Developer of Super Mario 64 mod receives numerous copyright strikes

[Cal Jeffrey]

Earlier this month, we shared a romhack for Super Mario 64 that let up to 24 individuals play the game simultaneously. The mod, called “Super Mario 64 Online,” attracted tens of thousands of players and more than a million views on YouTube.

Unfortunately, Nintendo took notice as well.

Kaze Emanuar, the project's lead developer, said he has received multiple copyright strikes on YouTube. "They took down my videos for containing their ‘audiovisual content,’ meaning Mario 64 gameplay and Mario 64 music,” he told Kotaku in an email.

The copyright removals were not limited to YouTube as content has also been pulled from Emanuar's Patreon account. He says that the primary target seems to be the Super Mario 64 Online videos as every one of them has been deleted.

Despite the copyright strikes, Emanuar has not received a cease-and-desist notice from Nintendo. He believes that with the imminent release of Super Mario Odyssey, Nintendo is cracking down on anything that could detract from the new game.

“I might wait until after Odyssey before resuming development, in hope that it doesn’t come to a C&D, at which point development would be rather dangerous and would have to be kept a secret,” Emanuar said.

Kotaku reports that the mod is no longer available for download although as of writing, the files are still available on Google Drive. The mod was also hosted on Discord but has since been removed. If you want to try out the hack, you better hurry before Google gets wise to the illicit content.

Nintendo has not responded to requests for comment but given Emanuar’s public vow to continue developing the game (even in secret), a C&D notice is all but inevitable.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/71065-developer-super-mario-64-mod-receives-numerous-copyright.html

 

[OutlawCecil]

Dumb... I don't understand why companies freak out when people mod old games. It's not like Super Mario 64 is making Nintendo anymore money. And even so, if anything this should get them more sales of that game. This developer needs to make an invite-only forum and get a following so he can stop announcing it. Sounds like even with the C&D he wants to continue so hopefully he can get a "secret" following first.

 

[oldikes]

Im sure the picture photoshopped with satoru Iwata would be funny if he had literally anything to do with this and he wasnt dead.

 

[Polycount]

Unsurprising. Anybody who is familiar with Nintendo's overzealous copyright track record probably saw this coming a mile away. Very unfortunate, though.

 

[sac39507]

So make an official release Nintendo. 24 player game would be awesome and I'd buy it without all the bugs in the mod version

 

[Bao Nguyen]

Dumb... I don't understand why companies freak out when people mod old games. It's not like Super Mario 64 is making Nintendo anymore money. And even so, if anything this should get them more sales of that game. This developer needs to make an invite-only forum and get a following so he can stop announcing it. Sounds like even with the C&D he wants to continue so hopefully he can get a "secret" following first.

It's all about precedent, basically if you own an IP you must protect it from any violation of any time, once there's a precedent it can be used against your case in court. So if Nintendo let this one slip who knows what else will come next for their most important IP, I.e. Mario Bros?

 

[namesrejected]

Unsurprising. Anybody who is familiar with Nintendo's overzealous copyright track record probably saw this coming a mile away. Very unfortunate, though.

Yep, I called it when Techspot posted about the original multiplayer mod. Its sad though, but Nintendo does have its rights to do what it wants with its games.

 

[Skidmarksdeluxe]

Dumb... I don't understand why companies freak out when people mod old games.

It's very simple and obvious really. It's the companies IP, they own it, it belongs to them and they don't get to make any money from it when somebody takes it upon themself to mod it at will.
Would you like to take a vacation somewhere, leave your residence vacant while you're gone and somebody moves in and lives there without your permission? I'd assume not. Now if you rented it out while you were away and made some money from it... different story.

 

[OutlawCecil]

It's very simple and obvious really. It's the companies IP, they own it, it belongs to them and they don't get to make any money from it when somebody takes it upon themself to mod it at will.
Would you like to take a vacation somewhere, leave your residence vacant while you're gone and somebody moves in and lives there without your permission? I'd assume not. Now if you rented it out while you were away and made some money from it... different story.

That's quite a different example you gave. Like I said Nintendo isn't making anymore money from a game that was released over 21 years ago. So it'd be more like moving out of a shack that isn't worth renting and having somebody move in behind you. The place is falling apart so what's the point of protecting it? Yes, you aren't making rent money from it but then again, who'd rent it anyways. Let somebody else make use of it.

 

[mbrowne5061]

It's very simple and obvious really. It's the companies IP, they own it, it belongs to them and they don't get to make any money from it when somebody takes it upon themself to mod it at will.
Would you like to take a vacation somewhere, leave your residence vacant while you're gone and somebody moves in and lives there without your permission? I'd assume not. Now if you rented it out while you were away and made some money from it... different story.

That's quite a different example you gave. Like I said Nintendo isn't making anymore money from a game that was released over 21 years ago. So it'd be more like moving out of a shack that isn't worth renting and having somebody move in behind you. The place is falling apart so what's the point of protecting it? Yes, you aren't making rent money from it but then again, who'd rent it anyways. Let somebody else make use of it.

Because the shack isn't a shack, it's your woodshed out in your backyard. If the squatter moves in, and you don't immediately move to evict them when you find out, it only gets harder to kick them out the longer they are there.

As other users have pointed out, if they don't defend it, they can lose it more easily in the future. Japan actually makes their companies do some leg work to protect their IP. If Nintendo lets a mod for an old game 'through', it can be used against them for a mod for a new game (that actually does harm their revenue). There is also the argument that anyone who can mod this game for free is less likely to buy any new Mario Party games. You and I may know that imaginary lost sales are just that - imaginary - but the bean counters refuse to believe it.