Nintendo is quite strict when it comes to its intellectual properties being made available on other platforms without its consent. In the last couple of months, it has won a lawsuit against a Mario Kart tour operator and closed tons of ROM websites which distribute its games and platform emulators.
Now, the Japanese company has settled for $12 million in a copyright infringement lawsuit against a married couple who operated ROM sites.
TorrentFreak reports that Nintendo filed a lawsuit against LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.co back in July, accusing the sites' owners Jacob Mathias and his wife of infringing on the company's copyrights.
It now appears that both the parties do not want to drag the case on any longer, with the Mathias couple agreeing to pay a fine of $12 million in a consent judgment, along with an injunction in which they have signed off the ROM websites, games, and emulators to Nintendo. However, it is important to note that while the two parties have agreed to the deal, the paperwork for it is yet to be approved by the court.
The $12 million figure is rather interesting, since it's highly unlikely that the Mathias couple will be able to pay off the fine. TorrentFreak speculates that this figure was included in the paperwork in order to warn other ROM site operators of the consequences of infringing Nintendo's intellectual properties.
It remains to be seen how other ROM sites which are still operating will respond to this development. However, it's quite clear that Nintendo clearly isn't messing around when it comes to copyright infringement.
Source: TorrentFreak
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