Despite Nintendo's recent wins in the piracy space, the company may not be in the clear yet as a recent rival plans a comeback. Nintendo's response may throw a wrench in the works of the planned relaunch.
Rom distribution websites host often-illegal downloads for ROMs (Read-Only Memory archives) of games from companies like SEGA, Sony and, of course, Nintendo. Nintendo has historically taken down rom sites with intense legal battles, but its most recent takedown refuses to disappear without a fight.
Nintendo's latest target is RomUniverse, which would charge a premium for unlimited un-throttled rom downloads, allowing paid users to download the roms at higher speeds. Nintendo recently won over two million dollars in a lawsuit against RomUniverse's creator, Matthew Storman. The penalty was reduced as Storman's financial status was struggling all throughout the trial, and with the trial over two million dollars is no small price to pay. Storman, however, is undeterred in the face of Nintendo's corporate power, already notifying the public of plans to bring the site back.
Nintendo requested a permanent injunction during the initial case to ensure the site would never reopen, but it was denied as Storman had already shut the site down, preventing any immediate future infringement Now, as Storman plans the site reopening, Nintendo's representatives are asking the court to reconsider the injunction, even though Storman has made clear the reopening will not host any Nintendo ROMs. Storman has also filed a counter-claim to cancel the damage payouts as Storman believes Nintendo did not provide adequate proof that the richest company in Japan was harmed by RomUniverse.
Piracy is a complex issue. On one hand, Nintendo's decision to drip-feed NES and SNES games means many beloved titles are unavailable on the service. Nintendo's decision to keep the games platform exclusive also means interested players who may not be able to afford an expensive proprietary console may have no other option than emulating the games. However, Storman's decision to generate revenue on RomUniverse with a subscription service is a much more directly targetable profit method than simply hosting ads as other rom sites do, and in a strictly legal sense, RomUniverse was violating copyright law.
Nintendo's commitment to taking down ROM sites is easy to defend from a legal perspective, but gets more difficult to defend from preservation and playability perspectives, when the accessibility of classic games to fans goes unconsidered. Legally Nintendo is in the right, but morally many gamers would disagree on whether Nintendo is doing the right thing, especially considering the heightened financial struggles Matthew Storman is experiencing as a result.
Source: TorrentFreak