Nintendo Suing Korean Sites for Copyright Violations

[Rayne]

Source

Nintendo Sues Korean Web Sites Over Copyright

The Korean unit of Japan's game console maker Nintendo Co. said Monday that it has taken a legal action against those who allegedly violated its copyright for game software through Internet Web sites in South Korea.

Nintendo Korea said that it filed a suit with the Supreme Prosecutors' Office in Seoul against an unidentified number of users who it claims uploaded copied Nintendo software on peer-to-peer file-sharing or Webhard sites.

It is the first time for Nintendo to bring to court a copyright infringement case in South Korea.

"They infringed on our copyright by posting Nintendo's game titles through the Internet without our permission," a Nintendo spokesperson said. "The legal action was taken against only some sites and users this time but we will take further measures if such a violation continues to take place."

She declined to comment on how many sites and people are involved in the piracy suit. The legal action came after Mineo Koda, the Japanese chief executive of Nintendo Korea, had expressed concern about the lingering problem of piracy in South Korea that he said would pose a challenge to his company's business here.

"So far, we only have warned against piracy and those who allegedly have earned profits from copied products," Koda said in a recent interview with Yonhap News Agency. "But we have no choice but to take legal action against them."

Nintendo launched its Korea operations in January this year by introducing its latest portable game machine, Nintendo DS Lite, which is an advanced version of Nintendo DS. It plans to unveil diverse localized game titles for the console device during the second half of this year.

While this has nothing to do with recent occurrences, its clear Nintendo is becoming more proactive in apprehending rommers, and other pirates after a history keeping most suits lowbrow. This sounds like the start of a trend that Nintendo may pursue on a global level.

It doesn't surprise me that Nintendo would start crackdowns in South Korea, and it wouldn't surprise me if they started going after China since Pirating is quite rampant in those parts.

 

[Shuko]

Yeah, but how hard would it be to go after China? Not only is it bloody huge, it also doesn't always like to play by the rules of other nations. There isn't a Nintendo China, is there? I'd go to the Ninty website to find out, but it's blocked at work. =x

 

[Zhen Lin]

There is a Nintendo-affiliated company in China, called iQue.

 

[Maxim Posthumus]

So, that's why I can't find any good Korean Pokemon Sites except the official one...

They're to careful, aren't they? *looks on his Korean Gold & Toroze ROMs*

 

[Lamia]

While this has nothing to do with recent occurrences, its clear Nintendo is becoming more proactive in apprehending rommers, and other pirates after a history keeping most suits lowbrow. This sounds like the start of a trend that Nintendo may pursue on a global level.

It doesn't surprise me that Nintendo would start crackdowns in South Korea, and it wouldn't surprise me if they started going after China since Pirating is quite rampant in those parts.

yeah that and japan fucking haets korea

 

[Fig]

Yes, they do (and Korea hates Japan with a passion that is almost holy, for that matter), but blaming that stupid hatred for Nintendo's copyright action seems unnecessary.

 

[Shuko]

Anyone notice how there wasn't a whole lot of Brouhaha about Ninty copyright violations until after the Wii was released? I think that now that they have the virtual console, they'll be looking out even more closely for Rommers, since the VC is their means of cashing in on that market.

 

[fate]

A lot of people saw this coming, heck, one site I know even removed all of their Nintendo related content as a result of the VC unveiling.

I honestly don't think this will stop roms/piracy, the rommers just won't operate on the internet and move to harder to track things, like BT and IRC.

 

[gorurk]

i say good on nintendo.

A lot of people saw this coming, heck, one site I know even removed all of their Nintendo related content as a result of the VC unveiling.

I honestly don't think this will stop roms/piracy, the rommers just won't operate on the internet and move to harder to track things, like BT and IRC.

well actually it is quite easy to find someone on BT.

 

[llxwarbirdxll]

well actually it is quite easy to find someone on BT.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Odex This is proof of that.

 

[Ben Cousins]

Maybe Nintendo has gotten a bit sick of everyone having to sue them (some ridiculous claims of copyright infringements in regards to their Wii console, more specifically the Wii Remote) so Nintendo are going to sue other companies and corporations. Haha nice!

 

[Nightmare]

or purhapse Nintendo is trying to protect it's own business intrests by stopping rommers and making the virtual console the exlusive outlet for virtual console gaming. All I got to say is go Nintendo. I mean can you blame them how would you feel if you were losing money due to people providing illeagal inferior copies of games you made into the virtual console market.