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Pokemon fansite copyright infringement?

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SonicNintendo

SonicNintendo

Happy 15th, Pokemon!
I know this is Pokemon related, but it's open to a lot of debate.

Apparently, Pokebeach and Serebii have received letters from a source labeled as Nintendo claiming that legal action will be taken if Black and White pictures are taken down. Pokebeach got theirs from Nintendo of America, Serebii's from Nintendo of Europe.

Pokebeach shot back by replacing all sprites with Ditto, changing the name to Pokerbeach, and censoring the heads of Reshiram and Zekrom.

This is what the Pokerbeach letter looks like:
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.
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To which Pokerbeach replied:
We just got a letter from Nintendo (edited to remove personal info obviously) asking to take down all of our Black and White images or bad stuff will happen. I called the lawyer who sent the letter and he said he'll be making the rounds on other Pokemon sites as well and that they're doing an investigation. I was first on their list. I'm about to go out while Bangiras plays the game due to a family emergency but I have 24 hours to remove the images. Joy! Anyways, we'll continue to play the game and report what we find like we've been doing. Oh and the lawyer said he likes my site. :p
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Source: Bulbapedia

What's your take on this? Do the letters seem legitimate? If they were, wouldn't Nintendo contacted more Pokemon fansites and acted on this in earlier Generations? What should be done, if anything?
 
This reminds me of the time Ninteno threatened to stop selling through GameStop because an employee said something about the black Wii.
 
yeah this is total bullshit. aren't the games out anyway? what harm could posting information about games that are already out possibly do? this should absolutely NOT be illegal and nintendo is a douche bag company for saying that it is.

also god damn it i need to get a working rom
 
He doesn't mean an actual lie, if I'm not mistaken, he's just expressing his rage at Nintendo's stupidity in actually working to DECREASE knowledge of (and thus sales of) their own product.
 
Exactly, Pwnemon. I mean that Nintendo is being stupid (especially since it's not coming from Japan when the games aren't even out internationally) for attacking fansites (read above). I also am talking about the idea that these may not necessarily be from Nintendo.
 
I agree with Zeta. And SonicNintendo, thank you for posting this. It needed to be posted.

Though I see what Nintendo's getting at. Let's hope it doesn't hit any of the minor pokémon sites at all...Wait, has Bulbapedia gotten one yet?

EDIT: Just checked Serebii. Only their B/W pokédex is imageless. Everything except the gen. 5 pokédex or which relates to B/W is still there. As in, HG/SS. I hope they can put images back in after the American release.
 
He's the guy who leaked the accurate descriptions of the Pokémon. As it turns out, he writes for Spain's version of Nintendo Power and had interviewed the Japanese producers. This means that he was violating his contract by leaking this info.

Bulbapedia might be safe because it never accepted the info as true until the games were released.

EDIT: And I can't remember how to spell. His name is actually Melkor.
 
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Well it's too late for them to demand the sprites taken down, at least. Anyone who wants them has them saved, and those who don't can get 'em off the ones who saved them.
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As I said in the B/W thread.

Personally, I'm going to keep being skeptical of this whole thing until it's actually proven 100% that it was a real lawyer. WPM claiming he's talked to this lawyer is not 100% proof. It could just as well be a prank. I'm willing to bet when asked for pics of the guy he's going to turn up photos of someone dressed as Phoenix Wright.
 
Bulbagarden has also called and gotten a real law firm that indeed works with Nintendo, albeit, just their answering machine.

As I said, what links Serebii and Pokébeach is they accepted Melkor's leaks. Eevee did not and Bulbapedia did not, so they are safe. WPM has also admitted that he was playing a ROM.
 
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