporting that Nintendo of America has filed a lawsuit against LoveROMs and LoveRetro. It’s seeking millions in damages from these websites as they serve its classic games’ files. The company says it is the “brazen and mass-scale infringement of Nintendo’s intellectual property rights.”
Websites like LoveROMs and LoveRetro are popular with Nintendo fans since they host in-browser emulators and ROM downloads. The lawsuit filing includes interface explanations and screenshots to show how the users of these websites can gain access to thousands of Nintendo games and associated copyrighted works and images.
Nintendo is certainly serious about this. The company is seeking “$150,000 for the infringement of each Nintendo copyrighted work and up to $2,000,000 for the infringement of each Nintendo trademark.” It also wants the full disclosure of the “receipts and disbursements, profit and loss statements, advertising revenue, donations and cryptocurrency revenue, and other financial materials,” of the operators of these websites.
When the lawsuit was filed, LoveROMs updated its website to remove all Nintendo-related links, it has also taken down ROMs and emulators. LoveRetro now directs users to a single page which reads that “Loveretro has effectively been shut down until further notice.” Stay tuned.
Source Ubergizmo
