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Illegal sales

Z-Max

61
Posts
8
Years
    • Hello everybody,

    I need to know an important thing about the legal issue of rom hacking. I've created a hack that is called "Dbz Team Training", a game where pokemons are replaced by characters of Dragon Ball Z.

    I just found out that someone is selling this rom hack on the internet, there is a picture with the cartridge and a fake cover on it, it looks like a professionnal website moreover, that's really strange...
    I'm not going to post the link of this website and maybe there are other sellers anyway, but I need to know if I could be in trouble because of those people/websites?
    The fact that the game is commercialized doesn't bother me, but I wonder if Nintendo or another company can blame me for it.
    I never earned money with this rom hack of course. But how to prove it? And is it enough to comply with the law?
     

    BluRose

    blu rass
    811
    Posts
    10
    Years
    • Z-Max said:
    Hello everybody,

    I need to know an important thing about the legal issue of rom hacking. I've created a hack that is called "Dbz Team Training", a game where pokemons are replaced by characters of Dragon Ball Z.

    I just found out that someone is selling this rom hack on the internet, there is a picture with the cartridge and a fake cover on it, it looks like a professionnal website moreover, that's really strange...
    I'm not going to post the link of this website and maybe there are other sellers anyway, but I need to know if I could be in trouble because of those people/websites?
    The fact that the game is commercialized doesn't bother me, but I wonder if Nintendo or another company can blame me for it.
    I never earned money with this rom hack of course. But how to prove it? And is it enough to comply with the law?
    Click to expand...
    don't know france's policy on these things but i'm assuming it's mostly similar to US (said like it matters)
    honestly you should be fine. it is a severely unlikely chance that nintendo takes notice of and deals with the piracy of your hack. even if it is noticed, then you hold your ground as an uninterested third party whose position is neutral on the commercialization of your hack. hacks like liquid crystal, naranja, shiny gold, even ruby destiny have been sold online illegally for a number of years, and linkandzelda, serg!o, zel, and destinedjagold all never were charged for any sort of illegal misdoing.
     

    Z-Max

    61
    Posts
    8
    Years
    • Alright BluRose, thanks for your reply. ;) Indeed, the other rom hackers never had such problems, even if their rom hacks have been sold illegally for years as you said. And it should be the same in France I guess.
     
    FL

    FL

    Pokémon Island Creator
    2,450
    Posts
    13
    Years
    • Seen yesterday
    I guess that when some fangame is earning money, this helps to put the game into Nintendo's radar, but the main factor for a C&D letter is the game popularity.

    Someone reupload, without my permission, my game into a itch.io who prompt to donate on every download. This one even hijacked my game urls on wikis!

    I believe that the best approach is to try to report into the site owners (if the site is minimally famous) as you can. On the game, I suggest to put some note like "this is a non-profit game", "this game cannot be sold", "please support the official release" on the game first screens.
     

    Miaku

    9
    Posts
    10
    Years
    • Seen Dec 20, 2023
    There's a lot of shady stuff that goes on in the pokemon fan game community. To begin with none of this is legal, secondly all those Pokemon MMOs have illegal microtransactions so theres not much you can do except try and get it taken down.
     
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