 Nintendo did another really stupid thing over the weekend that It makes sense from a legal perspective But it's also something that they shouldn't be doing now this article by IGN kind of Combines a couple things together and I wanted to go over it a bit because it does add some clarification to What exactly happened that I didn't mention in my smash video a while back, but this it's not particularly about smash This is actually about a completely different situation as you can see in the title But before we get into that I want to kind of look at what's been happening with Nintendo lately, so Nintendo has a really bad history with the Smash Bros. community they have not shown support to the competitive scene pretty much ever and There was something that in particular that Nintendo shut down that wasn't It just Nintendo had really should have left it alone There are some things especially during a pandemic that you just have to let be and this was one of those things So there was a smash a Super Smash Bros. Melee tournament going on Or about to go on hosted by big house But because we can't do in-person events anymore at least not in 2020 I shouldn't say ever again, but in 2020 because of the pandemic in person is not possible The only way to have a melee competitive tournament would be online. The problem is that melee doesn't have Online so to do an online tournament you would need to modify copies of the game Every person playing the game has a legit legal copy of the game But yes, you would have to modify the game to enable online and there is already a mod for that known as slippy the thing is that Nintendo views you doing that as you're using an illegal rom now Nintendo doesn't have any proof that the ROMs are illegal because it is legal to make a rom you can Legally make a copy of a game if you have the ability to do so that you own now There are some particulars and gray area whether or not you're allowed to play that Copy it's supposed to be for backup purposes only, but this would seem to be a case where you know Maybe you let this go right melee is Has been mostly left untouched by Nintendo they don't support it But they haven't really stopped it out that much, but you know It's a pandemic try to be understanding that this is the only way these tournaments can happen And just let it go. It's not affecting sales. You don't even sell melee, right? It's just dumb and Nintendo themselves could have provided their own solution if they really wanted to avoid all this But since Nintendo doesn't support the competitive smash scene, of course, they weren't going to do that So they shut down the tournament with a cease and desist so Nintendo Asked them to cancel the event and basically big house said we're not gonna cancel. Let's that's dumb It's a pandemic let people, you know, try to find some joy in this world Well, Nintendo explained a polygon That the tournament required the use of an illegal copied versions of the game in conjunction with a mod called slippy Now they can't actually know if they're illegal copies of the game again This is an assumption by Nintendo that people downloaded and shared a ROM instead of making their own I'm just pointing that out. Nintendo has no legal proof that these were illegal copies Anyways, but it says in conjunction with a mod called slippy during their online event Which is what enables the online play Nintendo therefore contacted the tournament organizers and just asked them to stop There was no legal stuff there and the tournament refused leaving Nintendo no choice with the step in to protect its intellectual property and brands Nintendo cannot condone or allow piracy of its intellectual property, but this isn't The problem with the argument that that people have is that it's not really piracy, right? It's not it's People running a tournament. They're not distributing games. They're not promoting This they're just saying that this is the only way these tournaments can happen because you didn't include an online Play functionality in these games or even a networking functionality in these games Gamecube can connect to the internet, but you didn't include a ability to network in any way Interface with it in any way. So a mod is required. Anyways moving on That's kind of the whole big deal there. That's why you seen the hashtag free melee all this stuff We then saw Nintendo shut down Splatoon stuff Just because the Splatoon community was showing support kind of you know a crappy move it was Nintendo's own self-ran tournament and They live streamed the first bit of it and then they shut down the finals live stream Because it was going to have a bunch of teams that had the hashtag free melee and their announcers would have to be like oh free melee 217 Player blah blah blah just to this and they'd have to keep saying free melee over and over again on official Nintendo streams Wasn't going to be a good look for Nintendo. So they cancelled it which is also not a good look I mean they could have just told those teams Hey if you want to participate you need to change but instead they just said you know what we're not gonna tell teams I need to change your names. We're just going to cancel the stream We're still gonna have the tournament But we're you know not going to basically talk about it Advertise it or show it like we did the previous rounds when the team names did not have Hashtag free smash. All right. So moving on. There's another situation But Nintendo got involved in that this video is really about and this is This is about Joy-con Cases in particular joy kind cases that are for charity All right. So here we are over on Twitter and there is these things called eddy cons I don't know if you guys are aware of eddica rest in peace man. He is a Former youtuber that Unfortunately took his own life. It's a very difficult situation He dealt with mental illness and people were really questioning if he was just some brilliant sociopath or had real mental illness going on There was a lot of debate over the last year or two of his life about what was going on with them online Some really strange behaviors over what he used to be like But he was really popular and he was arguably at the time one of the largest streamers on YouTube He was definitely the largest, you know, Nintendo oriented streamer. He did play some other stuff He was one of the most popular live streamers ever on YouTube and he Got popular at streaming on YouTube at a time when people were saying you don't stream on YouTube You stream on Twitch like streaming on YouTube was not as popular as it is You know like today having big streams on YouTube isn't unusual. We see mr. Beast do it We see PewDiePie do it. We see spawncast blow up We see a lot of different Streams do really really well on YouTube and YouTube has really become a viable big streaming platform with Twitch It hasn't replaced which just alongside of Twitch, but Erika came up at a time When it was hard to get popular at streaming on YouTube and he did it He pulled it off and he was very entertaining maybe one of the most entertaining streamers I've ever watched in my life anyways and When he had moments of clarity and got real and got down-to-earth, I still remember streams and he was talking about how hard he worked at Bouncing his credit back from really bad decisions. He made when he was younger and all his plans You know to use that credit to buy a house and like he while he would go crazy and do some insane fun things He seemed like a real person real down-to-earth a guy that had his shit together Obviously until he started having his mental lapses and breakdowns Which I'm sure he dealt with behind the scenes for quite some time before it got so bad that it leaked into the public And leaked into the things he was doing. I I feel horrible at how that whole situation went I think the whole internet feels horrible at how we were reacting to it at the time considering how it ended and He is what gonna be always remembered in the Nintendo online community for what he did So what happened is a fan created these These are called at a cons right? He did a fan funding campaign for it and all the money from that campaign goes to charity It's not like some of the money goes in the manufacturing the rest goes in the charity He used his money to make these shells. These are just shells for the joy cons He used his money to make the shells to get a manufactured and then all the money that people Supported with in the in the fundraising campaigns, which the first one failed, but the second one didn't went to charity It's it's just a charity drive Supporting mental illness right makes a lot of sense considering how Etika's life ended that the fan base of his would come together To create a product to entice people to spend money that goes and directly supports charity It is a really positive thing and this isn't new the Etikons have been around for a little while And what you're seeing here is a bin of the leftover ones from the campaign So there was a bunch manufactured not all of them were quote-unquote sold during the campaign So these ones that he had in this bin were being sold independently and when I say sold they're not for profit All the money that you would spend on one of these Etikons None of it went into his pocket. It all went straight to charity. There was no profits to be gained here This was just a I mean we're not even talking about getting the cost of manufacturing back We're just talking this was just nothing but a charity act Okay, a limited charity act because there was not going to be another run of these Etikons made So these are the leftovers he had from the campaign and he was just gonna sell them till they were gone And that was that he wasn't gonna make anymore because obviously it's a big money investment to do that So, okay, cool. What's the what's the problem here? Well? Nintendo sent a cease and desist Remember this is these are not new products Nintendo sent a cease and desist over shells for their Joy-Cons keep in mind You can go on Amazon right now and find thousands and thousands of Joy-Cons shells being sold I Have some I Don't see Nintendo shutting them down now There are certain people that may be official partners But I've never actually seen any of these studios have Nintendo's official seal Which means all these places that are selling these shells on Amazon Don't have Nintendo's permission either and so it's fair to say that Nintendo was pretty much letting this be fair game They were letting the shells sell They you know it was one thing they were doing that PlayStation isn't doing see PlayStation 5 and Sony Shut down people making new shells that go on or new face plates or whatever you want to call them that go on the PlayStation 5 We see the PlayStation 5 has removable sides So there were other companies out there creating custom sides that Sony shut down as I know you can't do that Nintendo had never shut down any of these. This is the first one. I have actually seen them shut down So here's what they said You were on notice that your production marketing and sale of the infringing products Your use of Nintendo trademarks in connection with these activities and your false association with the Nintendo brand They're called at a cons. Okay. I guess the cons word Violate Nintendo's intellectual property rights Nintendo will consider any further use of Nintendo and intellectual property in connection with your business And the infringing projects to be willful infringement of Nintendo's federally protected rights under the layham act 15 USC 1-1-2-5. This is referencing a prior ruling obviously and the copyright act of 17 USC 501 Liability for trademark infringement and unfair competition may include Treble profits or damages attorney fees and costs and an injunction against further use of the infringed marks Liability for copyright infringement may include Nintendo's actual damages and any additional profits earned by the infringer It wasn't profits in the first place Or step story damages up to a hundred and fifty thousand per work for willful infringement In addition liability for copyright infringement may include payment of Nintendo's attorney fees and costs to avoid further legal action Nintendo demands that you immediately cease all production, which they haven't met in production anymore Marketing sale and distribution so he can't even give them away He can't even just give them away to people because he can't distribute them at all of the infringing products and All use of Nintendo's trademarks in connection with such products including when I limited to all products found at the links listed in the attach exhibit B Which is this so They're joy cons so having the Nintendo switch logo on them is pretty standard You know any reference to a joy con at all at a con joy con Me we fit Grookey scorebunny sobble Pokemon stuff Maybe there were some stuff mentioned in as like rewards on the Like tier rewards or whatever. I'm not exactly sure where these logos come in the Pokemon logo They put up there. I feel like that's a custom made one. What does it matter? They're saying you can't use it The the word Pokemon etc. But if you like look at the actual That's right. It was the original run. I'm trying to remember. We're the actual joy. Here we go So this is what they actually look like once they're on right? I mean, that's pretty sick Could can we be honest? That's pretty sick looking joy con boys for life, right? The joy con thing Nintendo doesn't like again Nintendo branding joy like but here's the thing It's not that Nintendo is not within their legal right See this is Edeca right here for those of you who don't know It's not that Nintendo is not within their legal right They are most definitely within their legal rights to shut this down Just like they were within their legal rights to shut down the melee tournament But here's the thing there. It's one thing to be within your legal rights. It's another thing to not recognize what's happening and letting it go for the sake of Supporting the community but not just supporting the community but understanding the situation on a deeper level The smash thing understanding it on a deeper level. We're in a pandemic. This was the only way these tournaments can happen Understand it don't take this legal stance at a time When we are all struggling This was a dumb stance to take against the Smash Bros melee community and this is beyond melee hashtag free melee It's not just about melee. We have a huge post I did a 25 minute video about all the ways that they have hurt Smash Bros in general Okay in the competitive scene. It's not just melee Melee is just the most recent thing they have happened to him now. We have this this is for charity. This supports Charity, it's your legal right to shut this down But why like who at Nintendo goes man out of all of the you know fake You know all the non-legal Joy-con skins out there. We're gonna shut down a temporary run of Joy-cons that honor someone who died Someone who Nintendo has had in their videos before with Reggie in the past We're gonna shut down a Product that shows love for someone who unfortunately took their own life Because it has joy-con on it joy you're coming after joy-con boys now You weren't coming after joy-con boys when it was being put on t-shirts and all this other merchandise when Erika was alive Why the hell are we going after it now and now at a time when these are for charity? It's a charity drive Why would you want to use your legal right to shut down something that is such a Positive thing from your own community from the Nintendo community. This is such a pot like It's not that you don't have the legal right But you're not setting some horrible precedent by letting it go the horrible precedent You're setting is shutting down this but not shutting down all the other people making illegal joy-con You know skins like this illegal joy-con shells I should say they have shut down someone who made skins But illegal joy-con shells like this that are all over on Amazon. You don't shut any of those down But you're shutting down this Something that's good for the benefit of everyone for for fans of this person That was an important part of the community and also to help other people that have mental illnesses I mean Nintendo could have said hey We're not gonna allow you to sell or distribute these but hey, we'll buy the mobile these all off of you And give you you know like a one-time, you know donation to this charity We won't allow these to be distributed, but at least we'll show support You know in that way at least then you know that they're enforcing their legal rights But still looking good and that they're giving a nice donation to that charity, but Nintendo couldn't even do that They had to just go the complete legal route. You're done. Sorry that bucket of them keep them to yourself We see you distribute them hundred fifty thousand dollars. Thank you very much Hey It's ridiculous, but some people I've seen out there have also been looking at this as Nintendo this is obviously Doug Bowser and Shintura Furukawa's fault. This would never happen under Iwata This would never happen under Reggie Really? Let's take a look at this thread over here So this recaps a few things, but I'm gonna go a little bit deeper So these are things that happen under Iwata and Reggie Obviously some people complain. They always have the highest prices with games. I don't know that's it's controversial But I don't I'm not gonna sit there and hold that against them. That's just a business strategy They're online while free has always been the worst of the bunch Again, I won't hold that really against them other than saying that yeah, they should do better, but I Don't feel that's a problem. Overall the services Nintendo provider have always been inferior They had those YouTube copyright restrictions for years. Yeah Guys forget that Nintendo was like one of the only major gaming companies at the time that was preventing us from using footage of their games in videos That's crazy. You had a system you could sign up for that actively made it so you couldn't share footage of certain game It it was it was bad. It was bad Nintendo Eventually due to community pressure Finally stopped but you know if you thought this was the first melee tournament shut down my Nintendo You're wrong. They actually shut down a really big melee tournament back in 2013 You know a lot of people saying Iwata wouldn't accepted Mario 3d all-stars or limited releases when we all stars and four swords DSi were also a thing so Nintendo did this before they have been taking down fan games for years This is true. Nintendo is the most notorious at taking down fan games other companies do it here and there But Nintendo pretty much will take down any major fan game. Well, most other companies will just kind of let it go and realize That's part of the community. That's the fans coming together and it doesn't negatively impact sales And in fact, it just gives fans something to do in between releases is what it is Nintendo has always had this stance against fan games. Let me see here. Nintendo's worst DLC came out in 2014 That's the Mario Gold World Tour. It's DLC that yeah, that DLC was not good What a rip-off they shut now we and DS online less than two years after the Wii U came out More or less at the same time Mario Kart 8 was a release oddly enough They had region locking for years switches like the first system where they really got rid of region locking So that's you know again region lockings kind of an anti-consumer thing pro it's pro Retailer right pro local retailer, but but anti-consumer But yeah, it's the shutting on the the online services It's pretty unusual for online services for systems to be shut down within two years of new platforms coming out Usually, you know, you get a five or six year leeway on that sometimes longer two years And then conveniently when Mario Kart 8 was coming out did not it wasn't a good look at the time I know I didn't even include Spanish text for some of their games for years Despite Spanish actually being a pretty big language here in the US and we don't have an official language in the US So not even once from Europe so people from Latin America either had to learn English or pirate the game Thanks to region like they only stopped after they got a lot of criticism As you know the Chronicles X in the Spanish text, but it wasn't the first time They were censoring some of their games for no reason for a time. Yep lots of censoring especially here in North America for some ungodly reason My country that's more Allowing of certain things and they still were censoring I seen some people saying that they wouldn't have accepted Pokemon Sword and Shield Which is laughable since Nintendo always released under one that's a personal opinion But I think to go beyond this and I'm gonna kind of get off this post because a lot a lot of it seems a little bit nitpicky there is that Nintendo of the old days the whole reason they lost third-party support isn't just because Nintendo's reluctancy to switch the disks They had some really draconian practices in place with third-party companies And this was needed when the NES came out I will say the draconian practices were needed because the industry had gone astray and Was basically killing itself Which is why the NES came at the right time and quote-unquote saved the video game industry. This needed to happen It needed to happen unfortunately after it happened after Nintendo saved it You would figure Nintendo would maybe relax on it a little bit, right? Pull back on some of their restrictions on third-party companies Get a little loose. Maybe never as loose as the industry once was but at least ease up a little bit on some of the more Crazy things they had they had things in place where like You had to get every single element of your game approved by Nintendo And if they didn't like it you had to immediately change it like if you had blood in your game They didn't like the blood you had to change it Why like it Nintendo was being really draconian and again needed for the NES was not really needed I'd say after the SNES era they could have eased up But they did it and that's what live the third parties rushing to Sony the moment there was an alternative Viable platform out there in PlayStation 1 PlayStation 2 You know you figure oh, why didn't they rush to Sega they tried But Sega had some of the same draconian rules in place as well Sony was the one that's like you know what you do what you want you have creator freedom Nintendo wasn't like that and Nintendo took a long time before they started being that way. I mean honestly a lot of the draconian practices Really stayed in place up until we we you It was really the Owada era That's one thing we can credit Owada for for kind of getting rid of those draconian restrictions on third-party games And even then at that point we had had a couple generations Where Nintendo drove third parties away and now when they're finally easing the restrictions they release a system That's just radically different from everyone else. Let's just drove third parties away even more So it kind of led to the situation where Nintendo is now where they're trying to get third parties back But now you know, they're doing this hybrid thing, which is great, but also Hard to to get all third parties on board. So Nintendo is fighting an uphill battle to get back what they once had That they kind of did to themselves so Nintendo isn't like this saint of a company that sometimes they get portrayed as just because they Have some amazing games and I feel like some amazing platforms. So Nintendo had a bad weekend They did all did things they shouldn't have did they did things that sometimes you just need to leave alone The spittoon to thing would have never been a controversy if Nintendo would have just been understanding that this is a pandemic and just let that Melee tournament go. It's not the end of the world. Nintendo won't be having issues right now with multiple youtubers. I know RGT 85 Was working on a video about this boogie 2988 brought a video on this I don't think we'd have to worry about that kind of stuff happening in a world where Nintendo can be More on top of what's happening. It kind of feels like Nintendo's operating in a bubble and inside that bubble They are completely Disunderstanding of The world at large right now and what's happening This is a positive thing Nintendo Well, maybe not wanting to openly publicly support this kind of thing. Maybe because then you got to dive into the whole avenue of How Erika's life ended and talking about suicide and maybe they want to avoid that but But it doesn't mean they have to actively work against it either. They could have just let this be and You know what? I'm gonna be a joy con boy for life I know many of you out there are gonna be joy con boys for life even if you didn't know who Erika was Joy con boys for life man. All right, I'll catch you guys in the next video