Nintendo is famously protective of its intellectual property and has a history of suing content creators who it feels have overstepped the mark (it isn't shy about suing slightly bigger fish, either).
However, its latest move feels particularly heavy-handed, as it has issued a copyright strike against a YouTube channel that reviews emulation handhelds.
Retro Game Corps, in case you didn't know, is an excellent channel with over half a million subscribers which covers many different retro gaming systems, but its main focus is modern-day portable devices from the likes of AYANEO, Anbernic and Retroid which are capable of emulating classic games from yesteryear.
As you might imagine, many of these systems run games for consoles like the NES, SNES, Game Boy, N64 and even Wii U, and the channel's videos do a great job of showing off how these titles perform on third-party hardware, helping consumers make an informed choice.
However, Russ, the channel's owner, has recently had a video taken down at Nintendo's request which relates directly to emulation of its products.
"It does appear that my worst fears are true, and that I am being specifically targeted by Nintendo," he says in a statement posted on YouTube. "My Wii U video was taken down and I received another copyright strike, even though this showcase video was no different than all of the tech demos and reviews I have made on this channel previously."
Russ says that he's considering filing a counter-claim under fair use, "as the video was for educational use, transformative in nature, and had no [effect] on the market - it was a demonstration of a console no longer for sale." However, he says he is "reluctant to open that can of worms with a multi-billion dollar corporation, as their next step would be to file legal action."
In the short term, this means that Retro Game Corps will no longer be showing Nintendo games during its videos. As Russ notes, this is a shame "because I love using those games for my hardware demonstrations." He adds that he is now "going through the videos I am working on and blurring out any Nintendo game content as a precaution, even innocuous content like NES games." This will naturally have an impact on his output.
