Nintendo uses copyright claims to take down Game & Watch hacking videos

[Kane99]

Well looks like Nintendo is pulling their legal weight around again, and are doing copyright claims on Game & Watch hacking videos. According to the article at Ars Technica a hacker by the name of stacksmashing, was able to hack a Game & Watch console to put games on it. His videos showing non nintendo games are still up, but it looks like the video showing how to hack the device, was removed via Nintendo. Which I guess makes sense, but I feel like, once you own that device, you should be free to modify it as you see fit. Especially considering it's not an online device, I don't see why Nintendo can't let this happen. 

But of course, Nintendo has to strike everything down. 

[m76]

Typical nintendo, I don't understand how can a company this greedy and this hostile to it's fans be so adored by some as it is.

[Withywarlock]

10 hours ago, Kane99 said:

but I feel like, once you own that device, you should be free to modify it as you see fit. Especially considering it's not an online device, I don't see why Nintendo can't let this happen. 

I think the problem was more that they were sharing such information online, where it might be construed as tutorialising hacking. Even so, that doesn't seem like a legal use of the Fair Use system. Like Activision before them in regards to cheats in Call of Duty: Modern Warfare, they'll hit anyone with copyright strikes and the like to keep the news of exploits getting out.

Because there's no precident for whether showing gameplay footage and screenshots unauthorised is entirely legal or not, we're in this Wild West of copyright law where it depends entirely on the copyright holder's feelings at present. Alas, it's likely to stay the way it is because YouTubers and the like are the best (not to mention cheapest) marketing a game publisher can utilise. However, I think someone will eventually get tired of companies such as Nintendo rocking the boat and ruin it for them and/or viewers of such material with court rulings (see how the industry failed to regulate its own loot box addiction).

[Empire]

Yeah I’m not surprised by this.

Doesn’t get a lot of coverage anywhere but Nintendo hits hacking and mod videos all the time. They never stopped being asses on youtube, people just ignored it or weren’t interested in the impacted area. This wasn’t the first and won’t be the last.

[The Blackangel]

5 hours ago, m76 said:

Typical nintendo, I don't understand how can a company this greedy and this hostile to it's fans be so adored by some as it is.

Being a Nintendo fan I would say that the reason it has the following it does, is because many of us grew up on Nintendo, which eventually became our favorite for one reason or another. It's mostly not a fanboy thing. I play PlayStation almost as much as I play Nintendo these days. But Nintendo is still my favorite. It may be loyalty, or possibly nostalgia. I honestly don't know on that one. But I think the same could be said for those that grew up on Xbox or PlayStation. It became their favorite for one reason or another because it's what they grew up on.

I remember when the NES/SNES flashback systems were initially released, there were people hacking them and adding hundreds of games to them. From multiple systems. You could then buy a NES Flashback (or whatever the hell it was called) and instead of 30(?) games on it, you now had 200+ games at least. Either Nintendo never caught on, or they didn't care about this one.

Edited January 16, 2021 by The Blackangel