5th Gen Nintendo Taking action?

[Natester]

I seriously hope that this letter is fake. I would be really really upset if serebii.net got shut down due to copyright infringment. Butthurt lawyers.

But all in all, I expect this to blow over pretty soon.

 

[sirboulevard]

This is pretty stupid, getting to see areas and features from the game on sites like Serebii, makes the long waits for the games to be released in the West a bit more bearable, and also makes us want to buy the games even more, the only reason for them to want to stop this is if they are embarrassed by what they have made, because if it was any other reason they would have stepped forward long before now to say something.

This started about 7 months ago. I'm part of the Metroid fandom as well and we got hit with this first. In march someone recorded the intro to Other M on their iPhone at a private screening and uploaded it to YouTube. One of the webmasters of on the fandom sites actually met Yoshiro Sakamoto (the guy who made the game) at a conference and asked how that made him feel. He said that he felt betrayed and that many people at Nintendo had felt it was the last straw and that they were going to start shutting down early spoilers of things because they would rather someone have the game in their hands than read about it online and make their opinion there. He also said they wished they didn't have to do this, but they felt they were finally starting to have real issues with people doing these sorts of things and that the leniency we've enjoyed on both sides is likely ending.

Likely, this will continue with all Nintendo franchises for a while, especially so close to the 3DS release.

 

[Resultz]

serebii wont get shut down.
Admin there is still making a diary of events in the game.

the only reason i can see for this timing is strict internet laws in japan, ence them being oblivious to the commotion theyre causing.

othewise im lost for words.

 

[Abyssumi]

serebii wont get shut down.
Admin there is still making a diary of events in the game.

the only reason i can see for this timing is strict internet laws in japan, ence them being oblivious to the commotion theyre causing.

othewise im lost for words.

its on serebii now and i think pictures have been taken down. rather pointless thing for nintendo to do. the pictures made me want the game more

 

[Zeturic]

It IS real. Serebii has stripped his site of all B/W images.

That statement isn't even remotely correct. It was done because it might be real.

If I went up to someone buying a can of soup and told them that that can, and only that can, had one extra ingredient - Cyaninde - so, unless they feel like dying that night, they should pick a different can, they do so, and don't die, would you say that proves that the first can actually had Cyanide?

The eating Cyanide (and subsequently dying) in my example is just like leaving up the information and dealing with the legal consequences. The action of switching cans is just like the action of taking down the information. The not dying is just like not having any legal repercussions.

Serebii is acting under no assumptions other than it could be true. In other words, what happened was because of a "just in case" type of mindset.

Also, I'd like to point out that it being real and him taking down the stuff is essentially equivalent to it being fake and him taking it down, as, in both cases, no legal repercussions ensue.

I love how I wrote out 5 paragraphs in response to a 12 word post, and didn't even mention how I personally feel about the topic.

 

[spike6958]

This started about 7 months ago. I'm part of the Metroid fandom as well and we got hit with this first. In march someone recorded the intro to Other M on their iPhone at a private screening and uploaded it to YouTube. One of the webmasters of on the fandom sites actually met Yoshiro Sakamoto (the guy who made the game) at a conference and asked how that made him feel. He said that he felt betrayed and that many people at Nintendo had felt it was the last straw and that they were going to start shutting down early spoilers of things because they would rather someone have the game in their hands than read about it online and make their opinion there. He also said they wished they didn't have to do this, but they felt they were finally starting to have real issues with people doing these sorts of things and that the leniency we've enjoyed on both sides is likely ending.

Likely, this will continue with all Nintendo franchises for a while, especially so close to the 3DS release.

So basically Nintendo want us to pay money for a game without knowing anything about it, thats pretty lame and kinda makes what I said seem more true, they are worried that if people see screenshots/videos they'll see that the game actually isn't very good, I mean if you have made something awesome why would you want to hid it from the people who'll buy it? To me it's simple you wouldn't.

 

[Zeturic]

So basically Nintendo want us to pay money for a game without knowing anything about it, thats pretty lame and kinda makes what I said seem more true, they are worried that if people see screenshots/videos they'll see that the game actually isn't very good, I mean if you have made something awesome why would you want to hid it from the people who'll buy it? To me it's simple you wouldn't.

Assuming for a moment that the letter is real, there are a couple reasons.

The first isn't truly a reason, but they own the series, so they can do what they want. End of.

The main reason, however, I believe, is the same thing that most of their decisions are made for - money. Most people who visit Pokemon sites were planning on buying it to begin with. How many people would go from not really wanting to buy to a "OMG! Best game ever!! Must get!" mindset because of some screenshots, as compared to people who weren't really planning on it, but might have, and seeing it and deciding they hate it and decide not to buy it, even if they would've liked it if they'd tried it.

I really could've phrased that better. Indeed, I'd be hard pressed to find a worse way to phrase it. However, with any luck, my point was still conveyed.

 

[BCKC]

Couple errors here and there in the "official document" like others have stated. I also noticed that whoever wrote it pressed enter completely unnecessarily after every line o.O

Anyway, I hope this is a hoax. The letter just doesn't seem official...

Off topic: Holy crud my new sig is long. better put it in spoilers

 

[King Gumball]

Serebii got the letter so Joe had to take down the images too.

 

[Timbjerr]

Hey guys, stop overreacting.

If this is all real, is it really that unreasonable for Nintendo to request this of the major Pokemon fansites? Legally, they are in the right. They own the copyright to the Pokemon franchise and all the characters and settings thereof. At least they're giving the sites a chance to stay up by taking images down instead of just closing the website completely. >_>

 

[SIN1488]

Hopefully this is bull and Serebii is just re-upping the pokedex with clearer images. Lol Nintendo, y u stab me? >_<

Also, *hides ice-cream cone in sig* >_>
<_<
>_>

 

[Devil Flamingo]

What's this? Am I smelling BS here? Oh...! Yes, I think I am. My BS-detecting nose sensors are going off!

"HI!!! I'M AN OFFICIAL PERSON WHO DOES OFFICIAL THINGS AND I ORDER YOU TO TAKE DOWN YOUR IMAGES!!! BECAUSE I SAY SO OFFICIALLY!!!" (the point of this lolpic being, just because Sarah Palin is a political figure with some form of status does not mean the BS that comes out of her mouth has to be taken as factz)

lolno. I can't believe people fell for this. I don't give a damn who you here, but if you're gonna send me a SERIOUS BUSINESS letter or email, it had damn better be in flawless English or flawless French or I won't take you seriously. I don't give a Pikachu that English/French isn't your first language; that's what translators, editors, dictionaries and spellcheckers are for. Anything less than that is just not real to me, sorry.

Now I don't know about Japan and their standards, but here in Canada, no company would ever send an official document to anyone, not even to some lowly employee, in anything less than perfectly correct English or French, and if/when they do, they lose credibility. No1currs that you don't speak/write French or English as your first language; even for something that doesn't require brains (like McD's, to which I applied and currently work at) your resume has to be in good English.

So I find it EXTREMELY HARD to believe that one of the biggest gaming companies in the entire world couldn't be arsed to get someone who actually speaks English and not just speaks English but knows about Western writing standards to type up the official letter or email and send it to Serebii and Pokebeach. Why the formatting/grammatical/spelling mistakes? You shouldn't care about whether the receiver has standards or not; you should care about your own standards.

Days ago I got an email from a small Korean company who contacted me about a Korean DVD I ordered with them, and they managed to write in damn fine English (the "tone" was slightly awkward, but I attributed that to cultural differences). Why is a Korean DVD company writing an email to little old me in perfect English, but GF/Nintendo is writing one to PokeBeach/Serebii in less than that? The same is true of site like PlayAsia and YesAsia.

I'm telling you, this is BS. They didn't care before, why care now? In a week or two a lot of kids like me will actually own B/W and there's nothing anyone can do to prevent me from uploading fanart, custom sprites, screenies, images and so on and so forth to my LJ, and/or send them via MSN and Gmail.

This is a hoax if I've ever seen one, and if I owned a Pokemon site, I'd be like, "lol, try again. You send me a letter/email in perfect English and maybe, MAYBE then I'll believe you".

^ SpongeBob & co. are NOT impressed with this failhaxxx.

 

[Maxite]

Meh... I have the images I need already saved (which is just the new Pokemon images). A bit of a bummer that a C&D is going around, but even if it's fake, I still say "better safe than sorry."

Hopefully it's revealed as a fake.

 

[SIN1488]

Meh... I have the images I need already saved (which is just the new Pokemon images).

Hopefully it's revealed as a fake.

I'm mad because all I saved was that freakin ice-cream cone. :disappoin

I hope it's fake too! >_<

 

[fenyx4]

It appears to be fake... Ambi Pom-Pom of PokeBeach posted a good argument regarding the document. But simply assuming that the notice is invalid can only hope to land one in a world of legal trouble... :( I noticed Serebii removed BW images as a preemptive action...

IIRC, someone from the anime did an interview with someone of PokeBeach, and since Nintendo is affiliated with the anime, they have likely known about the site (as well as others) for a long time. Prerelease HGSS images were posted on PokeBeach and other fansites, and Nintendo didn't have a problem then, so apparently Nintendo must be OK with the whole thing, as long as the fansites do not make profit off such images.

And really, these fansites are helping Pokemon in a sense via "promotion" that Nintendo doesn't even have to pay for. Thousands of fans outside Japan are already stoked and set to buy the game, despite some "perceived flaws". And even still some are waiting for the third version of BW that hasn't even been ANNOUNCED yet (myself included). :D

I understand the property is Nintendo's, so they have all of the right to send out such notices. But really, as far as I see it, no "substantial damages" are going to be incurred by Nintendo if Pokemon fansites continue to propogate information that 'tides us over' until other localized releases come to fruition. None of the fansites are even trying to tarnish Nintendo's name/image; in fact, they're doing the opposite.

The only possible trouble that could arise is regarding the ROM sites, and a lot of Pokemon fansites I've seen have explicitly forbidden discussion of such items. Not to mention that most people tend to buy the actual games anyway...

And if the letter is fake, I hope whoever wrote it does get reported and punished, because it is just wasting everyone's time. I had thought Bulbanews had posted another BW article, but instead I encountered this mess...

EDIT: And I just noticed how the letter refers to Nintendo as "we" in the first paragraph, yet calls themselves "me" in the last paragraph. So that must be one of the several grammatical/typographical errors being referenced by others... :\

 

[JP]

I don't believe it to be real. Ambi Pom-Pom's post on Pokebeach sold me. It's quite obvious a professional entity wouldn't be sending out letters with things as simple as grammatical or spelling errors.

 

[Åzurε]

So prolly a hoax, but the man took 'em down as a preventative measure.

And you know, why would Nintendo (or Pokemon Company, I'm really not sure) ask to take down all the images on sites that generate and express interest in a money-printing franchise like this anyways? I've heard of artists and companies who encourage the creation of fan art and even Rule 34 on their intellectual property. It's a sign that you have a following.
Or that interwebs is being spiteful, but that's different.

 

[Dillon_68]

This is pure crap, Nintendo just lost major cool points with this one...

 

[Utahraptor]

So far, I'm inclined to believe that this is a hoax. As the others have put out, taking action against the fansites hurts Nintendo more than helps. The images have already been leaked, and can be found easily anywhere on the internet. Heck, there are already a couple Youtube walkthroughs posted. If Nintendo were to call for a recall of these leaked images, they would have done so in the beginning. At the very least, they would have permitted the pictures that were officially announced to remain posted.

TL;DR: This is pure BS and I'm just going to sit back and watch as this letter is proven a hoax, thus allowing all the pics to be reposted.

 

[Planetes.]

okay, well I haven't seen ambipom's post, but if you guys say its fake, I believe you. Sorry for wasting your time, I just was posting the latest.
But I can still see why nintendo would be mad-the roms got leaked damn quick.