Nintendo was asked to comment on outsiders infringing on their copyrights and damaging their IP in their latest investor’s meeting. Nintendo’s answer means more than it seems in the surface.
Nintendo just published their latest Q&A with investors, with official translations so that both the meaning of the investors’ asking questions, and Nintendo’s answers, are clearly understood.
Nintendo provided a similar answer to two questions, so we’ll address both of them here. One question was clearly about copyright infringement, but in the second case, we’ll have to quote the question verbatim:
“Unfortunately, I sometimes come across cases on social media where Nintendo IP and games are used inappropriately. I feel that this kind of behavior poses the risk of damaging the value of Nintendo IP, so I’d like to know how you handle such cases.”
In both cases, Furukawa brought up the company’s management policy to, “bring smiles through entertainment.” As he explains it:
“Our mission is to bring smiles to people through entertainment, and we aim to provide games that anyone can intuitively enjoy. Many people have developed an affection for our characters and IP through their experience of playing our games.
For this reason, we believe it is extremely important for us to continue to create new ways to play so people deepen their attachments to our characters and IP.”
In regards to copyright infringement, his response is simple:
“Our basic policy for protecting our intellectual property is to take appropriate action against any infringement of our IP rights. This will not change in the future.”
Regarding the case of Nintendo’s IP being ‘used inappropriately,’ if you think about it, this can be a very sensitive subject. It’s more likely Nintendo’s own fans who could be doing things that fit that definition, and this isn’t necessarily from emulating their games on non-Nintendo systems or things of that nature.
For example, fans of Wario love to make fan works of the character, including fanart and fan fiction, and sometimes that work wouldn’t be something that Nintendo would publish. Subsequently, there are situations where someone criticizing Nintendo would use their own IP to make that criticism. While the criticism could put Nintendo in a bad light, in most cases that would probably fit free speech.
Here’s what Furukawa said in response:
“I will refrain from commenting on individual cases, but we believe that appropriate action must be taken against any behavior that undermines this policy (bringing smiles through entertainment).
Our goal is to create an environment where everyone can enjoy playing games. We will continue to make every effort to ensure that our consumers are not made to feel uncomfortable, not only in our games but also anywhere they come into contact with our IP.”
As you can imagine, Furukawa did not give any specifics, for the reasons I outlined above. No doubt Nintendo would have to address the situation in a case by case basis. As we recently reported, Nintendo has filed lawsuits against software pirates, so we know this work continues, at least on that front.
