Of Beasts and Bullies

Nintendo has been busy lately, apparently bullying websites into removing their images from the latest Pokemon game. Below is a copy of the letter that was sent to Pokébeach and was subsequently posted on their site:

Dear Sir or Madam:

We are legal counsel to Nintendo of America Inc. (referred to here, with its parent and affiliated

companies, as “Nintendo”). As you are no doubt well aware, Nintendo is one of the world’s

leading developers and distributors of video game products. The Pokémon franchise is one of

Nintendo’s most popular game series, and the upcoming release of the Pokémon Black and

Pokémon White video games has garnered significant media attention. The intellectual property

associated with the games, including the copyright in the underlying software code, visual

depictions of the games, and characters found within the games, is the subject of copyright

protection in the United States and abroad.

We recently learned that you have posted screenshots and other protected content from the

Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games to your website at http://pokebeach.com. While

Nintendo appreciates your interest in and support of the Pokémon game series, your publication

of this content infringes Nintendo’s copyrights in violation of federal law. Your activity also and

has the potential to cause substantial damage to Nintendo, and leaves Nintendo with no choice

but to take steps to protect its intellectual property rights.

We have accordingly submitted a copyright infringement notice to your domain registrar under

the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and anticipate that your website will be taken down shortly.

We encourage you to immediately remove from your website all graphics, screenshots, and

other protected content taken from the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games. Going

forward, you must also refrain from posting any screenshots, videos, or other content that

infringes Nintendo’s rights in the Pokémon series or any other game.

Your full and immediate compliance with the foregoing should render further action on

Nintendo’s part unnecessary. It is essential that we receive your written response confirming

that you have taken these necessary actions by Sunday, September 19, 12:00 p.m. PDT,

however, or Nintendo will have no choice but to consider its alternative legal remedies.

PokeBeach.com

September 18, 2010

Page Two

Please contact me if you would like to discuss this matter in further detail. Nothing stated herein

shall constitute a waiver of any rights or remedies of Nintendo of America Inc., its parent or

affiliated companies, all of which are expressly reserved.

Very truly yours,

X

You may be wondering what it was that all these websites did to arise the ire of Nintendo. They simply posted pictures of Pokemon Black & White. This strikes a nerve with me because as a journalist I always like to have images to illustrate my points. When someone tries to put restrictions on the reviews of their game after it's been released it feels like trying to suppress information. This suppression of imagery feels the same way.

What really baffles my mind is that these websites are blatantly advertising their game for free. There's been speculation that the memos were sent out because the websites used emulators to get high quality images of the game since they can just screen capture. This idea doesn't make sense to me, taking a picture of the DS screen doesn't come out well. Case in point take a look at this picture I took of Final Fantasy Crystal Chronicles on my D S of a character I made to look like Edward Elric from Fullmetal Alchemist.

As a result, Nintendo has a lot of negative PR now amongst the hardcore fans. So much so that I'm actually having second thoughts about whether or not I want to buy the game. In fact I'm actually hesitant to write about Monster Hunter Tri because Nintendo could come after me.