
Super Mario Bros. Commodore 64 Fan Port Hit with DMCA - Impossible
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/341284/Super_Mario_Bros_Commodore_64_fan_port_hit_with_DMCA_takedowns.php
======
tapland
Nintendo are the Disney of the gaming industry in regards to protecting their
IPs.

Any in-game footage of a Nintendo game on youtube can be flagged by Nintendo
(of Japan usually) at any time. They don't really check for fair use
beforehand.

~~~
lancefisher
Apparently, they’ve lightened up a bit on this.
[https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/28/18117172/nintendo-
youtub...](https://www.theverge.com/2018/11/28/18117172/nintendo-youtube-
monetization-partner-program-super-smash-bros-ultimate-lets-play-livestream)

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Causality1
Nobody hates their most hardcore fans more than Nintendo.

~~~
wolfgke
> Nobody hates their most hardcore fans more than Nintendo.

Perhaps you should not become a fan of a company with such a bullying
behaviour.

~~~
lostmyoldone
One can certainly stop being a fan, but a Nintendo fan was probably one before
they knew anything about how they treat their fans. Blaming the victim for not
knowing enough about ostensibly bad company practices when they became fans
seems more than a little unfair, especially as many became fans when they were
quite young.

~~~
wolfgke
I openly say I cannot _stay_ a fan as soon as I hear of such bullying
behaviour.

------
Endy
Don't worry, it's still out there, just like AM2R. Give it a few weeks so
Ninty can parade around like they won something, and if you're in the right
places, you'll hear about the continued development.

~~~
bmn__
Where should I look? Have AM2R_131, will travel.

------
nanoscopic
While this is crappy, it is the default behavior of most large companies when
it comes to copyright. As people have described I mistakenly said that
copyright must be enforced or it is lost. Agreed I was confusing it with
trademark. Despite that, I see many companies treating copyright the same and
harassing all copyright infringers with abandon even if it is harmless.

I will also share another story. Some years ago I owned n64.org. I ran a fan
website of Nintendo 64 games there. It was quite popular. I was underage ( <
18 ) at the time I bought the domain, and I bought the domain before NOA
registered "n64" as a trademark.

NOA threatened to sue me for the domain. I refused as their claim that people
would think my fan site was the official Nintendo site was entirely nonsense.
In the end they wrote a check to me for like $50 or something equally
ridiculous.

Nintendo is not your friend. They don't do a good job taking care of their
fans. They will happily sue or threaten you for doing anything they don't
happen to like.

~~~
ninjin
I am not a lawyer, but I am nearly 100% sure that what you are talking about
is trademark protection [1] rather than copyright, people get these wrong
frequently. As far as I know, you can enforce your copyright completely
arbitrarily.

[1]:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Maintaining_rights](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trademark#Maintaining_rights)

------
Ros2
They seem to really hate direct ports of their work.

Curiously, there is a thriving Super Mario 64 rom hacking community that is
rarely hit with notices. Afaik, no one really knows why. There are 100+ games
and even a nearly complete level editor. Even when Nintendo were demonetizing
videos of their games, these were spared.

~~~
molticrystal
> thriving Super Mario 64 rom hacking community that is rarely hit with notice

Probably limited resources. The ones that do get hit are the big ones like
Super Mario 64 Online [1] . Instead of the hacks themselves they seem focus on
youtube quite a bit. I know a lot of Super Mario 64 emulation and emulation of
other Nintendo properties is often DMCAed on that platform. [2] discussion [3]

[1]
[https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43axqp/nintendo-s...](https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/43axqp/nintendo-
shuts-down-the-internets-favorite-super-mario-64-modder)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKtaFU2ky9E&t=192s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKtaFU2ky9E&t=192s)

[3] [https://www.ign.com/boards/threads/nintendo-is-abusing-
youtu...](https://www.ign.com/boards/threads/nintendo-is-abusing-youtubes-
copyright-system-to-get-switch-homebrew-videos-taken-down.455352104/)

~~~
Ros2
The article is confusing about the details.

"Last Impact" never got a takedown notice and PC Gamer even wrote an article
about it (as well as Nintendo clearly being aware of Kaze).

As I said, there is a lack of aggression against SM64 hacks and it has never
really been explained--but yes, they do hate copies or extensions to their
engines that are essentially their own game, but better. SM64 online
definitely qualifies. But again, this isn't correlated to how popular or how
much of an online footprint the games have.

(Article here [https://www.pcgamer.com/super-mario-64-rom-hack-last-
impact-...](https://www.pcgamer.com/super-mario-64-rom-hack-last-impact-is-
the-sequel-we-never-got/) )

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ddingus
Dissappointing, but entirely expected.

That's OK. The DMCA action will have little impact on the community of people
who enjoy this kind of thing.

(people who have been around long enough to know better is possible here)

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warent
This is a duplicate of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19730987](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19730987)

------
Ace17
I fail to see how this takedown benefits Nintendo.

How could a C64 port of a NES game released more than 30 years ago could
threaten _any_ sale of _anything_ ?

~~~
stingraycharles
It's probably related to trademarks: you lose a trademark if you don't enforce
it. If they let this go, chances are they would lose the Super Mario
trademark, which would hurt them.

~~~
jMyles
> If they let this go, chances are they would lose the Super Mario trademark

You can't be serious. Are you saying that, sitting on a civil jury hearing a
lawsuit at some future date, you'd conclude that Mario - one of the most
recognizable fictional characters in the world - is no longer a trademark of
Nintendo because a third party made a C64 clone of the game?

I don't understand how you view this as the likely outcome. Nothing even close
to this has ever happened ever.

> Quite simply, the view that a trademark holder must trawl the internet and
> respond to every unauthorized use (or even every infringing use) is a myth.
> It’s great for lawyers, but irritating and expensive for everyone else. And
> when done clumsily or maliciously, it chills free expression.

[https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/trademark-law-does-
not...](https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/11/trademark-law-does-not-require-
companies-tirelessly-censor-internet)

~~~
ben_w
> It’s great for lawyers, but irritating and expensive for everyone else. And
> when done clumsily or maliciously

I’m not arguing the truth of the claim, but consider: if a lawyer advises you
to defend your trademarks and that you _could_ lose them if you don’t, would
you risk it? There’s no obvious upside to being _nice_ in cases like this.

~~~
noonespecial
>There’s no obvious upside to being nice in cases like this.

Sure there is. Good PR. Your lawyer will advise you to do all sorts of things
that are PR suicide to avoid nearly non-existent legal risks if nothing more
than to cover themselves.

One of the most important jobs an executive has is to rein in the lawyers to
keep them from publicly embarrassing the company.

------
fit2rule
Bummer. I was fully prepared to exhibit this amazing bit of work at my new
retro-computing exhibit [1], and I expect it would have been inspiring for a
lot of local indie game developers to have had the chance to see it in person
..

Well, instead, I'll just focus on some of the other gem releases of the retro-
dev scene, and fortunately there are a _LOT_ of other great works being
produced for these old machines - of limited commercial value - but massive
cultural worth. Still, seeing a near-perfect port of Super Mario Bros. on the
old C64 is an amazing thing, and fills me full of inspiring thoughts. Bummer,
Nintendo.

[1] -
[https://subotron.com/7635-timetron-2019/](https://subotron.com/7635-timetron-2019/)

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daveidol
Yeah, Nintendo seems to be pretty intense with this stuff (sometimes very
unfairly, like in this instance with Modern Vintage Gamer:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKtaFU2ky9E](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AKtaFU2ky9E))

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slowhadoken
I grabbed a copy of it if anyone’s interested.

~~~
andai
Where do I sign up?

~~~
slowhadoken
[https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-fDPJ2Z2pMmrqW6FTxv-
Osi92z...](https://drive.google.com/open?id=1-fDPJ2Z2pMmrqW6FTxv-Osi92zmiZc8A)

~~~
bartread
Thank you!

~~~
slowhadoken
You're welcome. I respect Nintendo. I also respect the indie game community
and fans who have kept retro gaming alive all these years. I believe the two
can combine efforts some day. I hope you enjoy the game.

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slfnflctd
Wow, the Slashdot thread on this was actually more informative. I think that's
a first for me.

The issue is trademark: if they don't defend it, they could lose it. It's
really that simple.

~~~
snarfy
How does DMCA apply to trademark? I thought the DMCA was only about copyright.

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rizzin
They did the same with a fan-made remake of Metroid 2, though that was
Nintendo USA:

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM2R](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AM2R)

[http://metroid2remake.blogspot.com/](http://metroid2remake.blogspot.com/)

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orionblastar
It shows the C64 could run NES type games.

Gaina Sisters did SMB first but also got sued by Nintendo.

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wolco
What is another strategy around this aside from release quickly and hopefully
gains enough following.

We see this with Disney, Star Trek but not to this extent.

~~~
orionblastar
Make Super Tux Brothers or something that does not look like SMB.

~~~
test1235
Great Giana Sisters

~~~
ddingus
...which also saw action from Nintendo.

~~~
wolfgke
According to the German Wikipedia article

>
> [https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Great_Giana_S...](https://de.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=The_Great_Giana_Sisters&oldid=183387863#Angeblicher_Rechtsstreit_mit_Nintendo)

there was no lawsuit between Rainbow Arts and Nintendo, but only a threat of
legal steps by Nintendo, which lead to the situation that the existing copies
were withdrawn from being commercially available.

Also the alleged lawsuit by Nintendo made The Great Giana Sisters world-
famous, even though it was - as remarked - not sold anymore.

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wodenokoto
A lot of people here a like "Nintendo hates their fans", but seriously, this
is a product that Nintendo is currently selling (Well, technically renting to
subscribers) why should they stand idle as people pirate it?

