Pokemon fansite copyright infringement?

[1. Luftballon]

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.

also melkor is the Big Bad, but

 

[#1 bro]

This is a bit off topic, but how long do we usually have to wait for Suigmori art of the new pokémon to be released? I would ask it in the b/w thread but I'm currently avoiding spoilers like the plague until I get to see the new pokés for myself :\

I'm super excited to play this, I have a patched rom and everything, I just need to wait until second period tomorrow to actually play it (for various reasons). :D :D

 

[goldenquagsire]

I'm not surprised by this. The theory I've heard from a lot of people is that BW is supposed to be a 're-imagining' of the series; thus why they're introducing a whole new Pokedex and not including any returning Pokemon until post-game. They want to recreate the "oshit what are these wacky creatures?" feel that everyone had back with Red and Blue, so obviously they'd want to keep the new Pokemon a secret from the American/European audience.

Which is a noble enough cause, and I'm sure they're well within their rights, but it's a tad naive in the age of the internet.

And I wouldn't worry too much about the future either; once BW have been released in the US, Nintendo probably won't mind if new data is put up. Bear in mind that they've never before complained about the vast amounts of data from existing games floating around the 'net, and I'm damn sure they'd already heard of Serebii and Psypoke.

 

[Tailsy]

Also, Pokebeach's owner is being sort of a whiny bitch by changing all the sprites and the site's name and stuff lmfao. Grow a pair bro.

 

[Kai Lucifer]

I was waiting for this discussion to crop up.

I think it may have been asked earlier in the thread so forgive me if it's already been answered, but what real danger to Nintendo see the fansites hosting these images as? I can't see any real copyright danger in it, and I'd really like this answered if only to clear things up.

 

[Butterfree]

I don't understand how this can be about the Melkor leaks, unless it's strictly in a petty, "You leaked stuff we don't want revealed so we will hit you with a nonsensical unrelated legal threat" sense. Melkor didn't leak images, and the images came from independent research that would have happened regardless of Melkor's input.

Screenshots from video games being copyright infringement is truly bullshit. There is a reason screenshots are deliberately used as promotional material for video games: they intrigue people about the game and make them want to play it, but decidedly do not replace playing it. There is absolutely no way a single person ever will choose not to buy the game because they've already seen screenshots of it (assuming it's not a "the screenshots look just that horrible" thing, which is not the case with B/W); that whole line of reasoning does not make sense. Either somebody at Nintendo is an utter moron who should get fired the moment some higher-up finds out about this, or there is some petty ulterior motive behind this.

 

[Kai Lucifer]

. . . I think that pretty much clears it up for me. Thanks, 'free.

 

[RespectTheBlade]

If they go to youtube, would they remove all of the ingame music that's been posted there?

 

[Wargle]

Well now I guess we must delete everything pretaining to Pokémon ever because we might Harm Nintendo. Also, we must now refer to them as 'the creatures that live in a ball and go BSHEEW and kill each other' since Pokémon might be harmful.

What bullshit.

 

[Diz]

Which is exactly what WPM did with Pokerbeach

Since us posting images of Black and White "has the potential to cause substantial damage to Nintendo," we have obviously complied with their wishes. All recent images of the games have been replaced by Ditto, a Pokemon from 1996 who we feel will best represent Pokemon's current image. We've also taken the liberty to change the name of this site to "PokerBeach" since we figured using "Poké" also has the chance of causing substantial damage to Nintendo's property. We hope that all English-speakers will remove images of Black and White from their websites, forums, blogs, YouTubes, Facebooks, instant messages, e-mails, homes, and minds since under law Nintendo has the right to declare any media they want, on any website they want, illegal and out of the domain of fair use [luckily criticism isn't]. We hope everyone will comply with their wishes or Pokemon may end up in the gutter, since covering and advertising new games for free is obviously counter-productive to Nintendo's sales. I mean, images of the games will obviously cost more damage than minor Isshus like this. Why go after the big guys when you can waste your lawyers' time on small fan sites that only help your franchise?

I do have to say that I don't understand why Nintendo has done this and that the above quote is a win.

 

[Zora of Termina]

If they go to youtube, would they remove all of the ingame music that's been posted there?

No, they wouldn't. If they had, all the music would be muted the minute the Youtube admins got the letter, which would have been a couple days ago at least. And I just started listening to it again right now, so.

 

[SonicNintendo]

Also, Pokebeach's owner is being sort of a whiny bitch by changing all the sprites and the site's name and stuff lmfao. Grow a pair bro.

no. what theyre doing is being kind of comical about it, almost purposefully overdoing it to shoot back at "nintendo" (not gonna take it out of quotes til its proven. )

i think ill do it to and write Pokemon like "P***mon" for the same manner that Poke(r)beach overdid it.

 

[hopeandjoy]

Actually, if you followed the Bulbagarden thread, you'd see that WPM is acting like a whiny little bitch about it. He even got into a huge fight with Archaic about how the Bulbanews article was written saying that it was the laughing stock of the fandom. While WPM and Archaic aren't exactly buddy-buddy, it was still uncalled for.

Serebii is acting a lot more mature by just taking everything down and not throwing a hissy-fit.

 

[ultraviolet]

I am honestly tired of Pokebeach always trying so hard to be THE NUMBER ONE BEST NEWSITE, and it gives me a bit of joy for them to have to take everything down. I think their response was immature because ... really, what? Sure the copyright claim is stupid, but it's not like they're going to stop buying pokemon games or cards so um. ?_?

 

[Tailsy]

Their response was incredibly immature. I actually respect Serebii for not acting like a pussy bitch about it, and I don't even use his site.

I fully agree with ultraviolet!

 

[Diz]

Well, it was as mature as to be expected, really. At least WPM has a reason for being a whiny bitch. Nintendo doesn't.

 

[ultraviolet]

At least WPM has a reason for being a whiny bitch.

what reason does he have other than "boohoo now people won't flock to pokebeach for B/W info" which is untrue, anyway?
It's not like anything he had to take down belonged to him or pokebeach, and I can't see why Nintendo wanting him to take that stuff down because it's theirs is any less reason to be a 'whiny bitch' than WPM. I have no sympathy for WPM because what harm is it to him that he has to take down the B/W info? Sure Nintendo's claim was kind of nonsensical but it's entirely within their right. So long as they keep making cool games I really don't care that much.

 

[Butterfree]

PokéBeach's thing amused me and I didn't think of it as particularly whiny, to be honest. :/ I find the copyright claim ridiculous and criticize it even though I didn't have to take anything down and am not personally hindered by it; why can't he think the same on the same terms? Am I missing some whiny bitchiness that's not the stuff he posted on the front page?

 

[Pwnemon]

PokéBeach's thing amused me and I didn't think of it as particularly whiny, to be honest. :/ I find the copyright claim ridiculous and criticize it even though I didn't have to take anything down and am not personally hindered by it; why can't he think the same on the same terms? Am I missing some whiny bitchiness that's not the stuff he posted on the front page?

I actually think that on top of this, the image macro of the soup Nazi on Reshiram's head is beyond hilarious.

 

[opaltiger]

PokéBeach's thing amused me and I didn't think of it as particularly whiny, to be honest. :/ I find the copyright claim ridiculous and criticize it even though I didn't have to take anything down and am not personally hindered by it; why can't he think the same on the same terms? Am I missing some whiny bitchiness that's not the stuff he posted on the front page?

Yeah; read the forum discussion on the bulbanews article about the takedown request.