Pokemon Sites Hit with Nintendo C&D Letters

Remember the Simplenet crisis?  This is very similar, except now, it’s the Nintendo fans’ turn.  Nintendo, yes, the company, has issued cease-and-desist orders to Pokemon sites in particular, wanting anything that could hurt sales of the series off fans’ sites.  Here’s a posting from the UPNetwork:

As you probably know, Nintendo owns the rights to all Pokemon characters. Even though the anime is being distributed by Viz, TV Tokyo and Warner Brothers, Nintendo still owns all rights to Pokemon. It is also common knowledge that the popularity of Pokemon and rates of sales have been decreasing within the past few months. Just recently, second-quarter earnings for Hasbro plunged 80%; with the majority of their sales being Pokemon. 

Apparently, Nintendo has come to believe that the video clips on this site have been the cause of many problems and have substantially inhibited the sales of Pokemon and videos. When Pokemon was flooding the market, Nintendo had told us that they had no problems with the video clips, but since the recent downfall they have issued us a cease and desist order and demanded that we shut down the video archives or they will take legal action against UPNetwork and it’s host Ultimate Gaming Online. These clips were originally provided as a preview to future episodes and a review to past episodes, we do not distribute full episode clips, ripped CDs or ROMs; doing so would encourage bootlegging and discourage sales on the market.

We have asked Nintendo if they would grant us permission to have at least a minimum selection of video clips as previews to episodes available in stores. If a fan wanted to see more of the episode, they could legally buy a copy of the episode on VHS or DVD from the UPNetwork Pokemart or their nearest Pokemon distributor. This way, there would be no negative reactions for both parties, UPNetwork and Nintendo.

But… It is the policy of Nintendo’s legal department to immediately and without hesitation, deny any requests for legal permissions and licenses. Even though, we all think this decision is foolish by Nintendo, we are not implying that you should boycott Nintendo; two wrongs do not make a right.

So now, Nintendo is going the way of such big companies as FOX, while Sega fans are still sitting pretty.  Could Nintendo hurt their fan base?  Possibly.  Hopefully, Sega will not go down this same lane, ever.