Random: Welp, Now Nintendo's Going After Sheet Music

Nintendo is a company protecting its IP. I don’t know why people are still surprised/complaining about this.

I mean, it’s not surprising at this point.

Although it is sad, now I can’t find any to play on my violin.

At some point, even the most ardent, unapologetic defenders of everything this multi billion dollar corporation does, have to realize "enough is enough, this is going too far," right?

...right?

seriously this is just so far out.... If nintendo has a problem with music, old nintendo magasine being scanned etc. THEN MAKE IT AVAILABLE FOR ALL!

we can't listen to the OST and now we can't even play them for fun on a piano...

@LadyCharlie I hope so. I have defended them time and time again with their takedowns, but this absolutely is far past the line. Targeting literal videos that promote your IP without condoning any ill-will is just asinine to me, and meanwhile people still consistently pirate Switch games without getting in trouble. It's baffling.

@LadyCharlie I know…. It’s like they think Nintendo is going to offer them a job. It’s so strange to me whenever someone defends a humongous and rich company.

@RygelXVIII I'm a fan of games, not a fan of companies.

I’m curious what “correctly licensed” means here, either it means Nintendo went back on an agreement or there’s a mess here involving third parties.

@RygelXVIII ...I don't gotta.

Music is indeed copyrighted, even on paper. This really isn't new.

I thought the article was saying they would start making more sheet music. It really is a missed opportunity.

I don't get it- having people interact with your IPs by generating content around it is positive advertising, while Nintendo being stingy and going after these things makes for negative advertising for them... but then again, is them being so different from how other companies operate that results in the products they create, so I guess we just have to take it. And they probably know this.

@anoyonmus I'm sure this doesn't help much, but you can find some Nintendo sheet music from Yamaha. Kind of difficult to find, though

@JohnnyMind ANYTHING a company or a person publishes is protected by copyright. Which means that they (person or company) has the sole right to do with it whatever they want. And to disallow others from using or reproducing their work. (with a small fair use exception, this isn't that)

This is to protect the investment they put into creating this work. Because without this protection they would not create this work and make a profit of it.

If you like or play Nintendo games, you should be happy Nintendo does everything to protect their property. Because if they didn't there wouldn't be any reason for Nintendo (or any other company) to continue making games.

It's hard to verify, with the sheets taken down, but a random sampling of some of the other music shows that many sheets on musicnotes require payment. Maybe the compositions weren't licensed? If so, then Nintendo has a claim to legal damages.

I really don’t see how ANYONE benefits from this. Even Nintendo, what benefit do they get from this? Are they planning on releasing a sheet music book? That is literally the only way I can see them benefitting.

I wonder who at Nintendo is behind this? Are they aware of how counterintuitive this practice is?

I mean, I get going after Rom sites. But… sheet music?

Bro, you barely even sell your music!

@sanderev Not even Disney is this insane when it comes to copyright. Nintendo is in a league on it's own.

This is pretty stupid.

I say good on Nintendo. But it shouldn't stop there. Take down fan artwork, fan fiction, fan cosplay.

You will enjoy Nintendo's products the "correct" way or suffer the consequences.

All hail Nintendo!

A lawyer was caught playing God of War at work and has to get their cred back up before next payday.

There seems to be a lot of disagreement here, so until more clarification is added (or not) there's a handy piece of legislation that anyone really interested in this can look at (UK law) here: https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/5a801e5140f0b623026919f9/Copyright_Notice_Printed_Music.pdf

next they're gonna take our licenses of bought games away because we played them too long or what xD

Music rights, sheets being no exception, are a big deal.
But it -IS- wierd to DMCA people you already have a working licensing agreement with.

It might come down to a disagreement on distribution methods though. It often does for Nintendo.

@JohnnyMind The sonic mania excuse again. Sega is the only company that did this in the not so distant past. And ONLY because Sega really wasn't doing all too well with Sonic at that time.

@Frailbay30 Okay try posting the score to Disney's Frozen on one of those websites... You'll see soon enough.

Nintendo is like a grampa who has really good stories, and is really kind, but anyone who shares even a piece of one of his stories, even if it's severely edited, gets put on his hitlist.

@JohnnyMind Let me ask you it like this?

1. Do you have a job?

2. Do you get paid for that job?

3. Do you like getting paid for that job?

I work in software development like I've stated many times before. Software piracy is a very real threat to my income. And that is only for a small company. Now take a company like Nintendo, and the damage software piracy does is way worse. And where I write the word software you can replace it with just about any asset the company owns and/or creates.

And the complaint that Nintendo is a "billion dollar company" also falls flat. You don't become a billion dollar company be allowing others to steal your work. And if Nintendo would fail to sell new games because others are copying them then even a billion dollar company can / will go bankrupt. And nobody wants that to happen to Nintendo.

@RygelXVIII Well, Ill agree with one thing you said, and that's jumping on the bandwagon.

Now that our lives are tethered to being continuously online all day, It's far too easy to let our emotions do the thinking. Jumping to extreme conclusions, filling in blank spaces with our "facts" before all evidence is presented.

In some ways the net has become the modern day witch hunters. Abandoning any logic and reason. Instead choosing run on pure adrenaline.

A favorite videogame character of mine said this "People are quick to speak, but slow to correct themselves" and I see it everyday online. Even here on this site.

People are quick to share an opinion and when shown incorrect, will either argue into the ground why they are "correct", or just outright never respond, and continue the same pattern.

We are losing the ability to think rationally, and instead are thinking emotionally. Siding with those who reaffirm our biases rather than challenge them. Out casting those who dare ask questions.

@RygelXVIII My dude, we DO know what Nintendo is doing. And that is they are being absolutely asinine about this. Pulling music that was already properly licensed. C'mon. Not to mention how much damage can they possibly suffer from fans arranging their music. I get that they have to protect their IP but they also have to consider how their actions affect their public perception and this is..... not a good look.

And honestly I know piracy is very attractive. And it allows you to play anything you want. But it's not okay.

I used to pirate a lot of software and games when I was younger. But then I figured that I was infact stealing from people like myself. People who develop these software and games. So I cleaned up my act, destroyed all illegally downloaded software and started clean with either legally purchased or open source software.

And sure, it can be expensive. But I also learned that instead of pirating 1000 euro software I could buy 100 euro alternatives for me to own.

Wait, did they sell their arrangements or did they give them away? Either way it's risky with unauthorized arrangements, but selling them would be asking for trouble. And what does "correctly licensed" even mean? Obviously they didn't get Nintendo's permission. I guess they mean that they correctly listed the original composer names, so that potential royalties could go to them. Which is a good start, but it's not the same as "licensing".

@sanderev Honestly, the only thing you should know is that Sonic Mania isn't the only case. Off the top of my head, Capcom did it as well, providing support in developing a free fangame, Street Fighter x Megaman. Capcom personally handled funding, QA, and marketing and let the developer develop.

Even free, a fangame receiving official support hasn't only happened to Sonic Mania.

I dont think theyre taking it far enough. start charging everyone who whistles the mario theme.

@AeonicB From wikipedia:

The game began as the private development of Seow Zong Hui who presented an early build to Christian Svensson, Capcom's Senior VP of consumer software, at EVO 2012.[5][6] Svensson showed the build to several staff members in the Capcom office (including senior community manager Brett Elston), and Capcom later decided to assist in the development of the game.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Street_Fighter_X_Mega_Man

To me, this says enough.

Privatly developed and then asked for permission. Honestly I am okay with that, because it's not piracy to make a fan game. It's piracy to publish a fangame without consent from the publisher. That's the difference.

That’s a bummer. I’m learning to play the piano and wanted to get some video game tunes in my repertoire.

@NintendoWife Depends.

While I'm not too well versed in mechanical licensing for covers and arrangements, I do know that such a system exists in the US.

You don't necessarily need to contact the original owners in question, but rather a representative who will pay them their share for you. It really is that simple.

I know offhand, because Hal Leonard offers such a service, though I've never had cause to use it.

I choose to believe that the Sheet Music Boss people went through such channels in the US.

This one is just funny. They're one step away from being the lawyers on that episode of The Simpsons who stomp on grandpa's potatoes because he does an unauthorized Charlie Chaplin routine.

@GooseLoose1 I removed that part since it’s a bit bold. But I do maintain way too many trolls patrol articles like these.

@AG_Awesome That may be the case, but not everyone who's stance doesn't align with yours is a troll.

@sanderev So? Sonic Mania started from an engine, Retro Engine, that Whitehead was developing as a fan project concept with a S3&K port, and was only picked up as official after the fact.

There's literally no difference in these two stories, save company and end product.

Same for Sheet Music Boss. There are systems for handling covers and arrangements in the US, without directly contacting the owner of the music in the first place. A third party will typically handle paying the correct owner their cut for you, though I haven't had much reason to use such systems myself.

Looking up Sheet Music Boss, the website they chose to upload to is registered with the MPA, musicnotes.com, and has been in business for 20+ years. It looks legitimate enough for me.

https://www.mpa.org/music-publisher/musicnotes-inc/

In that regard, I choose to believe that Sheet Music Boss is correct in saying that they correctly licensed their music, at least, for US distribution.

>Reads article

>Scrolls through comments

@JohnnyMind It's honestly a fun little game that never received as much love as it should have. Hope you have fun with it, though!

@AeonicB Even if ALL companies except 1 are okay with it, it does NOT force that remaining company to ALSO be okay with it.

Also YT is a legal buisiness, but a lot of YT video's are removed because of DMCAs.

@AeonicB As I understand it (it remains a confusing field to me, even though music is my job) it's not straightforward. If you alter the arrangement the composer has the right to veto or authorize your changes, and the terms are up to them, which means individual negotiations.

I heard of automated licensing from big publishers like HAL Leonard, but Nintendo certainly doesn't offer that, so...

@Vil Wait, you actually read the article? I heard legends of people doing such a thing, but thought it a myth.

You are proof the legends are real. For that, I am forever grateful.

@RygelXVIII What? It's in the article. They (Nintendo) are DMCA'ing properly licensed sheet music. I suppose you can question the quality of the source but barring conflicting information that is what Nintendo are doing. Obviously this is a developing situation. If it turns out that's not what they are doing then good for them but at the moment according to the information we all have that appears to be what is happening. This is how news works.

@RygelXVIII I don't know how many requests Capcom gets. So I can't say. But since there is only one fangame right now. I'd say "All request - 1 are rejected".

Also Nintendo had a very similar project with 'Cadence of Hyrule' which wasn't really a fan project, but an indie project. But I think it's similar enough.

@RygelXVIII with no offense to this website or the author of this piece, the level of journalism you're expecting is pretty intensive for a random news article. I'm not sure what website, other than where this DMCA was actually lodged, would go that deep.

They've said that they've reached out to music notes for comment, which unfortunately is the best you'll get in the constant 24/7 news update cycle most, if not all gaming websites have to put up with.

@DripDropCop146 We do exist in the shadows ...only coming out for the occasional neutral quip or Picard gif, as we are the fabled forum introverts.

So i was initially outraged because I assumed they were taking down stuff sheet music arrangements that people had put up for free
If this is limited to paywalled arrangements it's not quite the overstep I first thought although I do sympathise with the individuals like purpleschala who are effected.
If they start going after free stuff like tabs on ultimate guitar I'm going to be devastated as I use these all the time...

That's gotta be a troll. Nintendo actually has no claim of ownership over Xenoblade's soundtrack. That's why it gets the big fancy CDs so quickly compared to other Nintendo franchises, cause it's actually all owned by the recording studio. This isn't even hard knowledge to find: it's in the Smash Sound test mode, which I KNOW we ALL have memorized by now.

@GooseLoose1 Many are though 🤷‍♂️🤷‍♂️

@RygelXVIII You Shouldn't be sorry. Expecting more out of journalism these days is what we should strive for.

People tend to jump the bandwagon so fast when it comes to Nintendo protecting their IPs. I would be hugely in favour of Nintendo putting their OSTs on platforms like Spotify so we can all enjoy them, without them shutting down everything. I don't really understand what's keeping them from doing it. But at the same time, I fully understand why they'd want to protect their IPs. People act like Nintendo is evil in this regard, but those people fail to see things from their perspective. It's so easy to shout without taking in all sides of the story first...

@RygelXVIII Outrage culture is tiresome indeed...

@RygelXVIII Honestly, that's the site's duty. They should forbid selling to a region that the rights aren't clearly delineated in, but at least in the US, it looks like they were legal, free and clear.

As I live in the US, I can't really check and see if musicnotes.com permits selling in regions without such licensing laws. I'd love to investigate that, but c'est la vie.

next thing you know if you even so much as say yaahooo or hiyaaa nintendo is coming after you. god forbid you even utter a single characters name in public

Nintendo sucks now that Iwata is gone.

@SalvorHardin I want to know what "correctly licensed" means, too. It could be a total ***** claim, or the people not really understanding what they're claiming, or it could be legit and Nintendo screwed up. We have no way of knowing.

Leaving that aside and assuming there wasn't a legitimate license here... No, you can't just create your own sheet music arrangement of somebody else's song and sell it. Even if no sheet music for that song exists. The copyright holder still owns the rights to create derivative works like sheet music.

@Mince If you are that upset about how Nintendo conducts its business, then by all means stop buying their products and organize a boycott to do the same. To quote Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.: "Dark cannot drive out darkness: only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hatred: only love can do that." The solution to crappy behavior isn't crappy behavior.

@FantasiaWHT the truth will come out. If the songs were properly licensed for arrangement, then they will be reinstated after a legal battle (if the interested parties wish to pursue it). It could be as simple as the license was revoked. The truth is that we do not know as the reporter didn't investigate and we are not privy to the agreement.

Overall, I understand Nintendo's position but question the logic of creating bad will without offering a solution to what is obviously a market want. Listening to Nintendo music on a copy of Super Smash Brothers Ultimate is not really a functional solution.

Likewise, they have a business right to not make older games available. I tend to disagree with it, but it is their right. I imagine that they don't want the extra competition of their own back library, face the reality that Super Mario World probably isn't worth as much as they would like now, nor preclude themselves from cashing in on nostalgia with an overpriced remix/remaster. I choose to spend my limited money and limited time elsewhere for the most part on those that do align with my views.

@RygelXVIII

I paid the asking price, Nintendo gave me a copy of the game. Transaction complete.

I guess @LadyCharlie and I both failed to see in the contract where we also owe them our contented silence no matter what they do going forward. Thanks for setting us all straight, Cicero. 👍

To quote my boy Falco Lombardi:

This is awful.

This sounds like something on the level of where I heard the recorded music industry was upset at people posting song lyrics.

You can't tell me at this point they're not using AI to automate this stuff. Feels like every takedown gets more and more ridiculous, especially when supposedly Sheet Music Boss had taken the proper steps to license things and Xenoblade songs were taken down when Nintendo doesn't own them.

@Mattock1987 a lot of people would be willing to buy such stuff from Nintendo legally.

But Nintendo never cares enough to provide such things, that is why they exist for the biggest fans.

That is real sad part when Nintendo does such stuff, protecting your IP makes 100% sense, ignoring your fans does not

@-wc- [This comment has been copyright claimed by Nintendo©]

Nintendo should have created a music channel as Square Enix did, or create a app similar to Spotify, allowing us to listen to it amazing music.

@-wc- You don't owe Nintendo anything as matter of fact. Also, Nintendo doesn't owe you anything either.

It's Nintendo right's to do what they wish their property. You can hate it sure. But it's not yours. Just the cartridge you own is yours.

Some people in these comments act as if they are entitled do what they please with an IP, simply because they purchased a game.

By all means be upset, by all means give the big N a middle finger. But they owe fans nothing beyond the products they sell on a store shelf.

@Fangleman32

They don't owe it to ME to be responsible and ethical, you are completely right. 👍

@Mattock1987 by your logic writing down song lyrics and sharing them is illegal. writing down something you hear and sharing it is completely legal

Ok that’s it. Switch 2 and all Nintendo licensed games will be 2nd hand buys from now on.
There is no excuse for supporting this company anymore.

I mean they Nintendo licenses out their arrangements that makes sense.

As a violinist I think is way too strange that they do this, after so many people have used their game's music to create sheets. On the other hand, I've seen tons of people monetizing on that, some doing it big time, so yeah, I can understand why their sudden approach to music sheets.

@Mattock1987 That is utter ********. IP’s grow and create an attachment to fans because they play Zelda songs on the piano, or because people make stained glass windows from Peach’s castle. That’s why games are culture. The meaning of culture is ‘to grow’. It should always be moving and influencing people. You can’t stop that.
Nintendo is basically telling us we only have the right to consume.

You cannot make an impact on people and then go after them for showing that love. If you only see lines in contracts and law books when it comes to this, you should not be wanting for anything in the world to get better.

There is no excuse, this is disgusting. The supposed harm caused to Nintendo in no way compares to the joy this will take away from musicians all over the world.

I learned to play the piano with Ocarina of Time sheet music. I’m eternally grateful to whoever made that possible for me.

@DripDropCop146 thats sarcasm right?

@Mince yeah, I think we have very different perspectives on what is important and the scale of problems. People starving and being oppressed by corrupt, unjust governments is a different scale than not being able to access a piece of copyrighted material.

Even then, my faith says violence is never a solution. My religion and philosophy practiced properly is 2-0 against empires.

@PinderSchloss Are you suggesting Nintendo is acting outside the judicial system?

Quick thought experiment. You love movie X. You and some people you know make a spinoff movie, using the same characters, universe, et cetera. You start distributing this movie, earning money from it. Should this be fine? Should the company behind movie X have no right to say, "hey, you're ripping off the work we did"?

It's it different if you and your friends weren't small time, you were already a large studio? I'm that case, why is it different, and where is the line drawn that says it's not okay anymore? Number of employees? Total earnings?

Note let's say it was actually just a couple of buddies who made the movie X - do they suddenly deserve protection? They don't hit it big, but some other group manage to pick it up and get a huge success with it, original group getting nothing out of it. It's that okay?

I'm going to be presumptuous and assume you'll be okay with some of these, but not all. And this is why you can't just throw around principles around culture being culture and so on. There has to be a line in the same somewhere, and we have to have that reference point in mind when we analyze a situation. Involved parties, the content shared et cetera.

But it's always easier to take the position where I get to have something for free as the correct one, so I get it if you stick with that.

I think we mostly all love some ways in which Nintendo is old school, physical media, resisting season passes and microtransactions, still making AAA 2D games, etc. But they only monetize OSTs via CD boxed sets it seems which is arcane.

I'm just glad I can still listen to video game music on a website called downloads.khinsider.com. I would be pretty upset if that site ever got struck by DMCA claims.

Nintendo versus culture and the world population. They'd rather go bankrupt before letting someone else play their tunes.

@RygelXVIII Sega didn't "decide" to publish Sonic Mania, they hired Christian Whitehead to do some smartphone ports and he showed them a playable demo of the game. Sega liked what they sew and threw money at the project. the game exists because Sega paid for it.

Nintendo must wear beer flavored boots with the way so many people like licking them.

Once again Nintendo proving that the right action is to never give them your money.

@LadyCharlie They are just standing their ground. How is this too far? What creative stuff have you produced which pays your bills that you allow other's to make money on?

@Farseli why? they are a fabulous company that pays the salaries of many hard working people? Yet you rather them go broke?

@Ambassador_Kong yet you are here on a fan site but want it all for free? Do you work for free?

@LadyCharlie That company is made of people!! It isnt a big robot spitting out games... so Nintendo is protecting the work of it's people. You are allowed to call up one of those employees and ask for free original work which they will gladly stop everything they are doing and spend time entertaining you.

I'm thinking Nintendo is not just protecting their IP anymore.
They're on a power trip and they know no one and nothing will stop them.

Wouldn't be surprised if they targeted Lego fan models next.

Makes me wonder what this will end up doing to Sam Dillard's work. He made the Metroid Cinematica and Zelda Cinematica albums, which were absolutely amazing and beautiful to listen to (I've talked about them before here). He's also made arrangements of Star Fox, Chrono Trigger, and others. I would hate to see his albums get pulled off of streaming platforms and his YouTube channel, as he is frankly one of the best fan composers out there.

If they were correctly licensed, then we’ll find out; music is very strange when it comes to copyright - the composition, arraignment and performance are separate. Though I think the RIAA has standard contracts which is why cover bands and sheet music books are common, as is music samples and what-not.

I am too late to the game on this one but, unfortunately, Nintendo is 100% correct in this case.

Sheet music is copyrighted material. That is why you need permission from the original publisher in order to sell it. You can't even give it away for free. However you can keep a copy that you transposed yourself. That is not illegal.

My mother was a middle school band director and if she wanted a specific piece of music she had to purchase it from JW Pepper (eBay of sheet music) and JW pepper would splint the profits with the publishers. Sheet music is a serious business.

Legally there is nothing to argue against Nintendo.

This is actually outside of their rights to do. Musical arrangements cannot be owned, and the only grounds they could take is plagiarism, assuming the individuals profit of it and if they try and take credit. Another hilarious thing where this oversteps bounds is that if these arrangements were created by an indvidual by ear - then they are recreating that piece of music. There is a reason that you can't go after people for making covers of songs because they are essentially transforming the music. The same thing here with arrangements.

If the hosts were hosting official transcriptions of the music that could be warrant for that, but trying to take down another persons arrangement of your music because you just don't want them to is silly.

Even funnier is that what exactly are they trying claim? The melody most likely.

Well here's a funny loophole! Remake the sheet music, change a few notes, timings, chords... then name it something like Theme of the Hero in Green! Inspired by Nintendos Legend of Zelda series. Bam. Protected. Though probably not in Japan, but ***** 'em.

This one is a losing battle if anyone were to actually fight them on it because there's very LONG standing precedent for it. Sorry Nintendo - you lose this one.

@RygelXVIII I love it when people come in and act like the People's Front of Judea in the comments about how evil Nintendo is, and yet day in day out they keep coming back to a Nintendo site to say how evil they are, but if you point out their faux outrage you're immediately a bootlicker...you couldn't make it up. They're not making a difference, they're just complaining in a comment section to a handful of people...

@FantasiaWHT correct. You cannot profit off somebody else's work. However if you transpose it yourself and change things about it... that is not a copyright issue. That is a plagiarism issue. If you share it for free, you are not breaking laws as long as the person you share it to isn't profiting off of it. If plagiarize it, but change a few things enough and title it something else - you can probably claim ignorance or inspiration. Music is tricky business. It's not as easily fought over as games themselves seem to be. This is because music has a long history of legal battles going back VERY VERY far in human history. It is seen as an artform by courts. Games are seen as products.

There's a reason John Williams estate isn't going around taking down covers of his songs on youtube. It's not an easy court battle, and there's a lot of precedent.

My theory is that these hosts either had 1:1 transcriptions of their music and/or they were making money off of them somehow directly, and assumed because they transposed them themselves they were "protected"

I don't think Nintendos legal team is going go after something where they can't win.

I'm sure there's more to the story.

All that I know is that I'm going to play every first party switch game that comes out and I don't plan on paying for any of them except maybe Metroid.

Nintendo wants to be an dick Corporation and start a war they can go right ahead but it's not a winning battle for them.

@Jokerwolf Yeah! Stick it to The Man™ lol.....Avengers Assemble! etc.

@WiltonRoots I mean there's nothing they can do to individuals who are not profiting off of piracy.

In fact it's only a matter of time before somebody makes a ROM site hosted in a country that has new rules for intellectual property that aren't hundreds of years old.

@Jokerwolf There's probably countries out there like that, we just don't hear about them.

I'm more curious about what shape this war will take. Saying "it's war" in a comment section doesn't really cut it in my eyes unless Nintendo look in here*, check every comment section word for word and report back to HQ to say "bad news guys, Jokerwolf has declared war against us!"

*Finds out years down the line someone actually does just that...

If someone other than Nintendo learned their music and wrote a music sheet for other fans, it should never be subject to DMCA. If it were Nintendo's music sheet that was stolen, fine, but it doesn't seem to be the case.

I'm no legal expert, they might be on their right to DMCA these sheets, but really, it's so lame to do so. What exactly are they protecting themselves against?

@LadyCharlie No. Nintendo has a right to protect its IP for 94 years and is exercising that option. There have been many billion dollar companies that have went out of business. They are simply protecting themselves so they can be around another hundred years

"It should come as no surprise that Nintendo is pretty protective regarding its IP."

that assumption is 100% false at this point.

this is protection of an IP. this is a company intentionally destroying its own history.

seriously, how many more times is it going to take before you all wake up and see the mal intent in all of this?

fan projects, ROMs, emulators...now sheet music...

what are they protecting by destroying all of their history?

what are they protecting by attacking and destroying fan content made for FREE?

what are they protecting by actively trying to PREVENT people from playing their old video games?

what are they protecting by destroying fing SHEET MUSIC OF ALL THINGS?!

CHAIRMAN MAO IS SMILING AT THIS DESTRUCTION OF HISTORY!

@kgbkgb you own NOTHING and you ARE happy to see the things you don't own be destroyed FOR nothing!

same for everyone else in these comments who are defending this.

you all support the destruction of the history of video games.

@Jokerwolf nor can they realistically do anything to stop people who simply do not care about these weaponized laws at all.

got a hard drive with all the ROMs for nes, snes, N64, Virtualboy, gameboy, gameboy color, GBA, FDS, bunch of gamecubes, wii, wii u, and switch games too.

they want it erased? pry it from my cold dead hands!

i do not and WILL NOT support the erasure of history. i will do all i can to preserve and archive it.

weaponized copyright laws and boot licking zealots be damned! copyright law no longer exists to protect ANYTHING! it is weaponized to restrict and limit access to things and we are now at the point where video game companies are not even selling video games AT ALL!

look at mortal kombat 1. per the ToS (that document everyone loves to give up their rights to play games when it's waved in their faces), you are purchasing a license that grants you PERMISSION to download and play a copy of the game and they are free to revoke this license at ANY TIME if they want to!

i'm not stealing anything because apparently, for the past several decades, I NEVER PURCHASED VIDEO GAMES TO BEGIN WITH!

i, and everyone else, simply DONATED money to these companies for PERMISSION to play all these video games!

THAT is what things have now come to!

and yet people CONTINUE to defend this! claiming companies are doing this to PrOtEcT tHeIr Ip'S. BS! F THESE COMPANIES AND ALL WHO DEFEND THEM!

I've been posting some spicy opinions and want to add an important bit I probably should include everytime I post my opposition to Nintendo's approach to game preservation and accessibility. Even though it might not sound like it at times, I always try to hold my opinions lightly and to remember that my beliefs are just my opinions. This means that it's always more important to treat others respectfully than it is to "win" an argument or "protect" my hobby or "protect" a company or industry. I recently loved watching this pro-piracy video by "alwaysbetondunc", but spreading the ethic of community and comradery is more important than convincing people that this British guy on YouTube has the "correct" take on videogames and piracy. I do want to say that his video got me to buy all the games he recommended viewers buy, and to download Demon's Souls with a preconfigured emulator (Bluepoint is awesome, but I've to say that the PS3 Demon's Souls running at 144fps on my laptop is some incredible videogame art in motion!). I hope everyone has fun gaming and respecting everyone!

It's funny to read the post before mine, then see what I posted, all while remembering I've posted stuff very similar to the angry one. Oh well, it's a process we'll all muddle through. We're all in relationship. All gamers, Nintendo and pirates like me (I've been a huge purchaser of games, but have also pirated them, same with music and movies, etc)(I'm convinced that the biggest pirates are the biggest fans, like I've bought every Stereolab CD and many records, and also downloaded their complete discography and rare unpurchasable tracks). Anyways, remember to be gentle with yourselves and others!

@PikaPhantom MVG's face in his youtube video when he mentioned that Lego corporation was one of the parties removing a 35 year old Nintendo ROM from Vimm's Lair-- that was such a golden, human, response to this recent insanity from Nintendo and gang. It does start to feel like AI generated activity!

@Mince Some group recently attacked the parent company of Denuvo. I don't know how damaging it was, but it's a start!

Why are people who make a living selling things based on Nintendo's IP always surprised when Nintendo DMCA them?

I'm also side-eyeing the person who claims their sheet music was correctly licensed and that the original artists were being given royalties for said licenses.

Are we expected to believe that Nintendo doesn't own the rights to all of their music wholesale with the composers basically only being hired guns? Nintnedo may pay the original composers royalties, but any licensing fees would go straight to Nintendo.

Which means that person is either lying or getting scammed and paying licensing fees to the wrong people. My money's on lying.

@FallenAngelII I work in advertising, we use a lot of licensed imagery, audio and footage. If we don't get 100% clearance you can't use any of it. We retouched an image of Bob Dylan and John Lennon playing together, we had clearance for both images but for the pair of them in one retouch and taken out of context, we got sued by Bob Dylan's people...copyright is a massive minefield.

Previously did a lot of work for an international music publishing company that did thousands of books of sheet music for people to learn how to play commercial songs on tons of instruments, every song had tons of copyright details posted at the very top to make sure everyone was credited properly.

@120frames-please
What video? The one he recently uploaded on ROMs appears to be voiceover-only.

Well this is just stupid, I sure hope no one tries to defend this really stupid move 🙂

@LadyCharlie nope, the kind of people that defend this also believe they too could someday have a multi billion dollar corporation and do the same thing to others.

@treos agreed, however Mao was Chinese, Nintendo is a Japanese company and none of this has anything to do with Maoism / Communism.

This is just straight up free market capitalism doing what it does when a company owns the private rights to something.

@PikaPhantom Nintendo is erasing their history, that is the main title.

@PikaPhantom "Nintendo is erasing it's history" that's the exact title

Me sitting here admiring all the hot takes. Great, fight “The Man” but ultimately it’s all empty words, none of you will do anything outside of voicing disapproval in here. I’ve sat here and watched hundreds of comment section revolutions. Nothing happened.

@120frames-please That's the one that was voiceover only. He didn't seem to react when mentioning Lego

Nothing wrong in protecting IPs, but targeting music sheets that only a small % of population can use is kinda lame. What's next? They're going to take down Mother 3 translation cause they own the script/story? They should do better.

@PikaPhantom I don't know what's going on. Whenever I go to it it's the usual MVG video with him talking to the camera and I can see his face.

@RupeeClock any copyrighted work posted online is subject to the DMCA

@WiltonRoots Videogame music by major studios is special, though. Just like movie and TV music. You think Nintendo or Disney are giving the composers of their music partial ownership?

Instead of just paying them a giant lump sum in return for full ownership?

@FallenAngelII There's different levels of payment, in the case of something like a TV commercial it would be for a set period while the campaign runs, for a game or a film it's likely to be a fee to use it in perpetuity. In some cases (Crazy Taxi being an obvious one) once the contract runs out they have to replace the music.