Call To Action: Remove Illegal Nintendo ROMs From The WP7 Marketplace
As you’re probably aware, there are several games in the Windows Phone Marketplace that are direct ports of Nintendo games. These aren’t clones. They have all of the cheat codes, etc in tact and it appears as though these were ROMs that were converted to Silverlight and then brought into the Marketplace. You may ask why Microsoft has not acted on this. It’s been explained to me that if Microsoft takes action then going forward they have a responsibility to police every application. If they take no action then they don’t have liability. If Nintendo (or the real developer in any other case) makes a claim then Microsoft can remove it without being responsible for policing. It’s a legal technical issue in the end.
Regardless, I don’t think it’s good for developers or the Marketplace as a whole to have these types of games in it. If you want ripped off games then there’s an OS for that and it’s not Windows Phones. As end users, we’re better when developers’ intellectual property rights are protected from such egregious violations.
if you want to help remove these apps then send an email to piracyscene@noa.nintendo.com and note these applications:
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/89eeb1b2-c147-4cd2-9975-333bd3d33f2e
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/d8d33570-4682-42d7-a630-bf902ca814e1
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/1740c542-69f4-4a8c-afe7-e2a3bac5e71b
http://www.windowsphone.com/en-US/apps/2f39b6ed-1471-4eea-a9d6-66b442b709cd
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If you’re wondering who this Rafael Rivera cat is, here his little bio and here’s his RSS.
And the dude or chick apparently behind the NES games is a Jesse Dudley who has apparently issued an apology via twitter:
Good idea.. Even if it’s ‘cool’ to have these games on the marketplace, it’s just asking for issues in the future IMO.
It is not the responisbility of anyone except for the license holder of the IP to police his own copyrights. A lot of these games are no longer being made and many our out of defunct software makers anyway. If they don’t give a shit, then why should microsoft? If someone complains, then microsoft should remove the app, otherwise microsoft is just going to put another tally on their pathetic but growing number of apps on the marketplace.
+1
Agreed! The games shouldn’t even pass certification. They should be stopped before they even hit the market.