Nintendo’s lawyers buy new Ferrari as porn site is sued
What can be stranger than suing ten year-old Pokemon fansite webmasters? Read on…
Enzo? yeah, go on then, fire up the sue-a-tron!
Nintendo of America has taken legal action against naked ladyflesh site: Suicide Girls, with the Redmond-based monster filing a cease and desist order for “unauthorized use of Nintendo trademark works.”
Doesn’t sound too unusual does it? Perhaps the filthy pornographers were running shots featuring models dressed as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach. Perhaps even Yoshi, god forbid.
But no. Unfortunat…, erm, nothing, anyway, this wasn’t the case at all. What happened was that a member of the website mentioned in his personal profile that he liked a couple of Nintendo games, prompting Nintendo’s lawyers to order a new Ferrari catalogue and issue a cease-and-desist order.
As Business Daily columnist and senior psychology major Jonathan Titchenal puts it: perhaps the truth is out there somewhere -
Boss: Are you looking at PORN on company time?!
Guy: Uh, no, no of course not! I'm, uh, I'm (clickety-click) - I'm searching this site for illegal use of Nintendo trademarks! Look at that! The word "Metroid," right on the page. We must take action!
Boss: Are you sure?
Guy: (louder) We must take action!
Boss: Uh. Sure. Right. Carry on.
It makes you wonder who drew the short straw, chasing down NES-clone TV games in malls, while his colleagues get to surf porn all day…
However, NOA seemingly saw the error of it's ways (or lawyers) and apologised:
Hello,
We would like to apologize to you and to those who frequent the suicidegirls.com website for inadvertently contacting you about a fan posting on the website.
We know that many of our fans are old enough to make their own choice about what they want to view on the Internet. We value the support of our fans and we respect their decisions. The letter was sent as part of an ongoing Nintendo program to aggressively protect our younger consumers from the hundreds of sexually-explicit sites each year that use Nintendo properties to attract children. We are proud of our efforts in this area. Unfortunately, the site posting identified in our letter was targeted by mistake.
As a gesture of goodwill, we would like to offer you (and RuneLateralus) a free Nintendo video game system and game of your choice. (...)
In addition, we would appreciate it if you could provide us with contact information for RuneLateralus, or have him contact us directly, so that we may apologize to him. We would be glad to send him a game and system of his choice through you as well, since we do not have his contact information.
Sincerely,
Christie Hamilton
Nintendo of America Inc.
Consumer Service Department
Doesn’t sound too unusual does it? Perhaps the filthy pornographers were running shots featuring models dressed as Mario, Luigi and Princess Peach. Perhaps even Yoshi, god forbid.
But no. Unfortunat…, erm, nothing, anyway, this wasn’t the case at all. What happened was that a member of the website mentioned in his personal profile that he liked a couple of Nintendo games, prompting Nintendo’s lawyers to order a new Ferrari catalogue and issue a cease-and-desist order.
As Business Daily columnist and senior psychology major Jonathan Titchenal puts it: perhaps the truth is out there somewhere -
Boss: Are you looking at PORN on company time?!
Guy: Uh, no, no of course not! I'm, uh, I'm (clickety-click) - I'm searching this site for illegal use of Nintendo trademarks! Look at that! The word "Metroid," right on the page. We must take action!
Boss: Are you sure?
Guy: (louder) We must take action!
Boss: Uh. Sure. Right. Carry on.
It makes you wonder who drew the short straw, chasing down NES-clone TV games in malls, while his colleagues get to surf porn all day…
However, NOA seemingly saw the error of it's ways (or lawyers) and apologised:
Hello,
We would like to apologize to you and to those who frequent the suicidegirls.com website for inadvertently contacting you about a fan posting on the website.
We know that many of our fans are old enough to make their own choice about what they want to view on the Internet. We value the support of our fans and we respect their decisions. The letter was sent as part of an ongoing Nintendo program to aggressively protect our younger consumers from the hundreds of sexually-explicit sites each year that use Nintendo properties to attract children. We are proud of our efforts in this area. Unfortunately, the site posting identified in our letter was targeted by mistake.
As a gesture of goodwill, we would like to offer you (and RuneLateralus) a free Nintendo video game system and game of your choice. (...)
In addition, we would appreciate it if you could provide us with contact information for RuneLateralus, or have him contact us directly, so that we may apologize to him. We would be glad to send him a game and system of his choice through you as well, since we do not have his contact information.
Sincerely,
Christie Hamilton
Nintendo of America Inc.
Consumer Service Department
Companies:
Nintendo
Read More Like This
Comments
Ditto 3 Nov 2004 12:37
1/7
Well, great going Nintendo. You can now sue half the people who use gaming forums on the Internet.
Damn, used the trademarked word "Nintendo" without permission!
Damn, used the trademarked word "Nintendo" without permission!
HeathenUK 3 Nov 2004 13:01
2/7
Your a bit late with this story, Nintendo admitted this was a mistake days ago and sent a letter of apology to the site. To be honest, as long as they are making strides to stopping people luring in youngsters with nintendo references I don't care about a couple of mistakes that they won't follow up on anyway.
more comments below our sponsor's message
LUPOS 3 Nov 2004 13:01
3/7
Paulie Walnuts 3 Nov 2004 13:04
4/7
almondVanHelsing 3 Nov 2004 17:53
5/7
This news is so old!
The apology was on Slashdot last week!
It is a worry how the site was found though. Apparently there is a Nintendo-run web spider that searches for Ninty character and game names and forwards hits to the legals.
I bet all the big publishers do this, but Nintendo gets the news 'cos it represents kid's gaming in America.
The apology was on Slashdot last week!
It is a worry how the site was found though. Apparently there is a Nintendo-run web spider that searches for Ninty character and game names and forwards hits to the legals.
I bet all the big publishers do this, but Nintendo gets the news 'cos it represents kid's gaming in America.
Pandaman 4 Nov 2004 00:07
6/7
So THAT'S why I could never find Mario porn anywhere...
Also, I don't think Suicide Girls is complaining one bit.
Also, I don't think Suicide Girls is complaining one bit.
Cpt. Lipoff 12 Nov 2004 05:02
7/7
I honestly don't blame Nintendo too much. Almost all multimedia companies use websearch specialists who dig through information to examine every little piece of info they can to protect themselves legally.
When they came across this they probably wanted to make sure that none of their consumers (mostly minors) came to that site on accident when searching for those Nintendo products. They just jumped the gun and didn't realize that it wasn't really legal to do what they wanted to do.
P.S. That poor guy. He got an apology and a system and game of his choice from one of the most powerful multimedia companies in the world with their tail between their legs and bowing down to him, but he probably is too embarassed to show off to anyone. That site has some messed up s**t on it.
If it were me, I would ask for an Xbox or a Playstation 2 since they offered any system and game of choice. Hehe, that would truly be sticking it to 'em.
When they came across this they probably wanted to make sure that none of their consumers (mostly minors) came to that site on accident when searching for those Nintendo products. They just jumped the gun and didn't realize that it wasn't really legal to do what they wanted to do.
P.S. That poor guy. He got an apology and a system and game of his choice from one of the most powerful multimedia companies in the world with their tail between their legs and bowing down to him, but he probably is too embarassed to show off to anyone. That site has some messed up s**t on it.
If it were me, I would ask for an Xbox or a Playstation 2 since they offered any system and game of choice. Hehe, that would truly be sticking it to 'em.