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Nintendo Investigates Legal Action Against Nokia

by Andy Goergen - November 30, 2009, 10:11 am EST
Total comments: 11 Source: Edge Online

An emulation-filled advertisement for the N900 smartphone may earn Nokia a court date.

Nintendo is investigating a possible lawsuit against cell phone manufacturer Nokia. An advertisement for the N900 smartphone on a Nokia video blog demonstrated how easily the phone could handle NES, SNES and Game Boy Advance emulation. The video stated "There's already a bunch of great retro gaming emulator apps available for you to download" while showing video of Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario World playing on the handheld.

Although no legal action has taken place as of yet, Nintendo UK's PR manager Robert Saunders said "We take rigorous steps to protect our IP and our legal team will examine this to determine if any infringement has taken place."

Nokia has since pulled the video from their site. The N900 phone launched in the US on November 18, 2009.

Talkback

GearBoxClockNovember 30, 2009

Well, if they pull the ad, there shouldn't be much of a problem.
I can see why Nintendo wouldn't be happy about this. Another company was using their IP for profit.

TJ SpykeNovember 30, 2009

I can't believe Nokia would be openly promoting piracy (yes I know the emulators themselves aren't illegal, but the ROMS are). I would support Nintendo suing them, Nokia is blatantly promoting piracy of Nintendo systems.

BranDonk KongNovember 30, 2009

Nokia isn't doing anything wrong. According to the DMCA, emulating, and obtaining ROM images of games that are obsolete/no longer produced is *not* illegal. I'm sure the ROMs are not included on the phone, and Nokia won't host them on a web site, but they've done nothing wrong. The only basis Nintendo has is Nokia is advertising Nintendo's IPs.

The main issue would be them advertising using Nintendo's IP.
Secondary would be copying ROMs illegally -- I highly doubt they dumped them themselves, but this would be hard to prove and may not go anywhere.  Also, we're talking about EU law, not DMCA... the ACTA treaty hasn't passed yet.
The emulators themselves are legal, but this was bone-headed move.  Nokia really baffles me.  World-wide, they're still the leader in mobile phones, and Finland might not be a first-world country without them, but recently, they seem unable to do anything right.

Guitar SmasherNovember 30, 2009

Keep in mind that the games mentioned are still being sold on the VC, so they are not obsolete!

And while it may be difficult to prove they dumped the games, it's still a clear case of promoting piracy, although legally I don't know what that amounts to.

Mop it upNovember 30, 2009

Ugh, legal battles. Now those are one thing which always seem more complicated than they need to be.

TJ SpykeNovember 30, 2009

Quote from: Guitar

Keep in mind that the games mentioned are still being sold on the VC, so they are not obsolete!

And while it may be difficult to prove they dumped the games, it's still a clear case of promoting piracy, although legally I don't know what that amounts to.

I don't know if it applied to copyright and piracy, but you can be held legally liable if you do something like encourage murder and it happens (i.e. if you told someone to kill their parents and they did it, you could be arrested even if you had nothing to do with the actual act). Even if Nokia themselves are not doing anything illegal, this is a moronic thing for them to do and something I can't believe someone in the company didn't have the intelligence to say was a bad idea (like how no one in Sony said it was a bad idea to release a ad featuring a white woman dominating a black woman to advertise the white PSP).

Quote:

On June 27, 2005, in Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios, Inc. v. Grokster, Ltd., the United States Supreme Court held that software companies may be held liable for copyright infringement if there is evidence showing an intent to encourage infringement through use of their software by third parties.

But this is Europe, so this doesn't apply.  Also, I don't think they're Nokia's emulators, and Nokia themselves are probably not providing the ROM finding service, so it would be a weak case.

Chozo GhostDecember 01, 2009

Quote from: Brandogg

Nokia isn't doing anything wrong. According to the DMCA, emulating, and obtaining ROM images of games that are obsolete/no longer produced is *not* illegal. I'm sure the ROMs are not included on the phone, and Nokia won't host them on a web site, but they've done nothing wrong. The only basis Nintendo has is Nokia is advertising Nintendo's IPs.

The DMCA does not apply to all countries. The article mentions this is in the UK. Why would an American law be in effect there?

MoronSonOfBoronGarnet Red, Contributing WriterDecember 01, 2009

Quote from: Chozo

The DMCA does not apply to all countries. The article mentions this is in the UK. Why would an American law be in effect there?

Of course it applies there. It's American law.

Back on topic, I'm eager to see the precedent this sets for electronics manufacturers who are following in the "user-developed apps" storm.

I wonder if the programmers who developed the emulation programs can sue Nokia for using their software in advertisement... legal expenses notwithstanding.

KDR_11kDecember 02, 2009

Even under EU law using imagery of a Nintendo game in advertisements could likely constitute trademark infringement, unauthorized broadcasting of copyrighted material and possibly patent violation (Nintendo patents a lot of stuff).

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