Nintendo Upset Over Nokia Game Emulation Video

An anonymous reader writes "Nintendo is investigating potential copyright infringement by Nokia during some video demos of their N900 phone, which can be seen emulating Nintendo games. Nintendo spokesman Robert Saunders says: 'We take rigorous steps to protect our IP and our legal team will examine this to determine if any infringement has taken place.' In the video, Nokia says, 'Most publishers allow individual title usage, provided that the user is in possession of the original title.'"

Oh, Nokia..

[Psaakyrn]

"Most publishers allow individual title usage, provided that the user is in possession of the original title."

This might explain why their platforms failed so much (well, other than side-talking and whatnot). I have not really heard of any major publisher that allows copies of their titles (disregarding software officially released free) so I don't know who gave Nokia that info.

Not to mention this is NINTENDO. If there's a single game company who is most likely to oppose emulation, it's Nintendo.

Note that they haven't accused yet

[coppro]

It's worth pointing out that Nintendo merely wants to find out if infringement occurred - they're almost certainly as aware as every other game company that emulation is legal. It's quite possible, however, that there was indeed some copyright infringement, such as in acquiring the game, and they want to be sure that their competitors are playing by the book.
This is reasonable, in my opinion.

Re:Mario is Copyrighted?

[WiiVault]

Yeah but Nintendo chooses to ignore those because they are not from direct mobile competitors. If MS or Sony put up a Mario flash game on their site Nintendo would sue the shit out of them.

Re:And for reference, Nintendo's Policy

[fractoid]

The introduction of emulators created to play illegally copied Nintendo software represents the greatest threat to date to the intellectual property rights of video game developers.

Wow, self-centered much? So piracy of Nintendo games is the greatest threat to date to the IP rights of video game developers as a whole?

Re:Most publishers...

[marcansoft]

Precisely. Even more important is that emulators do not themselves constitute copyright infringement (unless they contain a ripped BIOS or the like), nor do they bypass copy protection (that's the job of the game ripper, not the emulator), so Nintendo can do squat about the application itself. At most, Nintendo is pulling a PR move here. The only real claim they have relates to whether some employee at Nokia illegally downloaded games that he does not own for the purposes of this demostration.

Dear Nintendo

[Random5]

Either start selling copies of these roms (or licenses to play them) on your website or shut the hell up. You're not losing profit on games for consoles which are 3 and 4 generations obsolete if you're not selling new copies of those games. Charging people say $1, $2 a pop to download 1meg roms off your site would have a pretty damn high profit margin I think.

So wrong it wraps around to correct

[Rix]

Emulators developed to play illegally copied Nintendo software promote piracy. That's like asking why doesn't Nintendo legitimize piracy. It doesn't make any business sense. It's that simple and not open to debate.

They're right that it's not open to debate. Piracy is going to happen, and there's absolutely nothing Nintendo or anyone else can do about it. They can accept that, and find a way to profit from it, or turn away people who want to be paying customers.

Re:Dear Nintendo

[justinlee37]

You're missing my point. It's a dick move for Nintendo to try and force me to buy a second, proprietary computer in order to play their games when they could just sell them to me on the computer that I already own. I already know it's illegal to pirate games, that's a no-brainer.

Re:So wrong it wraps around to correct

[ThePhilips]

... and they consistently choose to do the latter.

Re:Note that they haven't accused yet

[V!NCENT]

Nintendo: I don't want you to emulate our games on your phone!
V!NCENT: Dear Nintendo, can I buy a 8bit GameBoy then?
Nintendo: No we don't sell them anymore.
V!NCENT: Ehm... ?

Re:Nintendo should use this to their advantage

[Jesus_666]

The problem is that Nintendo is selling both an emulator for their older consoles (the Wii, via the Virtual Console) and those older games as well. They most likely plan to release a number of games not on the market yet. Essentially, if a game has even been released on a Nintendo platform, they actually expect to sell it until the heat death of the universe or their bankuptcy, whichever comes later.

Re:Nokia Management Are Retarded

[Anonymous Coward]

That is *exactly* what I am saying - if they actually did it.

Then stop saying it. It makes you sound stupid. Everyone can toss out improbable scenarios, but you're actually advocating on making important business decisions on something exceedingly unlikely to happen, and even further, claiming that not doing so is BRAINDEAD? Jeez.

IF your imagination would shape the world and Nintendo actually was the bigger one, sure, they just might do it, even though they know they don't have a case, but since like the other AC said, Nokia has three times deeper pockets, Nintendo will do squat. Nada. Zilch. There's nothing in it for them, and a whole lot to lose, they could very well establish a high profile court case that deems emulation perfectly legal...