Nintendo investigating possible copyright infringement in new Nokia smartphone

by Xav de Matos on Nov 29th 2009 11:30PM

Nintendo's says it will investigate possible copyright infringement in Nokia's N900 smartphone after a Nokia blog post showcased the device playing retro games through the use of an emulator application. According to Edge, the video (which is no longer available) featured someone playing Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3, and also showed off buttons that supposedly opened emulators for Nintendo's Game Boy, Game Boy Advance, NES and SNES.

Nintendo UK PR manager Robert Saunders told Edge the company was unaware of the smartphone's emulation feature and stated that Nintendo would take "rigorous steps" to protect its intellectual property. "Our legal team will examine this to determine if any infringement has taken place," Saunders added. Even if the feature ends up on the cutting room floor, we imagine some crafty hackers are already taking steps to get emulation software working on the Nokia device. Just like they do with everything else.

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Tags: business, copyright, copyright-infringement, emulation, intellectual-property, legal, nintendo, nokia, roms

Reader Comments (88)

If Nokia is using Nintendo's properties to sell their product without permission, that alone would likely be grounds for a lawsuit.

AS long as Nokia is just gving you the emulator and not the roms, I really don't think they're in the wrong. What if I just want to play Super 3D Noah's Ark?

I thought it was Super Noah's Ark 3D... ;)

Yeah, what if I want to relive my childhood memories by tossing baby Moses into a river in Bible Adventures.

And people wonder why I don't take religion seriously now that I'm an adult ;)

If only they made that Book of Genesis game, with Genesis music...

*hopes people catch the reference*

A Book of Genesis game, with Genesis music, made for the Sega Genesis?

Looks like this

*puts on sunglasses*

Is the genesis of a new gaming era!

YEEEEEEEAAAAAAAHHH!!

Infringe on this
*takes a big steaming **** over Nintendo*
Blog that!
*wipes *** with those horrible bilingual manuals Nintendo has been using since the Wii*

Doesn't everyone use a bilingual manual?

Sony and Microsoft don't last time I checked.
And I hate who this get's into the box art, the back of the box is a mess because of this.

I think it depends a lot on the region the content is being sold. For example, in Texas most things come with both English and Spanish on the manual, while in Canada it's usually English and French.

Also, Microsoft does it for PC software at least, and I know Sony does it for some of the electronics they sell.

Well, quite a few PS3 game boxes are bilingual (usually English and French). Haven't checked the manuals to see if they correspond, but I'd guess they do.

Hey now! I like my manuals bilingual!
... I like trying and failing at trying to pronounce the other side of the manual. It makes me feel intelligent.

You're upset by Nintendo catering to all the stunted and stupid English-only speakers (myself sadly included) that would feel left out if these 'bilingual' manuals omitted English? No, you meant it the other way? Like as in "English Only"? Would have thought "Jesus" would be a little more tolerant, but this is the new "Internet Jesus" I suppose...

Well, that doesn't bother me - I'm only upset by the 'bilingual' *games* Nintendo makes now, the ones that need to be able to speak to 7-year-olds as completely and as fundamentally as these games are allowed to speak to the adults who actually buy the systems and might like something cool or more advanced - it puts a really low common denominator on some solid ideas.

I'm surprised Nintendo hasn't attacked the emulators on Android yet...

You even have to pay for them! :O

That's a surprise. I guess the issue is that Nokia publicly advertised the emulators-whereas Google just makes the Android OS, and developers are free to make their own apps for the OS.

That's different. Emulators have been challenged in court (remember Bleem?) and found that as long as they don't use code written by the parent company (including BIOS code) then they are perfectly legal. You can even charge for them.

What Nokia did was fairly stupid. Not only did they show the emulator in advertising but they showed the emulator running COPYRIGHTED software in an advertisement. Even if they did not code the emu on their own using it as a selling point makes them culpable.

Let me set this straight. I don't have a problem with Amazon (or Steam). I was merely pointing out that he could make the effort of checking other retailers to find a solid release date.

Y'know, Nintendo... All the smart phone OSes are able to run emulation software... So, how about you go ahead and sue Microsoft, Apple, Google and Palm, some of the most powerful companies (well, maybe not Palm...) in the world.

I understand their stressing at this, sure but, what, have they had their eyes closed for the past five years?! Ohhh, right, the big piles of money have been getting in their line of vision. Sorry.

The point isn't that emulators can run on stuff. The point is that some moron who works for Nokia apparently put up a video of it running emulators.

Sorry I thought you were going all Randy Pitchford on us.

@Darth Yes, I have checked all retailers. Nokia is the only retailer with a solid stock and release date, and you pay at least 100 more after taxes... That does not even include NokiaUSA, which is a separate entity. Please don't assume that I'm a person who isn't informed. Take a look for yourself, info on a solid release date is very scarce.

@ Giovani

new release date is Dec 3rd
for the n900

@Warlord Thanks man, where did you get that?

Engadget posted that it would arrive to all retailers Dec. 4th but they didn't post a link to a source. I've been going off their word and Nokia seems to be quiet as far as why Amazon or Newegg isn't able to deliver yet.

The number of people who whine about not being able to more easily partake in illegal activity always kind of surprises me.

The emulator does not come with the phone. It's a program made by a hacker same with the bluetooth program that connects the wii mote. Nintendo will fail

The only angle nintendo has here is that nokia is showcasing the emulator as a reason to buy their phones. That could be something akin to assisting in copyright infringement.

The video is not being shown by nokia themselves but the dude using the prototype. The blame is on the hacker and not nokia. Emulators are not from nokia

I too am waiting very impatiently for this phone. Its been delayed numerous times already and im taking the December release date with a grain of salt. I have this thing preordered at Amazon because A. Iits a 100 bucks cheaper then Nokia and B. theres a $50 rebate on top of it.

Now as far as this emulation thing goes. Nokia is in the wrong. They showed a video in one their own adds of somebody playing Mario. Then again this phone is running Linux and is a hackers dream, they prob just wanna show the potential it has. I expect Nokia to kill the smartphone market with this. What other phone out there can download torrents on the go?

Emulators aren't illegal. So if it's just an emulator, Nintendo can't do much of anything about it. The only way they could possibly counter is if the emulator used an SNES bios file, which it most likely does not, as no SNES emulator uses any bios file.

As for the roms, as long as Nokia doesn't distribute them, they're home free. But users are safe with them as long as they own the physical media for the rom. ie; if you own supermario allstars/ mario world, and that's the rom you use, then you're ok. But if you own supermario world, and all stars as two different carts, and you're using the allstars/world combo rom, you're breaking the law. Must have exact carts for exact roms.

Nintendo will likely hassle them until they relent and remove it. then as stated, hackers will re-add it.

there is also emulator apps for android phones. this isnt anything new

If the blogger in question was acting in any official capacity from Nokia, then Nintendo probably has a case. If not, then it's just part of their normal piracy war, and not anything out of line.

nintendo learned to earn money with as little effort as possible with wii. now they're hoping to learn to do it with no effort! as if nokia will ever be caught dead providing emulators on its' phones.

"What other phone out there can download torrents on the go?"
Nokia E70, if you have a shell.

Hmm, could this be the dreaded Streisand effect in action?

Here we go again. Every modern device with a CPU and a screen can emulate 8- and 16-bit consoles. Mature emulators and ROMs have been out there for over a decade. Gee, what a surprise that someone figured out a way to get them running on a phone. Nintendo are still making a killing by selling ages-old games on VC, and they will never be able to stop people who use emulators. Why do they raise a stink now? Why is this even news?

Not to mention SNES and NES aren't 'protected' anymore. Which is why knock-off systems like the FC Twin and Retro Duo are sold without provocation.

Man, Nokia just can't seem to get handheld gaming right...

Previous 50 Comments

Nintendo investigating possible copyright infringement in new Nokia smartphone

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