Topic: Nintendo clamps down on Pokémon fansites

A couple of Pokémon fansites have today received warning from Nintendo to remove all screenshots of the upcoming Pokémon Black and White versions, or face immediate legal action. Other fansites are apparantly due to receive notices shortly. The following is the letter received by Pokébeach:

PokéBeach Copyright Infringement Notice:
URGENT & TIME SENSITIVE: IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUIRED September 18, 2010 Registrant PokeBeach.com RE: Infringement of Nintendo of America Inc.’s Intellectual Property Rights
Dear Sir or Madam:
We are legal counsel to Nintendo of America Inc. (referred to here, with its parent and affiliated companies, as “Nintendo”). As you are no doubt well aware, Nintendo is one of the world’s leading developers and distributors of video game products. The Pokémon franchise is one of Nintendo’s most popular game series, and the upcoming release of the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White video games has garnered significant media attention. The intellectual property associated with the games, including the copyright in the underlying software code, visual depictions of the games, and characters found within the games, is the subject of copyright protection in the United States and abroad.
We recently learned that you have posted screenshots and other protected content from the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games to your website at http://pokebeach.com. 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. 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. We encourage you to immediately remove from your website all graphics, screenshots, and other protected content taken from the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games. Going forward, you must also refrain from posting any screenshots, videos, or other content that infringes Nintendo’s rights in the Pokémon series or any other game.
Your full and immediate compliance with the foregoing should render further action on Nintendo’s part unnecessary. It is essential that we receive your written response confirming that you have taken these necessary actions by Sunday, September 19, 12:00 p.m. PDT, however, or Nintendo will have no choice but to consider its alternative legal remedies.
Please contact me if you would like to discuss this matter in further detail. Nothing stated herein shall constitute a waiver of any rights or remedies of Nintendo of America Inc., its parent or affiliated companies, all of which are expressly reserved.

It's not yet clear whether the letters are real, or an elaborate hoax (given that Pokébeach's admin has had actual contact with the lawyer, it seems real), but if it is real then personally I think Nintendo is being incredibly stupid on this one.

http://bulbanews.bulbagarden.net/wiki/Fansites_served_with_co...

Hope this didnt happen to serebii.net...

EDIT: Yep, they removed everything....

Ah, the wonders of copyright infringement

When is it being released in Japan?

I don't know if it is an attempt to build up hype but I don't see the point in enforcing this on well established fansites. Perhaps they want the experience to be as 'new' as possible. I mean, with old pokemon not being available at the beginning, they may want to try and make the gamer experience it all over again.

Still, I don't see the point. Those websites act as good publicity, and can help garner attention and hype prior to the release...

Dang, I knew I should kept a screenshot of them
_{EDIT: I got em. Mwahaha}

It's already out in Japan

@Iz2010 - Serious? Then there shouldn't be any issues surely?! Sounds completely over the top!

As an aside, any idea of whether it has had positive reviews?

Yes, it is true Pokebeach's admin has contacted me.
But seriously though I don't really see the point in nintendo doing this.

40/40 from Famistu.

This does seem a little extreme...even for Nintendo

I smell something fishy

ARE YOU SERIOUS? Nintendo must of had crazy pills.

i dunno, pokemon fansites probably get the game a lot of hype and attention, nintendo must be doing something sneaky...

Nintendo certainly has reason for doing this - a journalist for the Spanish Official Nintendo Magazine leaked the ENTIRE batch of fifth gen Pokémon, types et al, prior to the game's release and was promptly dealt with. And any screenshots posted by webmasters would almost certainly have to be taken by printscreening an emulated ROM (Pokébeach admin WPM explicitly states that he's playing through using a ROM until his legit copy arrives), the use of which doesn't exactly put you on Nintendo's christmas card list. So they do have the legal grounds for the action. But it still seems like an incredibly backwards strategy.

Just to reiterate, this isn't 100% confirmed as true. It could still be a highly elaborate hoax. But after reading through the entirety of the discussion thread on Bulbagarden, it seems very real.

Raylax does bring up a good point: how else did those fan sites get ahold of all those screenshots?

I find this annoying, I want pictures and sprites. Only text is like finding something in those .txt walkthoughs on GameFAQs, it's not very user-friendly.

I can understand if they want to keep ripping sprites at bay but screenshots? Come on...

And why did they never complain about all those older Pokémon games those sites have covered over the years. It's likely to be the way the screens are made rather than the screens themselves: emulators and ROMs.

At least I got the picture for my avatar.

Well I feel they have good reason. I knew every pokemon every side reigion, every town, and of the elite four/gym leaders 6 months before it came out and already my team planned out. I got really obsessive about it and it wasn't as fun for me for the whole last generation. This probably just happens to some people but I see their reasoning.

Nintendo is trying to stop Pirates on Pirate day