Nintendo has threatened a number of Pokémon fansites with closure over the posting of Pokémon Black/White screenshots. The game, which is already out in Japan, had its entire cast of Pokémon revealed recently, and the flood of information has apparently brought down Nintendo’s angry legal hammer.
“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,” warns Nintendo. “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.”
Prominent fansites Pokerbeach and Serebii were hit, with the former lashing out at Nintendo’s legal department. Nintendo’s lawyers were asked by Pokerbeach why they’re not concentrating on DS piracy, and instead are picking on “small fansites that only help your franchise.”
Seriously though, bullying your own fans? Pretty f*cking pathetic, Nintendo.
[Update: A few commenters have noted that the sites admitted to using ROMs to getting the screens. Whether this alters your opinion or not, it’s worth noting for sure. I’m still not sure that getting fan sites closed down is the right way to do it, and Nintendo’s strong-arm tactics are wrong. It’s also still incredibly silly to demand that screenshots for a game that’s already released in one part of the world be taken down. Do you think the ROM admittance changes the stakes, or do you think Nintendo still went in too strong?]
