Among major video game publishers, there is perhaps no company more threatened by video game emulators and ROMs — digitized versions of games for use on those emulators — than Nintendo. The company takes a hard-line stance against them on its corporate website, and Nintendo has now sued the owners of two separate ROM sites, alleging copyright infringement. The lawsuit, the text of which was obtained by TorrentFreak, was filed in Arizona against Jacob Mathias and the company Mathias Designs over the websites LoveROMs.com and LoveRetro.co, both of which are used to distribute ROMs of Nintendo’s games, as well as other Nintendo properties such as musical recordings. According to Nintendo’s lawsuit, the websites have damaged Nintendo, and the unauthorized use of its software “infringes and threatens irreparable injury to Nintendo’s intellectual property rights.” Nintendo is seeking a ton of money in the lawsuit, including $150,000 for each case of copyright infringement found on the sites as well as up to $2 million for each infringement of one of its trademarks. Nintendo also seeks “compensatory damages” and an award to cover its legal fees. The lawsuit resulted in quick action being taken by the websites. LoveRetro.co was taken down completely, while LoveROMs.com had all Nintendo titles removed from its library. Nintendo requested as part of its lawsuit that the two websites transfer their domain names into Nintendo’s control, and that they identify those who originally provided them with the unauthorized copies of its games. We hear about Nintendo taking steps to prevent piracy against its older games far more often than we do from other publishers, primarily because the company’s back catalog of games continue to be popular. “It doesn’t make any business sense,” said Nintendo regarding support emulators in a post on its corporate site. “It’s that simple and not open to debate.” Nintendo certainly still plans to sell its classic games to new customers. In addition to the NES Classic and SNES Classic systems, which contain a number of acclaimed titles for Nintendo’s older systems, the Nintendo Switch Online subscription service will provide players with access to several more classics. Many will have added online support, but they’re being offered in place of a “Virtual Console” system like on the 3DS, Wii U, or Wii. Editors' Recommendations<doc-sep>robtek / Shutterstock.com Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the alleged creator and owner of two ROM sites, seeking up to hundreds of millions of dollars in damages over emulations of games for its systems. The sites, LoveROMS and LoveRETRO, are being sued in Arizona federal court over copyright infringement and unfair competition. TorrentFreak was the first to publish the 27-page PDF of the lawsuit, in which Nintendo claims that the sites are "built almost entirely on the brazen and mass-scale infringement of Nintendo’s intellectual property rights." The company is seeking $150,000 in damages per Nintendo title on the sites, plus as much as $2,000,000 for each infringed trademark. "The LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites are among the most open and notorious online hubs for pirated video games," the lawsuit, filed on July 19, reads. "Through the LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites, Defendants reproduce, distribute, publicly perform and display a staggering number of unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video games, all without Nintendo’s permission. This includes thousands of games developed for nearly every video game system Nintendo has ever produced." LoveRETRO has since been taken offline. "Loveretro has effectively been shut down until further notice," the homepage reads. "Thanks for your patronage to date and we hope to get this figured out." In a Facebook post, LoveROMS wrote that "All Nintendo titles have been removed from the site. #willupdateyoulater" Nintendo is also requesting an order for the domain names for those sites, as well as others in the defendants' possession. For now, though, it seems to have already achieved its primary goal: getting those ROMS offline.<doc-sep>Two popular ROM-hosting websites have been hit with a lawsuit by Nintendo, specifically for providing piraters access to its exclusive first-party library of games. The sites, LoveROMs and LoveRETRO, were hit with a 27-paging filing that details exactly why the two sites were specifically hit with the lawsuit, stating: “The LoveROMs website alone receives 17 million visitors each month. Such visitors are drawn to the website by the widespread availability of free, unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video games and other highly valuable intellectual property. The resulting popularity of Defendants’ LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites has allowed Defendants to reap substantial ill-gotten gains, including through donations and the sale of advertising on the LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites.” LoveROMS has since removed all Nintendo-related titles from its website, although other titles from other consoles remain available. LoveRETRO, on the other hand, has “effectively been shut down.” In addition to giving it the domain names of each site and source of its ROMs, Nintendo also demands $150,000 USD after statutory damages for each game hosted on the site as well as $2,000,000 USD for each trademark infringement. In related news, Nintendo recently launched a Switch patch to stop hacks.<doc-sep>
Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against two big emulator sites, seeking millions of dollars in damages. Nintendo filed a lawsuit against the owner of two major sites that deal in emulators for its classic systems, as well as ROMs for many classic Nintendo games. The sites are LoveROMS, and LoveRETRO, both of which Nintendo believes are operated by the same owner. The company has filed a suit with a federal court in Arizona over what it says is copyright and trademark infringement. A 27-page PDF of the lawsuit was obtained by Torrent Freak. In it, Nintendo details how Jacob Mathias and his Arizona company, Mathias Designs, offer pirated video games and other unauthorised copies through the two sites. “The LoveROMs website alone receives 17 million visitors each month. Such visitors are drawn to the website by the widespread availability of free, unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video games and other highly valuable intellectual property,” the lawsuit reads. “The resulting popularity of Defendants’ LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites has allowed Defendants to reap substantial ill-gotten gains, including through donations and the sale of advertising on the LoveROMs and LoveRETRO websites.” Nintendo highlights this so called commercial infringement several times throughout the filings, essentially saying that the sites’ owner makes money off of Nintendo’s products and intellectual property. Nintendo is asking for $150,000 in damages per Nintendo game, and up to $2,000,000 for each trademark being infringed upon. This could add up to over $100 million if you consider the number of games being offered. The figure is probably intended to force the sites to shut down rather than being the end goal itself. So far, LoveRETRO has shut down “until further notice,” while LoveROMS removed all ROMs for Nintendo games. The subject of emulating old games has always been a murky one, with enthusiasts often operating in grey areas of the law. Most companies are typically against it, even if the games and hardware being emulated are no longer on sale or easily accessible. Nintendo has historically been adamant in its stance against emulation of its games, shutting down fan-made games based on old ROMs, cracking down on links to certain popular ROMs and generally making it a hassle for people who don’t know where to look to find said ROMs.