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Pokemon essentials DMCA Takedown

Nintendo has gained a bit of a reputation for its strict copyright policy. In the last few months alone, it filed a few lawsuits against emulation sites. Now, Nintendo has gone after a new target: Pokemon Essentials.

The kit in question, a role-playing game maker, allowed users to “design” their own Pokémon adventures. According to sources, the software used “full tilesets, maps, music, and sprites” from the official games, as well as all the classic mechanics required to catch and collect Pokemon. It was founded in 2007, and was used to create a popular fan game called, “Pokemon Uranium”, which was shut down two years ago following a reported copyright notice from Nintendo. It was only a matter of time before Nintendo shutdown the software people used to make illegal asset flips.

Some people just can’t help violating copyright because they want what they can’t have; someone else’s intellectual property.  You can’t claim fair use or parody when the mechanics of a game or the assets in the game are just too similar to the original made by the current copyright holder.  When you purchase copyrighted media, you are really purchasing a revocable license to use the material as the creator sees fit.  All rights reserved means all rights of any kind when there is any doubt are reserved to the copyright holder.

If you want to make a “Pokemon Game”, you have to pay for a license to make a Pokemon game.  If you can’t afford one, you need to get a business line of credit to buy one and hope that someone buys your asset flip.

Works Cited

Kent, E. (2018, August 29). Nintendo triggers takedown of 11-year-old tool used to build Pok. Retrieved August 29, 2018, from https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2018-08-29-nintendo-takes-down-11-year-old-pokemon-fangame-kit