VGCollect Forum
General and Gaming => General => Topic started by: gf78 on October 05, 2015, 08:38:28 am
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http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/10/pokemon-copyright-lawyers-demand-4000-from-party-planner/
Nintendo continues to $hit on their fans, this time demanding four grand from a huge Pokémon fan who throws Pokémon-themed parties. The guy cancelled the party and refunded the tickets immediately after receiving a letter from Nintendo (under the guise of the Pokémon Company) demanding $4,000 for using the likeness of two Pokémon on a poster advertising the party. Nintendo refuses to budge on their demands and won't even allow this guy a few months to make payments.
You would think Nintendo would be content screwing over fans with their poor policies in regards to Amiibo's and game localizations. But instead, they go after YouTubers and now Pokémon enthusiasts who want to celebrate their love of Pokémon.
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I understand protecting your copy rights and stuff, but really? Come on now. Shitting on your fans like that isn't gonna help you win hearts. Sometimes you gotta let stuff go, and the guy even cancelled it too.
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I understand protecting your copy rights and stuff, but really? Come on now. Shitting on your fans like that isn't gonna help you win hearts. Sometimes you gotta let stuff go, and the guy even cancelled it too.
From everything I have read on it, the guy not only cancelled, he apologized and simply asked for more time to pay the $4000 fine which is ridiculous in and of itself. As a fan, I would be upset because they tried to shut me down for loving their properties and I would be downright pissed for being sued.
I've grown up loving Nintendo and it's properties. I look at the Amiibo's on the store shelves and admire them. But man, Nintendo has pretty much soured my love for them. I just can't see myself buying into the NX or whatever they end up calling it. And that's a real shame being that I've owned every system including handhelds and probably a thousand games that I have personally bought brand-new over the past 30 years.
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Story Time!
So I am an official Pokemon Tournament Organizer. They call us Pokemon Professors. I even have Pokemon lab coat they sent me. To do this I had to go through a background check and take a test to get registered. I've volunteered at larger Pokemon Tournaments like States, Regionals and Nationals. Working for the Pokemon Company at these events has shown me how goofy they can be. It's an odd company to say the least. They're organizational practices baffle me sometimes. They're sense of their fans is certainly skewed.
Had the guy throwing the party had someone who had jumped through all the hoops to become a Tournament Organizer, he probably could have avoided all the legal trouble. The problem that isn't widely known. He didn't know that. Pokemon should take that into consideration and drop the whole thing. He didn't harm the brand. If anything they're harming themselves by creating this sue happy image. Not exactly the best PR.
I've gone to conventions and parties just to be the "Pokemon guy" so that it can be official. Stupid, I know, but that's how they work. I think PETA's Pokemon Black and Blue parody games where Pokemon attack people for "enslaving them" :o did more harm than any fan could do. http://features.peta.org/pokemon-black-and-white-parody/ (Possibly NSFW due to cartoon blood)
That all being said, I don't thinks it's fair to lump Nintendo and Pokemon together. Nintendo is more of the publisher of Pokemon, while Game Freak and Creatures Inc are the creators of Pokemon. I think of Nintendo as "Disney" and Pokemon as "Marvel" in this situation. Game Freak isn't tied to Nintendo. Their latest game Tembo the Badass Elephant wasn't even released on any Nintendo console.
The Pokemon Company is more of the brand manager. Someone explains it way better than I can here if you're interested. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=1008721
Now I'm not trying to defend The Pokemon Company or Nintendo here. They're both really bizarre companies that give off a sense of greed sometimes. I agree that Nintendo is but a shadow of what greatness it used to be. But Nintendo isn't the one to blame in this situation, at least not wholly. The Pokemon Company is overly protective of anything Pokemon. A few years back they almost took down two of the biggest fan sites (Pokebeach and Serebii.net) for posting pictures of Pokemon Black and White which was already out in Japan but not in the States.
Now I'm not really sure where I was going with all this :P but figured I'd throw in some of my knowledge.
TLDR; Pokemon and Nintendo are separate. The Pokemon Company is overly protective and treats their brand like a prize winning show dog.
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The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are separate companies, and it seems like this would have been a decision by TPC rather than Nintendo. As far as I know (not completely sure as I don't have any Amiibos), Nintendo aren't allowed to use Pokemon Amiibos/characters in their games apart from Smash Bros because TPC wont let them. If Nintendo had control over them then obviously that wouldn't be the case.
Edit: Looks like I should have refreshed the page before replying, as it seems Limeface has explained better than me :P
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The Pokemon Company and Nintendo are separate companies, and it seems like this would have been a decision by TPC rather than Nintendo. As far as I know (not completely sure as I don't have any Amiibos), Nintendo aren't allowed to use Pokemon Amiibos/characters in their games apart from Smash Bros because TPC wont let them. If Nintendo had control over them then obviously that wouldn't be the case.
Edit: Looks like I should have refreshed the page before replying, as it seems Limeface has explained better than me :P
Looking online, I see that The Pokémon Company is wholly owned by Nintendo.
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It's technically owned by Nintendo, but I think it's seen as more of an affiliate of Nintendo, like HAL, Intelligent Systems, etc. They have a relationship with each other, but aren't necessarily the same company, nor are they strictly controlled by Nintendo.
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It's technically owned by Nintendo, but I think it's seen as more of an affiliate of Nintendo, like HAL, Intelligent Systems, etc. They have a relationship with each other, but aren't necessarily the same company, nor are they strictly controlled by Nintendo.
Gotcha. In any event, Pokémon is related exclusively with Nintendo so this looks really, really bad.
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Indeed, regardless of where The Pokemon Company stands with Nintendo I don't think it's a very good business practice :-\
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On a side (but related) note, I checked out that PETA Pokémon game that limeface linked. I was laughing my ass off!
I don't condone abuse of animals in any way whatsoever and in fact, I love just about every creature I come across. Snakes, turtles, bunnies, raccoons, opposums, lizards...I love 'em all. But those "games" are so ridiculously over the top I had to laugh.
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On a side (but related) note, I checked out that PETA Pokémon game that limeface linked. I was laughing my ass off!
I don't condone abuse of animals in any way whatsoever and in fact, I love just about every creature I come across. Snakes, turtles, bunnies, raccoons, opposums, lizards...I love 'em all. But those "games" are so ridiculously over the top I had to laugh.
Well, its made by the same three people at PETA's game division who made atrocities such as Super Tanooki Skin 2D. PETA is pretty much a joke now anyways.
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Geez, it's getting worse for this. The Pokemon Company pulled the settlement offer cause they got bad press due to the guy basically having to share his story and get funding support, meaning that it could get worse for him if he can't get it sorted out. What a useless fight this is.
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PETA: People Eat Tasty Animals
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Geez, it's getting worse for this. The Pokemon Company pulled the settlement offer cause they got bad press due to the guy basically having to share his story and get funding support, meaning that it could get worse for him if he can't get it sorted out. What a useless fight this is.
I'll have to read more into this. So basically, the guy went public and asked for help to pay his fine...which in no way, shape or form should he have to pay since he complied with their request...and now they want to screw him over harder because their dirty little secret got out???
I'm not a big Pokémon fan to begin with, but they can shove Pickachu straight up their arrogant asses. >:(
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PETA: People Eat Tasty Animals
I've always wanted that as a shirt
As for Nintendo/Pokemon getting mad cause it came out. They need to get over it. Just being jerks! Makes me want to stop buying their stuff....
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Oh this is the same thing from months ago, it's hard to feel sympathetic for him when he was doing this purely for profit (even if it doesn't say it in this article). He was selling tickets to an event that was serving Pokemon Themed alcoholic beverages WHEN THEY DIDN'T EVEN ID PEOPLE WHO WERE BUYING TICKETS. I feel Pokemon did the right thing by suing him.
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From something I read, it was only like 2 bucks a ticket and was hardly making anything from it. At best it barely covered the event. They might've been in the right by suing him, but pulling the settlement because the story just happened to make them look bad is a pretty cheap move.
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The guy had been doing the event for several years and stated he wasn't making money, but losing a bit. He did it because he loved Pokémon and wanted to share that with other likeminded individuals.
If there was a problem with what he was doing, there is a thing called a "Cease & desist order." I'm sure he would have complied. I also don't believe that he was serving drinks to just anyone. Some little kids weren't in there buying alcohol. The Pokémon Company got pissy because his ad for the event featured two Pokémon on it. They should have politely asked him first, then followed up with a cease & desist order. Suing the guy is ridiculous and getting mad because he went public with what amounts to extortion and then trying to screw him over harder is ridiculous.
Sony and Microsoft are more than happy to embrace the public and don't say squat about events like this. It's free advertising for them. But I guess that's why PS4 and Xbox One are outselling the Wii U like it (Wii U) hasn't even launched yet. But that's what happens when you $hit on your fans, deny them localizations of games they actually want and shortchange everyone in the US on Amiibo's. Because y'know...for five straight series of figures, you still haven't figured out that they sell like hotcakes and you refuse to mass produce the older figures that nobody was able to get!
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Oh this is the same thing from months ago, it's hard to feel sympathetic for him when he was doing this purely for profit (even if it doesn't say it in this article).
he sold the tickets for $2 a piece rents a dj for I believe $450, buys a kindle fire ($60 used $140 new) for a prize and has to buy various gift cards as prizes. plus he has to buy drinks and decorations. Now I may not be a genius by any means but of the ~250 tickets he sold that makes $500 and that my good sir constitutes a loss of money not a profit.
He was selling tickets to an event that was serving Pokemon Themed alcoholic beverages WHEN THEY DIDN'T EVEN ID PEOPLE WHO WERE BUYING TICKETS. I feel Pokemon did the right thing by suing him.
Now I have read about 10 different articles (both defending him and attacking him) about this issue and not a single one has mentioned anyone attending the party would be under the age of 21. Now don't you think if anyone writing about this found out he would be serving alcohol to minors that they would latch onto this too? I also read through the entire legal document for the case and not once was the fact he would be serving alcohol brought up. In other words TPC did not care about this. The reason they are suing him is because on the promotional poster he was using the images of 2 pokemon.