This site seems to be a reincarnation of certain parts of the old site (SMB.org), for example, the SMBX Forums. If in the future, this site becomes as popular as the old site once was when it was still up and running, then this site might be doomed to the same fate of being shut down. It's a possibility certainly, but it doesn't necessarily mean it will occur.
You don't have to be making money for Nintendo to start going crazy on you for copyright infringement. Your making a name for yourself using content originally created by someone else, therefore, you are "profiting" from such a thing, not money-wise, but profiting either way. And certainly when site owners put "All Rights Nintendo" "Copyright Nintendo" "This site is not owned or endorsed by Nintendo, all content belongs to their respective owners" it doesn't help them one bit, your still using content that is not yours, which is breaking U.S law. Keep in mind, big companies take their copyrights/trademarks protection seriously, such is the case with Nintendo. I mean think of it this way, the video game industry has a yearly renevue of 15$ billion, but over the years, the industry has been threatened by ROMs, emulators, such of those things. It can be hard for some video game companies to make a profit, according to Nintendo's site. I don't see what the problem is though, I mean they make millions already. I guess these companies can't let a single dollar slip past them.
Anyways, I did a bit of research. I did see that in the years of 2010 and 2011 Nintendo did crack on some sites on a threat of copyright infringement, for example some Pokemon sites. I managed to find this, link to the original site/topic is provided at the bottom of the post. It deals with the owner of PokéBeach receiving a Pokemon infringement notice, I just scanned through, I'm not truly sure if it is an authentic form but it certainly does look like it, take a look for yourselves:
WaterPokémonMaster, PokéBeach Webmaster: wrote:We just got a letter from Nintendo (edited to remove personal info obviously) asking to take down all of our Black and White images or bad stuff will happen. I called the lawyer who sent the letter and he said he'll be making the rounds on other Pokemon sites as well and that they're doing an investigation. I was first on their list. I'm about to go out while Bangiras plays the game due to a family emergency but I have 24 hours to remove the images. Joy! Anyways, we'll continue to play the game and report what we find like we've been doing. Oh and the lawyer said he likes my site. :p
PokéBeach Copyright Infringement Notice wrote:URGENT & TIME SENSITIVE: IMMEDIATE ATTENTION REQUIRED September 18, 2010 Registrant PokeBeach.com RE: Infringement of Nintendo of America Inc.’s Intellectual Property Rights
Dear Sir or Madam:
We are legal counsel to Nintendo of America Inc. (referred to here, with its parent and affiliated companies, as “Nintendo”). As you are no doubt well aware, Nintendo is one of the world’s leading developers and distributors of video game products. The Pokémon franchise is one of Nintendo’s most popular game series, and the upcoming release of the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White video games has garnered significant media attention. The intellectual property associated with the games, including the copyright in the underlying software code, visual depictions of the games, and characters found within the games, is the subject of copyright protection in the United States and abroad.
We recently learned that you have posted screenshots and other protected content from the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games to your website at
http://pokebeach.com. While Nintendo appreciates your interest in and support of the Pokémon game series, your publication of this content infringes Nintendo’s copyrights in violation of federal law. Your activity also and has the potential to cause substantial damage to Nintendo, and leaves Nintendo with no choice but to take steps to protect its intellectual property rights.
We have accordingly submitted a copyright infringement notice to your domain registrar under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, and anticipate that your website will be taken down shortly. We encourage you to immediately remove from your website all graphics, screenshots, and other protected content taken from the Pokémon Black and Pokémon White games. Going forward, you must also refrain from posting any screenshots, videos, or other content that infringes Nintendo’s rights in the Pokémon series or any other game.
Your full and immediate compliance with the foregoing should render further action on Nintendo’s part unnecessary. It is essential that we receive your written response confirming that you have taken these necessary actions by Sunday, September 19, 12:00 p.m. PDT, however, or Nintendo will have no choice but to consider its alternative legal remedies.
Please contact me if you would like to discuss this matter in further detail. Nothing stated herein shall constitute a waiver of any rights or remedies of Nintendo of America Inc., its parent or affiliated companies, all of which are expressly reserved.
Looks authentic, see for yourselves,
here. Also, to conclude my post, I think by the point Redigit received the call supposedly from Nintendo, SMBX was no longer on the site. IMO, I think Nintendo was more interested in the URL, mainly. Sure Redigit, might have been making money off of the ads, but I mean he might have chose himself to take it down, after all by that time he was working on Terraria, might have made an excuse to silence the SMBX community and move on. I mean it's not like Nintendo would have stayed working on SMBX forever, he would have eventually moved on. SMBX was just for fun, Terraria is more of a job now. Redigit and those close to him know the truth. There is all these speculations, but truthfully, NO ONE knows the truth for sure.
