Slashdot Mirror
Nintendo Threatens Suicidegirls Over IP Use
An anonymous reader writes "Suicidegirls (a not safe for work adult community) posted a nasty letter they received from Nintendo demanding they remove a member's page on their site because the member listed Metroid and Zelda as their favorite video games." Update: 10/28 02:49 GMT by Z : BoingBoing has an update to the story (probably where the reader saw it in the first place), saying the law firm that represents Nintendo Seattle is looking into it.
And that made sort of mis... wait, girls? BOOBIES!!!! This may be the first Slashdot article I ever follow the links on.
I wonder how many members they "lost" over the incident... :)
The friendliest digital photography forums on the net!
This is just fucking rediculous. That is so clearly fair use, yet they still get by. When will the bullshit end? When you TAKE A STAND!
Add Nintendo to the list of people to not buy anything from.
In Soviet russia, only old Koreans profit from pictures of Natalie Portman stored on Beowulf Clusters.
Just how did anyone at Nintendo discover this? A little non-work-safe surfing?
Dude, I think I can see my house from here.
Honestly, companies have become so overprotective of their intellectual property. We can blame a whole host of things, downoading, overzealous lawsuits against consumers that solve nothing, disregard for the work of others, discrepancies betwixt creators and distributors. It's becoming increasingly ridiculous. I have no doubt that this threat will be met head-on and demolished for the sham that it is. Having received such letters in the past, the bark is truly worse than the bite.
It seems to me, that a trademark infringement like creating a new game with Link and Zelda or Samus Arun in it is very obviously a legal event waiting to happen. But simply stating "Hey, I love playing Zelda" ... That can't possibly be an event Nintendo would win in anything other than "We have enough money to out lawyer you into the poor house"
Right?
"Genius may shine aloof and alone, like a star, but goodness is social, and it takes two men and God to make a Brother."
Their membership is gonna increase 1000% once Slashdot geeks get a look at these girls!
(I'm a member and love the site!)
http://suicidegirls.com/members/djblair/
-DJ
Microsoft learned this the hard way thanks to a certain Mike Rowe's Software company.
I am not quite sure what the Nintendo executives think they're doing, but a fraction of a fraction of a fraction of 1% of people would have been offended by a couple of this Suicide Girls' favorite games being "Zelda" and "Mario." And yet, they expect far, far more people to buy their new Nintendo portable system. I was just thinking today about how much I wanted this new system... but this unnecessary anal retentive actions has given me a sour taste in my mouth, if only for its blatant stupidity.
Is Nintendo insane or something? There's nothing wrong with saying you like or dislike something, whether it's a copyrighted/trademarked term or not.
nintendo might have a case against their lawyers for royally wasting their time. like, there are bounds of reasonableness within trademark law and i'm pretty sure (though IANAL) that this is outside it.
OTOH if it was nintendo pushing for this, then their lawyers should be suing them for being enormous morons.
-Leigh
Any publicity Nintendo can get these days is good publicity.
Google daily news feature
Help fight continental drift.
SG has had a bad rep for years over aggressively "protecting" their IP.
Should we all cry foul because a far, far bigger company has decided to pull the same sort of stunt SG has pulled dozens of times?
I think not.
We represent Nintendo of America Inc.( "Nintendo"), the owner of the trademark(s) and/or copyrighted works listed above (the "Nintendo trademark(s)/works"). It has come to our client's attention recently that you are using the Nintendo trademark(s)/works in the hidden text/visible text/meta tags and/or title and/or links of the above-referenced sexually explicit Web site. This use is unauthorized, and we are writing to demand that you immediately cease and desist this infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property rights."
Since when is expressing your views on a webpage or indexing yourself in a search engine a violation of intellectual property law?
Nintendo just made themselves look like a bunch of litigous assholes. I am, however, curious as to why they'd do such a stupid thing.
Candy-Coated Knowledge
The lawsuit is absurd.
But this is not the first time this happened to "fringe" websites. Take a look at Rotten.coms legal battles of the same nature .
This is not a troll either, the legal page is without the macabre images.
Yes! I listen to NYC Speedcore and do math at 3AM. I suggest you try it too.
Slashdotting a site just as...
wait, nevermind.
Dealing with lawyers would be a lot less tedious if they all looked like Casey Novak.
Wonder if they're worried about the posting being found by kids looking for Zelda/Metroid cheats and tips.
I'm sure GTA would welcome the endorsement, but I can see Nintendo being uncomfortable when their audience is for a younger more innocent crowd.
--
Brandon Petersen
Get Firefox!
I'm currently reading guide to dumbest events in television history by David Hofstede and there's an excellent chapter on how NBC tried to sue David Letterman after his "defection" to CBS claiming that there is intellectual property owned by NBC in Letterman's "Stupid Pet Tricks". After a lot of ridicule and mockery, even from their very own Jay Leno, NBC finally backed off. I wish Nintendo could be at least that smart...
This is the first time I've heard of a company complaining about free advertising.
BTW. My favorite video games are also ummm.. "Melda" and er... "Zetroid".
But it isn't a problem when playboy uses (nude) nintendo characters?
The Yasashii Syndicate ||
Wow..looks like slashdot is preparing to crush suicidegirls out of existence. :-)
Although...all the horny slashdot geeks signing up for the service might out weigh the cost of a server meltdown
> From: Stop IP Infringement
3 80354/ :ceh
> Date: October 27, 2004 10:12:06 AM PDT
> To: "'spooky@suicidegirls.com'"
> Subject: Infringement of Nintendo Intellectual Property Rights
> October 26, 2004
>
> VIA EMAIL ONLY
>
> Administrator: spooky@suicidegirls.com
>
> Re: http:/www/suicidegirls.com/members/RuneLateralus/
>
> Infringement of Nintendo Intellectual Property Rights
> IDENTIFIED PROBLEM: Pornographic Web site uses Nintendo in link,
> text, source code, Zelda and Metroid in text
>
> Greetings:
>
> We represent Nintendo of America Inc. ("Nintendo"), the owner of the
> trademark(s) and/or copyrighted works listed above (the "Nintendo
> trademark(s)/works"). It has come to our client's attention recently
> that you are using the Nintendo trademark(s)/works in the hidden
> text/visible text/meta tags and/or title and/or links of the
> above-referenced sexually explicit Web site. This use is
> unauthorized, and we are writing to demand that you immediately cease
> and desist this infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property
> rights.
>
> Nintendo has acquired substantial rights in the Nintendo
> trademark(s)/works. Nintendo's customers--including many children and
> their parents--have come to identify the Nintendo trademark(s)/works
> with the high quality of Nintendo products. Your unauthorized use of
> the Nintendo trademark(s)/works will tarnish Nintendo's reputation.
>
> This infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property rights can
> subject you to sanctions under applicable federal and state laws.
> Accordingly, you must immediately cease and desist from any and all
> use of (1) the Nintendo trademark(s)/works, (2) any other Nintendo
> trademark(s)/works, and (3) any mark which is confusingly similar to a
> Nintendo trademark. This includes, but is not limited to, your
> infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property as explained above.
>
> I look forward to your immediate confirmation that you have taken the
> necessary steps to resolve this matter. To that end, you may contact
> me at either 2063596742 or StopInfringement@perkinscoie.com.
>
> Sincerely,
>
>
> Melissa Morgan Nelson
> Perkins Coie LLP
> 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4800
> Seattle, WA 98101-3099
> http://www.perkinscoie.com
>
>
>
> cc: Nintendo of America Inc.
>
> ISP: peter.luttrell@3jane.com
>
> File: 51.13
>
> NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential
> information. If you have received it in error, please advise the
> sender by
> reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments
> without
> copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you.
^^
Bagsie Al. I saw her first. Maybe a little mad, but hey, why change the habit of a lifetime?
Get your own free personal location tracker
The email came from StopInfringement@PerkinsCoie.com.
Does that look like the email address a multinational corporation would use? Nintendo's sure to have their own in-house lawyers for stuff like this. It just looks to me like some random law firm is looking for suits to file and then hoping Nintendo will pay them for the favor. I'm sure I heard something about laws in certain European countries making this common practice.
What if one responds to Nintendo with a letter in big letters that just says "Up Yours" or something? I don't see how something like this could make it into court. I'd probably just file something like this in the trash.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Thanks for the post.
So my read is that Nintendo is concerned that some kid will find this off of Google or something and mistake it for an official Ninetedo site? I highly doubt that.
IMHO there is no trademark infringement here. A member is stating a preference, not using the names to draw traffic or defraud anyone.
-KS
At Nintendo:
[Boss walks into a worker's cubicle...]
-Hi anderson, I was just.. whhaa?!? Are you browsing porn in the workplace?
-Uhh no, you see, [looks at screen, sweating all over] these pervert weirdoes are abusing our company's copyright!
-You're right! Launch every lawyer! For great justice!
stuff at Spencers for things that came out fifteen years ago=good. Naked goth girls who still live in the 80's=bad. Making new games where it's one long reference to what a Japanese programmer had to do with the limited hardware they had in the 80's = good. And naked goth girl's still celebrating it fifteen years later = bad. This probably all came about because little 8 year old Timmy was searching for "mario nintendo" and came across SGs. Parents blame Nintendo who have no control over the situation... etc...
Are we even talking about IP, here?
What gives Nintendo the right to censor the mere mention of something? They weren't discussing any secrets of IP or using the namesakes or images illegally... their member simply named two games as their favorite.
How is it even conceivable that they should be allowed to do this??
"PC Load Letter? What the $@#% does that mean?!"
Doing a quick search does yield Nintendo as part of their client list, this may just be over zealousness on the part of the law firm or even just a lonely bored employee and not something Nintendo directed them to do. We have seen law firms in the past do this kind of stuff without the IP owner directing them to so do(or at least that's what they tell us).
Then again it could just be some jerk who spoofed an email to get everyone's dander up.
ACCESS RESTRICTED
WARNING NOTICE
You have attempted to access a site that has been deemed inappropriate for our business and blocked from ALL internal access. A record of this request has been logged and will be provided to Business Security upon request.
For further information on why this web site was blocked, please go to the SmartFilter website.
PLEASE REFRAIN FROM ANY FURTHER ATTEMPTS!
If you feel this message was generated in error or if there is a business justification for unblocking a specific URL , please contact the
AT&T Wireless Business Security Group.
"The Legend of Zelda...: is the basis of their IP.
It would be like them trying to bully people into not using the name "Jim" because you own the copyright to "Earthworm Jim".
They *might* have a leg to stand on when it comes to Metroid. But there is no fucking way they can force someone to stop using a normal first name on their site.
LK
"Hi. This is my friend, Jack Shit, and you don't know him." - Lord Kano
Nintendo's customers--including many children and their parents--have come to identify the Nintendo trademark(s)/works with the high quality of Nintendo products. Your unauthorized use of the Nintendo trademark(s)/works will tarnish Nintendo's reputation.
Tarnish it how? Because the children are trolling the SG message boards? Because Hey, when I think Metroid, I automatically associate her with a SG pin-up girl? (Well, I do have a thing for chicks with ink, but I digress)
Yet another example of why a seemingly huge majority of lawyers contribute absolutely nothing to society. I honestly don't see this diluting the Nintendo trademark at all. What, I can't even mention a word associated with a Nintendo product in certain environments? This is akin to Nintendo saying that "If you are in a strip club, you can't talk to your buddies about Mario Kart."
Nevermind why you would be talking about Mario in nudie bar.
If this article confuses you, don't worry. It was posted yesterday in a much clearer fashion.
Let's see if they'll send me a letter: Hey Nintendo! Zelda and Metorid love to get naked and oiled up and have sex with linux goth sluts all day long!! Black fishnets, fuck yeah!!!
For example, I can say "Nintendo games are a load of crap". I can't say "This new game I have written is a Nintendo game."
As long as I don't cause a consumer to mistakenly think something is a Nintendo, which isn't, I'm safe.
There is no concept of 'fair use' in trademarks as anyone is allowed to use a trademark, as long as they don't misrepresent it. Fair us is a copyright thing.
At least that is my understanding.
You can of course read more about trademark law here, but the real question is precisely what laws that Nintendo feels the SuicideGirls are violating?
Infringing use of trademarks can only occur when the mark of the infringer creates a likelihood of confusion in the mind of the purchaser, as the result of the use of an identical or similar mark in connection with its goods and services. If the purveyors of the website sold Nintendo branded sex-toys, they would have a case, but I think the idea that the mere mention of Metroid in a page on your website creates any such confusion would be a serious stretch of all credibility.
There is much pleasure to be gained in useless knowledge.
Danke.
-William
God is everything science has yet to explain.
> NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential
/.ed. Spiffy.
/.) where some company (actually, Nintendo, I think) sued a porn site because the site was using copyrighted words in Meta-data or just on the page to try and attract younger viewers. Certaintly, you wouldn't want someone to search for something of yours and come up with porn. Actually looking at the page in question, it's rather tame (compared to the rest of the site.) Even so, Nintendo would not want to be affiliated with this.
/., not porn.
> information. If you have received it in error, please advise the
> sender by
> reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments
> without
> copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you.
It's privileged or confidential. So they post it on a bulliten board. And now it's going to get
Have they tried contacting NOA? Just because someone claims to be representing a company doesn't mean that they are. Has the webmaster seen if the representing company ("Perkins Coie LLP") exists? I'm too lazy/hungry/'distracted' to google right now. Doesn't Nintendo have their own massive law section? I would think they wouldn't need to outsource.
The e-mail lists one of the problems as a link to Nintendo. Looking at the given link for *ahem* research purposes, I don't see one. I remember a story from long ago (might not be
In this case, at least to me, Nintendo is in the right- while the girl in question is doing something that would be otherwise harmless, i.e., listing favorite games, in this case it's lined right up with porn. I know I wouldn't want my stuff listed on a porn site (unless I'm certain I can gain from it) Nintendo doesn't like porn to be associated to it's stuff, and as such has the right to ask it to be removed. Technically, they own the copyright, meaning they could sue me or whatever for saying Zelda in this post. But this is
Of course... hmmm... porn.slashdot.com?
Wow - you must live in Soviet Russia.
Nintendo has invested so much time and money in learning and creating your personal preferences, that they own a stake in them. Perhaps not the controlling stake they'd prefer, but a minority stake that has a say in how your preferences are published. You agree to this limited license to your feelings by breaking the shrinkwrap on their games that you play.
--
make install -not war
They can't really be goth, most of the girls on the site are under 200 pounds.
- oZ
// i am here.
How can you reply telling the sender that email they sent to you, "without copying or disclosing the contents"
Hi I got a email from you that you sent in error, but I can't tell you what it said.........
http://www.beersquirrel.com/
Hm. I'm not sure that "decency" is the proper word to use in any context regarding Nintendo. Let's see, "courtesy"? Ah ... no. "consideration", perhaps. Nope, nope, that's not doing it either. Frankly, I'm not sure that's any really positive-sounding word that I can apply here. How about "thoughtfulness." {sigh} no, that's not it either. How about "efficiency"? Hm ... that's better.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
This is obviously a form letter that was sent to hosts of websites that are adult in nature and mention Nintendo properties. While I can understand Nintendo's concern of having their games and corporate image attached to adult content improperly, this shotgun approach shows the risk of generating negative publicity and looking like, well, boobs.
Which isn't? I don't work for Nintendo myself, but I know that I for one like suicide girls. Hot, naked girls with more tattoos than me! What's not to love?
--Forest C. Adcock--
this whole slashdot story, and the comments underneath it, represents the same sort of "infringement"
what bullsh**
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it
That's the whole point of the site, I believe. They're NOT your standard Playboy bunnies with fake perky boobs and blonde hair. They're people that you might actually know, if you lived in the same area.
It pretty much looks like the e-mail was sent by some kind of mass-mailing software, that would look for Z*lda and M*troid references on certain websites and automatically send e-mails to webmasters. I can't believe someone would actually take a look at that page and think "hey, this is tarnishing Nintendo's reputation !"
From: Stop IP Infringement
Next take a peak at the actual To addres:
To: "'spooky@suicidegirls.com'"
The From address isn't from an individual. It certainly makes me think it's a bot. The To address contains the actual recipient address in quotes. I've never seen a MUA automatically use the email address in the double-quoted area. I've seen mass mailers do this before though.
"spooky@suicidegirls.com" is also the administrative contact address for the domain "suicidegirls.com." Their site's help page contains many other contact addresses, yet the one from WHOIS was what they used. It's easy for a bot to harvest an address from WHOIS. It's next to impossible to find the right address on some random website.
In addition to that the form letter notes the ARIN contact address of suicidegirls.com ISP. Again this is easily harvested via WHOIS.
The form letter also makes no attempt to name the site administrator by name or even address the letter to common responsible roles. Instead it repeated the address it harvested from WHOIS.
I say it's a bot, plain and simple. I'd contact a lawyer for some free advice. They'll probably tell you to ignore it. I'd also make sure your ISP also realizes it's a bot and that what your site member is doing is certainly not illegal (not even remotely, even in communist China). That would be my IANAL advice.
What does Nintendo want from this? "My favorite video games are now Playstation games, Nintendo SUCKS, Nintendo players will never see me naked"? Never let lawyers make your business decisions, especially customer relations or PR.
--
make install -not war
Licensing.
(Score: -1, Stupid)
Sorry ... that's a common misconception. "Free speech", in the United States at least, says absolutely zilch about what a private organization can or cannot do to suppress "speech". It only refers to what the government can suppress.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
"It's like millions of voices cried out in unison, and suddenly were silenced -- with a sigh"
in girum imus nocte et consumimur igni
Apparently this is not the first time that lawyers from Perkens Coie have sent meritless cease and decist letters to websites on behalf of Nintendo.
It would be interesting to find out more about thier relationship with Nintendo. It doesn't make any sense that Nintendo would actually want to sue it's fans for promoting their games. Almost seems like some lawyer who is paid on commision and got over eager, expecting that it would never garner Nintendo's or the press's attention.
If Nintendo has a valid claim, then imagine how much Slashdot is screwed. Daily we offer our commentaries about products and "IP" we do or do not like. We review books and games and criticize them to death, each person being a member of the Slashdot community. (And lets be honest, posting naked user photos for karma is the next logical step for Slashdot).
If Nintendo is able to win this and violate what I think are freedom of speech and press, then we're all screwed.
can't sleep. clowns will eat me.
This was similar:
. ph p
"Nintendo still apparently believed that "Pokemon" in Crackerjap's meta tag was so harmful to its business that it had to threaten legal action. Why? Because for some reason, Nintendo thought that Crackerjap.com was a porn site."
http://www.rightwingnews.com/special/crackerjap
Uh, you just used the word N*ntendo on the front page... N*ntendo might sue you for using their company name on Slashdot, as you're associating their good image with our wonderful trolling community!
I doubt Nintendo would sink to that level. Someone mentioned the letter didn't originate from nintendo.com, but some random law firm. This sounds like a scam to get money out of them, though maybe nintendo has outsourced their legal work and is getting this as a reward.
SAILING MISHAP
Of course with me, Mattel learned their lesson, as they didn't say a word about Mattelabuse.com or BarbieSLAPP.com.
But, they didn't learn their lesson before they were ordered to pay $1.8 million to a photographer that they sued for using the Barbie image.
Fight Spammers!
Pr0n sites place unrelated keywords in their html code to increase traffic from search engines. This is IP infringement without question, it dilutes the trademark, blah, blah, blah... So Nintendo has a company spider "adult" sites looking for their trademarks and mass mail "infringers" with scary legalese. Pretty much the same tactics as the RIAA.
Of course, it's assinine that a company should be allowed to bully or threaten people in this way, and in my opinion, Nintendo should be forced to pay restistution for the false accusation, but hey... I'm not a judge.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
> From: Stop IP Infringement <StopInfringement@PerkinsCoie.com>3 80354/ :ceh
> Date: October 27, 2004 10:12:06 AM PDT
> To: "'spooky@suicidegirls.com'" <spooky@suicidegirls.com>
> Subject: Infringement of Nintendo Intellectual Property Rights
> October 26, 2004
> VIA EMAIL ONLY
> Administrator: spooky@suicidegirls.com
> Re: http:/www/suicidegirls.com/members/RuneLateralus/
> Infringement of Nintendo Intellectual Property Rights
> IDENTIFIED PROBLEM: Pornographic Web site uses Nintendo in link,
> text, source code, Zelda and Metroid in text
>
> Greetings:
>
> We represent Nintendo of America Inc. ("Nintendo"), the owner of the
> trademark(s) and/or copyrighted works listed above (the "Nintendo
> trademark(s)/works"). It has come to our client's attention recently
> that you are using the Nintendo trademark(s)/works in the hidden
> text/visible text/meta tags and/or title and/or links of the
> above-referenced sexually explicit Web site. This use is
> unauthorized, and we are writing to demand that you immediately cease
> and desist this infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property
> rights.
>
> Nintendo has acquired substantial rights in the Nintendo
> trademark(s)/works. Nintendo's customers--including many children and
> their parents--have come to identify the Nintendo trademark(s)/works
> with the high quality of Nintendo products. Your unauthorized use of
> the Nintendo trademark(s)/works will tarnish Nintendo's reputation.
>
> This infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property rights can
> subject you to sanctions under applicable federal and state laws.
> Accordingly, you must immediately cease and desist from any and all
> use of (1) the Nintendo trademark(s)/works, (2) any other Nintendo
> trademark(s)/works, and (3) any mark which is confusingly similar to a
> Nintendo trademark. This includes, but is not limited to, your
> infringement of Nintendo's intellectual property as explained above.
>
> I look forward to your immediate confirmation that you have taken the
> necessary steps to resolve this matter. To that end, you may contact
> me at either 2063596742 or StopInfringement@perkinscoie.com.
>
> Sincerely,
> Melissa Morgan Nelson
> Perkins Coie LLP
> 1201 Third Avenue, Suite 4800
> Seattle, WA 98101-3099
> http://www.perkinscoie.com
>
>
>
> cc: Nintendo of America Inc.
>
> ISP: peter.luttrell@3jane.com
>
> File: 51.13
>
> NOTICE: This communication may contain privileged or other confidential
> information. If you have received it in error, please advise the
> sender by
> reply email and immediately delete the message and any attachments
> without
> copying or disclosing the contents. Thank you.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
I for one welcome our IP infringing, depressed goth overlords
from the sound of it these people are mad becuase they think it's the use of Zelda and whatever that is the issue... that it is not... the issue Nintendo is having is that they are being represinted on a web site that is not moraly pure and Nintendo would like to keep their image clean... Now that being said I don't really know if Nintendo would have a right to remove such content. It's not as if it's a real advertisment or anything.
Give Nintendo some hell. Use their general contact form: http://www.nintendo.com/consumer/webform.jsp ... or send some mail to noalegal@noa.nintendo.com
You mean it raises the question
Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
I attended a booksigning for the new hardcover coffee table book of the Suicide Girls portraits about a month ago at Powell's City of Books in Portland Oregon.
It was different than I thought it would be. The Suicide Girls concept actually is not porn-oriented. The young woman who developed the idea and took the original photos said that she wanted to capture the unique spirit of the women that she knew and hung out with in Southeast Portland. The Suicide Girls concept is about sharing the self-actualization of women in Portland's post-punk subculture. Suicide Girls was developed to be a celbration of attitude of young women rather than specifically providing a visual stimulation for male sexual climax.
The Suicide Girls website is primarily designed to provide a place for other women who share the same lifestyle throughout the world to find each other. It's not intended to be a porn site although it has the secondary effect of invoking male sexual arousal. It does that rather well and that goes a long way to pay the overhead costs, but it is not the site's main purpose.
That's what gives the Suicide Girl photos the ambience that they are mocking male sexuality as opposed to the standard porn approach of manipulating male sexuality for profit.
Many of the original models attended the event since the website started here in Portland and they live here. Talking to them afterwards they seemed just like ordinary people, not porn stars.
As for the 'ownership' of the name, the author said that it just "came from an old song".
Nintendo should just lighten up and forget this nonsense. I suspect that the name probably originated somewhere else because a Japanese Nerd video game giant corporation would not be likely to come up with a name like this. Personally, I suspect that William Burroughs thought it up, and a search of his novels from the 1950s and 1960s would find it as a casual reference.
No, I am not a 'Suicide Girl' myself.
For the love of god and all that's holy, don't do that again!!!
"You cannot simultaneously prevent and prepare for war." -- Albert Einstein
She's posing with old school contollers and the light gun.
And Nintendo didn't catch this!? Funny.
Good thing, I guess, as it's a set I'm fond of.
WAKE UP
Japanese are into virtual-character "mania" games, you know. Expect to see games like this in the US tech fringe soon. http://www1.odn.ne.jp/~adc52520/risukagazou.htm
an unwanted endorsement is not an intellectual property violation.
$8.95/mo web hosting
They are? I rather liked them. Beauty is in the eye of the beholder. Thank you for sharing your opinoin though.
That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
go out register like 400 domains and just put up an image of myself naked with just a caption that says "Hi my name is Robert and I like Zelda!"
oh wait my GF just volunteered to pose for the pic, so ummm forget the part about me naked.
Oh wait.
"why don't you just slip into something more comfortable...like a coma!"
That's an actual lawfirm. If you actually go to their "list of clients" page (http://perkinscoie.com/about/clients.cfm) it clearly lists Nintendo of America. It's legit.
It's not stupid. It's advanced.
Is there any evidence that this is true?
OK, someone claims to be a law firm claiming to represent Nintendo. Clearly not a violation of the law. Oh, and the law firm is sending, um, Email. That's kind of weak, isn't it? Not even on a letterhead?
This story sounds very much like a way to generate web site traffic of Slashdot proportions.
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. v. Welles 279 F.3d 796 C.A.9 (Cal.),2002
In this case Welles was a former Playmate of the Year. She put that on her website. Playboy sued to force her to take it off (the phrase, not her clothes again!).
The court held that since it was true that Welles was indeed a Playmate of the Year, there is no trademark infringement for her to say it.
This is analogous to our case. It's simple a fact that one of those two-bit goth whores likes certain Nintendo games. The two-bit goth whore saying it clearly is not an infringement.
This is analogous to our case. It's simple a fact that one of those two-bit goth whores likes certain Nintendo games. The two-bit goth whore saying it clearly is not an infringment.
If someone says he and his monkey have nothing to hide, they almost certainly do.
Unless you're an employee or agent of SG, it's not really any of your business to interfere.
"Named one of Fortune(R) magazine's '100 best companies to work for' 2004" - http://perkinscoie.com/
that people will be threatened for saying that they *like* a product!
WTF?
Time to move the Vogon constructor fleet into place, wipe this one out and start again.
In the free world the media isn't government run; the government is media run.
No big deal about the porn link. I aleady had an erection from reading that article about the Bush campaign site being blocked from outside the US.
"VIA EMAIL ONLY" - http://suicidegirls.com/boards/The+Site/55715/ (link potentially sexually explicit - don't go there if I wonder what would happen if you receive legal communication via email only and you never check your email.
Doesn't act like they're used to the volume they're getting now.
That which is done from love exists beyond good and evil
I work for one an Intellectual Property firm (IANAL), so I wanted to share some insight into how things like this come about.
/. troll.
Most IP firms have 'Investigators' on staff...think of them like P.I.s, but with a legal background, who prefer using Google to walking anywhere. Their job is to sniff out when people are using any of the IP of their clients in a manner that would tarnish the client's image or take one cent out of the client's pocket.
These people sit at their desks all day searching for "Nintendo" + "Sex", and "Metroid" + "XXX"...I'd bet their search patterns are quite similar to that of an average
When they get a hit, they send a C&D to the ISP, Host or Content creator. I'd say 99% of the time, the site is gone or changed within a couple of days...such is the threat of big-time litigation.
-R
Perkins Coie is one of Seattle's oldest firms, established in 1912. As I mentioned in an early post, they have been doing this sort of thing for Nintendo since at least 2001. Google searches show that several high level employees including a senior vice president, and Head Legal Counsel have had jobs at both companies. I doubt that Nintendo had direct knowledge of this suit, but Perkins Coie is definately working for them.
Strange, I would think they'd have more of a problem with the NES pictures in one of the photo sets.
There are lots of pr0n sites that try to get traffic with misleading meta tags and other embedded text to get hits for unrelated searches.
The cease and desist looks like a form letter. I bet the law firm has somebody running searches for their client's trademarks and firing off the letter to any porn site that shows up in the results. They would not bother to read carefully to find out that this porn site has a public members profile page singing Nintendo's praises.
Comment removed based on user account deletion
Fees
There's a fair overlap between the tastes of at least a certain subset of geeks and a certain subset of goths (or sort-of-goth) in terms of music, books, tv shows, and so on - they probably bump into each other at Buffy conventions and the like :) Both groups tend to have a dislike of the mainstream subculture - they may well have both suffered through high school.
And finally, goth girls seem to often be quite intelligent and worldly, and they seem to appreciate somebody they can have a decent conversation with. Most geek guys, if they can get over their shyness, can do that.
Anyway, that's my 2c...
Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from a rigged demo
--Andy Finkel (J. Klass?)
A lot of posters seem to think there's no basis for the email -- some even said it was frivolous -- but there is a very good legal basis for it: it's called trademark dilution (see subsection (c) of the linked section 1125)). It's one of the more questionable additions to trademark law, but it's not new (though relatively young). Essentially, an owner of a famous trademark can sue people who make commercial use of the mark for tarnishing the mark (like sullying the "good name") or impairing the connection between the owner's product and the mark it represents (called "blurring").
Here, the argument would be that Zelda, etc. are famous marks, that suicidegirls's use of the mark is a commercial use, and that associating a site like suicidegirls with the marks dilutes the marks (n.b. Nintendo is particularly strongly associated with children's games, more than Playstation or Xbox).
Certainly there are arguments to be made on the other side (e.g., not a famous mark, not a commercial use, there's no actual dilution, etc.), but there's no doubt there's a good legal basis for the cease & desist.
and hereis the attourney that sent the letter... though, and I'm surprised no one else has done this, I question if it's real or not.
Last I heard you can do a review or a paraphrase legally, so regardless of their 'moral view point', they are out of luck.
Id also recommend boycotting Nintendo for imposing their arbitrary values on others..
---- Booth was a patriot ----
and they usually stink.
I hope they file a complaint with the state bar association. Sending out letters with groundless threats may be marginally legal, but I would consider it unethical and unprofessional conduct.
Mea navis aericumbens anguillis abundat
...they clearly state nintendo is a client.
doesn't get any more obvious than that.
Automated harassment is no less intimidating than personally-signed harassment. In fact, it is perhaps *more* stifling.
Microsoft is to software what Budweiser is to beer.
You know, since the page in question has someone stating an opinion or preference about Nintendo products, said law firm and Nintendo could potentially be in trouble if the Suicide Girls website is based in a state with anti-SLAPP laws, like California...
Seriously, trademark law does not forbid you from commenting on the merits or lack thereof of a product, no matter how offensive the venue is to the trademark owner. Lawyer doesn't have a case, and will know it if their bot gets a live response and some live person actually has to check what they were sending letters about. IANAL, but I've heard that when meritless C&D letters are returned with the respect the deserve, the sharks go somewhere else--unless, of course, the lawyer is one of those net.kooks who files lawsuits for the fun of it. However, real law firms working for real clients don't push unwinnable cases past a C&D letter--there's no percentage in it.
---dragoness
Any company who pulls this garbage and files a junk lawsuit like this should be penalized.
The penalty should include total permanent disbandment of their company, and fines high enough to put their entire board of directors in the poor house.
While you may say that is extreme, perhaps it would get their attention and prevent stupid garbage like this as the risk would be too great.
---- Booth was a patriot ----
What everyone seems to be missing when they go "WTF?" is WTF actually went wrong. Try reading the actual letter instead of browsing the boobs. It's simple:
1. Nintendo has a policy of promoting their family image.
2. As such, they have a policy of sending cease and desist letters to porn sites who refer to their trademarks because they don't want to be associated in any way with porn.
3. SuicideGirls is a porn site.
4. Without actually checking the content of the site (beyond its "porn" label) and the context of the trademarks' appearance on the site, they send a form-letter cease and desist.
5. They look stupid.
Probably no-one at Nintendo actually knows that they've sent this letter. It was likely generated by web-crawling software, pulled out of a database query into a form letter, and sent to SuicideGirls email automatically.
This is completely normal and reasonable policy. However, since their trademarks are not be exploited for porn-profit and are used in a context where free speech would be protected, they're out of line. However:
1. This is not a copyright infringement, and so Fair Use doesn't apply.
2. The comany's obligation to vigorously defend their trademark does apply, but so tenuously that any court will probably throw it out if Nintendo itself don't realise the inappropriateness of this letter before then.
So there you go. That's WTF.
-- "Perhaps the truth is less interesting than the facts?" -Amy Weiss, RIAA
BUT DO NOT GIVE THE URL TO ANYONE ELSE THAN THE LAWYERS!!!
Send "Stop IP Infringement <StopInfringement@PerkinsCoie.com>" an e-mail telling them about your web page, and carefully monitor the access log to see when it is accessed, and to see if you are sent a nastygram, or your ISP is.
Better yet, make sure that ONLY THE PERKINS-COIE people can see your page by checking their IP address (they are from 63.79.33.0 to 63.79.33.63), and NOT the ISP or anyone else by putting the following PHP code that makes sure that no one else can see the page:
This way, the lawyers will be the only one seeing the page, and whenever they will complain about it, they will look like a bunch of complete morons...
But it's a GOOD porn site. I subscribed to the site for a while, and downloaded every picture they had (gotta love my porn spider). No men, no dildos, no penetration. The lesbian stuff is all pretty tame, too. This isn't a dark alley porn shop that kidnaps girls and stuffs them full of twenty cocks. There are almost as many female subscibers as male. That alone speaks volumes about the moral content of the site owners. Slashdot is merely helping provide them with some extra traffic (thus subscriptions) so they'll have a better chance in the upcoming legal battle.
Dear Nintendo,
It has come to our attention that one of our users has used the name of your company on his page. Since your company is often associated with videogames for children, it damages our site's reputation by suggesting that we are a childish adult site and don't have enough hardcore material to satisfy every visitor's darkest fetish fantasies.
I guess that Nintendo has simply delegated the fighting of IP infrigment to the advocates office that is involved. And on 'bad day' where they had no 'real infrigments' to persue they simply started googling and so they found the website in question and thought it might be a great victim, and so they could write a few additional hour for finding and pursuing them. So my guess is that Nintendo is just a victim of the fact that they hired a malcious advocate company. But I doubt if they will stop doing business with them because in my opionion all lawyers are only intrested in writing time in blocks of 6 minutes.
As a Nintendo stock holder, I do have an interest in this. Why is my money being used for this waste and not going after people trading BitTorrent images of Nintendo games? Those people cost the company (and therefore me) money! Why aren't our legal resources being used to combat that threat?
I wonder how Nintendo came across that site and that member's page. Makes me wonder...
Of course, one look at her picture will unearth the real reason for her going after SuicideGirls. She's Unattractive, dowdy, downright ugly even! ie: She's jealous. Ugly girls always hate the pretty ones.
I find your ideas intriguing and I wish to subscribe to your newsletter.
Well, I haven't read any subject titles that caught my attention from the nerd community here. Folks, this is CHEAP advertising! Don't you get it? Nintendo, SuicideGirls, and the ANONYMOUS person are all basically members of the same marketing team. Nintendo's and SuicideGirls' hits have been boosted SO much from this little pseudo-scandal. Any 'oh yeah's, partners? :)
Now I know I maybe jaded but I have noticed that the subject website advertises on slashdot a lot.
Could this action not be some sort of publicity stunt either by a slashdot editor or suicide girls? Hmmmmmm.
I notice several above posters even questioned the validity of the source of the "threatening" message.
I think any grown up, and specially a techie, will understand that this is most likely related to a poorly written automatic content-verification system rather than an actual intent to shut down the site. :)
/. to sink deep below water level. :p
/. reader, I could really do well w/o having to read this kind of stupid stuff. At least post it elsewhere other than on the mainpage.
If you actually take time to read the letter, you'll see the matter can most likely be solved in a civilized manner. But no... someone had to make an issue out of this and... post it as news on Slashdot? Oh please... c'mon. Please please don't become just another sensationalist media, ok?
IMHO, it really seems obvious that it's a misunderstanding. If it's not, then it's just a stupidity, and should be ignored as such, not brought into the limelight as "news". Geesh, there's no need for
As
Just my opinion, for what it's worth - no harm intended.
"I don't mind God, it's his fan club I can't stand!" E8
Wait till they get a load of this misuse of poor Mario's ass!
NSFW http://www.goatse.org/ NSFW
It goes without saying that this link is NSFW, but I'll say it anyway. Warning, the above link features a 3d rendered cartoon Mario(TM) spreading his asscheeks like the goatse man.
How many people thought "IP" in the title meant "Internet Protocol" raise your hands.
"I might have made a tactical error in not going to a physician for 20 years." -- Warren Zevon
If Nintendo was trying to stir up loyalty and direct web traffic to Suicide Girls, then this plan was f'ing brilliant. If it was for any other reason, they're on crack.
There isn't a win for Nintendo anywhere in here I can see. It's possible the law firm is under contract to provide the service and did this without Nintendo's direct knowledge. But if Nintendo bought off on this...crack.
That's our life, the big wheel of shit. - The Fat Man, Blue Tango Salvage
What's this? Miyamoto checking out SuicideGirls user profiles - whats the old man up to?
I've noticed a paid advertisement link to Suicide Girls site on the front page of Slashdot for a couple of weeks now. How "coincidental" that they now get a story posted on the main page of Slashdot. And a lame fucking story it is. SG gets a C&D via email for mentioning Nintendo trademarks. Whoopdee-Fucking-Doo. Man the battlestations. Calling all nerds with a credit card. Save SuicideGirls.
Nothing to see here. Move along.
No one is this stupid. This has to be some sort of joke. But history shows us that teams of over paid lawyers, can pull some really stupid laws out of their own ass. I've read the letter but I still don't believe it.
--- hows it taste mother f$#@er!!!
Nor would they have one against playboy.
But they know that playboy can afford good lawyers...
Apparently they (Nintendo) think that the folks running the SG site will be scared enough of litigation (and the associated costs) to just remove the link and be done with it.
Buy Steampunk Clothing Online!
Send this reply back to them:
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now we need to go OSS in diesel cars
Wow, what a load of crap! The boilerplate letter makes it extremely clear that all they did was Google for their copyrighted names and sent emails to anyone who used them.
I hope someone stands up and fights Nintendo over this sort of bullying! Mentioning that a couple of video games are your favorites is in no way, shape, or form, copyright infringement. For crying out loud, think of the geek boys who might go out and buy Zelda or whatever just because this person from suicidegirls likes them.
Anyone seen my clue-by-four?
I was going to comment about the yummy punk-rock girls, but everyone is calling them "goth".
Bah. Humbug.
The site says they paid $1.8 million, compensating his legal fees. I wonder how much, if any, he personally saw.
... $1.8 million in legal fees?
Can you even imagine
Making $250 an hour by most standards seems pretty extreme.. And if everybody involved was making that that'd be 7200 man hours to prove that putting a barbie in a blender is free speech. What's up with that?
That'd be a seriously overpaid 10 man legal team working 10 hours a day for almost 3 months straight.
Man.. why didn't I become a lawyer?
For the love of bees, can the lameness filter block posts with very little content other than the phrases "begs the question" and "raises the question"?
While you're at it, posts that have "virii"/"viruses" or "Americans"/"USAians" in close proximity contribute very little to the discussion.w I think we all know the distinction in each pair, and we would prefer to write the popular usage instead of the correct one.
I'm against what's happening here, and I doubt they have a legal leg to stand on, but consider what's happening around the web.
It's likely that Nintendo pays these lawyers to look around for their trademark being used to promote pornographic sites. Consider the case of John Zuccarini, who was using domain name typos (like 15 variations of "cartoonnetwork.com) to lure children to porn sites. He got a commission for each "click", although the clicks were cauased by pop-up hell. He brought in around $1,000,000 in his last year of business.
It doesn't take more than a couple of minutes on Google to find someone using Nintendo's trademark to get search engine hits to their porn site. I often hit such sites while searching for information on other famous trademarks. Here's a site which uses "linux" as one of the search keywords, and it has nothing to do with Linux.
Anyway, overzealous lawyers, yes, but they do have a legitimate job.
Do you have ESP?
Is this not just going to google bomb Suicide girls and nintendo together? If I remember correctly google also counts sites linking to them using the worlds right? If so theres going to be alot of news stories linking to both sites.... oh how fun
I like muppets.
According to this post on BoingBoing, Nintendo's law firm knows nothing about the letter.
Three cheers for mass culture. One, two, poo.
Both groups tend to have a dislike of the mainstream subculture - they may well have both suffered through high school.
Yeah, whatever. I'm not about to mutilate my penis over it. Nor will I use pictures like that of myself and others to make a slimy buck.
Suicidegirls is sad the same way punks demanding money for photographs in London is pathetic. If it's recorded, it's static and dead. Culture is to be lived not ogled.
Friends don't help friends install M$ junk.
than you slashdot losers have fucked socks. DEAL.
If you mod me down, I shall become more powerful than you can possibly imagine.
OK, so all the slashdotters are getting hung up over whether or not SuicideGirls is "porn", and missing the whole point of why the links were posted. It is exactly the same case, as if you had posted that you liked Metroid and Zelda in your blog for Chrissakes and Nintendo wanted to sue you.
I went to this suicide girls site, looked for keywords on Nintendo, Zelda, Metroid...
I found that one of the girl was called Zelda, so I click on her... an ugly bitch appears and then I was like... damn, now I know why they sue.
This is just more ludicrous barratry from the IP lawyers. Best thing to do is point out that usage is not infringing, and that if they continue to harrass, you will sue for barratry and get damages and get them disbarred.
IANAL, yea.
Once again, the First Amendment is mis-cited.
The First Amendment prevents the government from censoring you so far as your speech is not blocking someone else's rights. It has NOTHING TO DO WITH PRIVATE GROUPS. It's all about preventing the GOVERNMENT from messing with your rights, not freakin' Slashdot.
I see miscitations of the First Amendment on Slashdot over and over. It doesn't fucking matter. If Slashdot wanted to censor Suicide Girls from their ad rotation, it wouldn't be a violation of the First Amendment. I'm so tired of people misunderstanding what the First Amendment means.
Is everyone absolutely sure this letter is indeed from Perkins Coie? SG didn't show any headers, but I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find it came from somewhere else; real lawyers send warnings of this sort via certified mail or FedEx.
It reads like a cart00ney to me (cart00neys are the term of art in the anti-spam community for the squeaky-voiced legal threats ill advised spammers occasionally send out), so I'd be surprised a tech-savvy firm like PC emailed this hunk-o-junk with no paper support.
Francois.
I hat to respond to my own post, but I forgot...ALl you people who say even the mention of a site that has breasts on it is immoral. Get off slashdot. We have no need for you. If I ran this place, I'd throw you out, and place a pox on your family. Really. One time I had a party and someone thought that the artistic photograph of a woman whose women whose breasts were bare 'exploited women'. I threw her out on the spot, told her she was never welcome in my house or any party I had control of, and that she should fuck off. She talked a storm, but didn't try to re-enter. Her coat followed her onto the sidewalk. People looked shocked, but later lots of people were telling me how funny it was.
Don't tell me what's porn or not, in my house. I wish the slashdot editors would do the same, and delete your account.
There's already a perfectly serviceable phrase that means 'raises the question', why on earth would you want to substitute a cool and useful phrase like 'begs the question' as just another variant of the boring pedestrian one?
If I take 'begs the question' to mean 'raises the question' then what would you suggest I use to mean 'begs the question'?
sic transit gloria mundi
I just wanna know... How did Nintendo personal find out that particular page? And how the use of a simple name can damage them. If I said "Zelda, Metroid AND Nintendo sucks" (hoping no Nintendo Corporatives are reading this) what can they do if that's what i think? If what they want is money they should sell them to Microsoft when they (MS) wanted to buy they (N); insted of demanding for such silly things
I read it as GIF. Just say no to GIF pornography! I think I still have dithering burnt into my retinas from 1995!
fish and pipes
Then you should definitely write to the President of Nintendo, or the directors. Complaining to an independent contractor doesn't do much good; it's like if Nintendo outsourced console construction (don't know if I do or not, but bear with me), and you didn't like something in how they were manufacturing. You wouldn't contact the OEM directly; they can't just change things based on your input. You instead contact the executives of the company--THEY'RE the ones that, as stockholder, you've appointed to make the decision of which OEM to use.
Attack one of the slashdot sponsors like that!
Did they pay extra for the story links?
- Adam L. Beberg - The Cosm Project - http://www.mithral.com/
Nintendo is known for their generally cartoonish games for the whole family. What probably happened was some poor kid search for something like "zelda hints" on Google and stumbled upon SG. Maybe his mother walked by when he opened it and flipped out, sending Nintendo a nasty letter not knowing anything about the situation other than her underage son had pornography on the screen.
It's sort of lame Nintendo wants them to remove it, but if this is the case it's certainly understandable that Nintendo is at least asking for it to be removed; they want to remain the "fun for all ages" company.
wtf?
awesome sig, man.
GENERATION 26: The first time you see this, copy it into your sig on any forum and add 1 to the generation.
Mattel has a reputation for writing blank checks to attorneys who treat litigation as war. One of the common tactics that Mattel uses is to kill forests and try to bury opponents on the resulting paper.
That is why Barbi Leigh surrender her prior domain BarbieFlasher.com. In the Miler case, they spent over a year litigating it, and even made the one of lawyers in the case want to quit law -- because the tactics of Mattel and it's attorneys.
Fight Spammers!
Apparently you are unaware that Suicide Girls performs live shows at night club venues. Still canned and false (which the site and all the members are), but dynamic and alive.
"I've got to stop masturbating! It makes me too lazy! Stop it, Albert. Stop it." -- Albert Einstein
How many times has Sean (the straight male who started and runs the site, while pretending that it's a queer-friendly, woman run enterprise) from Suicidegirls crudely exploited Slashdot for free advertising? This is a pattern that has been happening time and time again, and it's ridiculous that the moderators here haven't realized it.
Suicidegirls is not a DIY, woman-run project. "Missy" is their PR point-person, who gives a progressive, friendly face to an otherwise pretty sleazy operation. The site is actually owned and run by a guy named Sean Suhl (public knowledge, not saying anything new here), who is not exactly the most progressive guy on the planet. His politics are solidly right-wing (although he's a neo-conservative, who are more libertarian when it comes to sex... as long as someone can make money from it). Dozens of models have quit or been kicked off the site, many of whom were basically removed for being too "opinionated".
Ultimately, Suicidegirls is the Hot Topic of alternative porn. They took an underground, DIY concept, polished it, and presented it slick and packaged back to the community that created it. You can read more about it in the SGirls community on Livejournal:
http://www.livejournal.com/users/sgirls
As a disclaimer, I'm not anti-porn. I'm a big fan of any porn that is sincere, DIY, and woman-oriented. There's a whole slew of sites, some of whom have been around longer than SG, such as FatalBeauty, ManicJane, VegPorn, along with DIY erotica zines such as State of Nature.
SG is not DIY, they don't challenge patriarchal standards of beauty, and they don't give a crap about the women who pose for the site. This attempt by Sean for cheap publicity is yet another example of the only thing SG really does well: Marketing.
That is just "computer" geeks. There is still hundreds of scientific disiplines that are left to those of us interested enough to pursue them, ever see a person say, "I'm going to geologize that bitch!". Thought not.
An Education is the Font of All Liberty
Now, now... Pirating flowers, THAT'S original!
Anagram("United States of America") == "Dine out, taste a Mac, fries"
I wonder if anyone could somehow build a game cartridge that runs a basic web server and has a couple of io ports on the back of the cartridge? Then you could run a porn site -on- a nintendo.
Or just gut it and replace the parts with the mini itx boards (as seen a few weeks ago).. Then its not technically running -on- a nintendo, but oh well..
I say, run the porn site on the nintendo and reference every game possible by making all member account names be required to be either a game name or a character name.
If it's in black and white it's art, if it's in colour it's porn.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
I just rummaged around the site a bit... Apparently it's just a collection of nude pics of mostly goth and punk females ? As far as I can tell no intercourse whatsoever... how is that porn ? Erotica, yes, but it's not porn.. You anal retentive bible thumping prudes really need to lighten up..
My assumption is that this is a form of geurilla marketing. Basically, Nintendo discovered that Hot Goth Girls like their games, and they wanted to publicize that fact. They did so spectacularly well, not only does the whole Suicide Girl community know this, all of Slashdot does too now.
I'm not sure whether or not Nintendo is legally in the right, but I feel they actually have a very good position. Nintendo wants to protect it's child friendly attitude Ala Disney, and if a little kid is bumbling along looking for a Zelda game background for his computer and SHAZAM suicide girls comes up... that could be bad for Nintendo's image.
Huh, around where I live, there's really not much difference between the black metal and goth crowds. The scene's so small, exclusivity's kinda stupid. If we didn't go to each other's parties and clubs, they'd all go bankrupt.
I vaguely knew Varg, he used to hang around int he same RPG/Gamer crowd though I don't claim to have more'n prolly bumped into him at some of the local events. Funny thing though, he was one of those BonJovi poodle rockers in high school - guess he had an adverse reaction to singing in the choir. Yeah, I know, completely off topic. Anyway - the blackmetallers around these parts don't think much of Varg at all.
the clue is in the phrase our clients ...its obviously a form letter from their lawers and has cost them approx. zero to send .... and cost nintendo $500 in fees
Yes, I'm if you will a Nintendo anti-fanboy. I want to see them die a horrible death, or at least go away for ever.
I hope the PSP finally puts these fuckers out of their retarded misery. Better yet, I hope MS gets into the handheld market and puts as much money behind it as they put behind the XBox. Heck, I'd even preorder some 20 MS handhelds.
They've been using every single strong-arm tactic they thought they could get away with.
They threatened emu makers. They threaten sites for merely mentioning their games.
They broke trade laws in Europe and actually _planned_ that they'll get fined, but probably will make more money than the fine. (Much to their surprise, the EU had a much nastier bite than they had planned.)
When they were still the number 1 console, they imposed all sorts of surrealistic restrictions on the game devs. Just because they're the big N, and you're just a worthless peon begging to make a game for their console.
And generally, I dunno, they just fucking act like they whole fucking Earth revolves around them. They're the Alpha and the Omega, they're The Big N, God's bless to gamers, and so on.
At a time when the N64 was having a grand total of some 3 genres for it, and about 2 games per whole fucking year (at least in Europe, anyway), Nintendo was shooting its mouth off to the press about how they're great and have all the games they need. See, it's Sony who'll go bankrupt for having hundreds of games on their consoles. You just wait and see. All those stray developpers will come begging back to Nintendo.
No, literally.
Not only idiotic, but a downright slap in the face to all of us whose N64 was catching dust for lack of games.
And so on.
And I don't know... I wish they just ate shit and died already. All this corporate narcisism is making me sick already.
A polar bear is a cartesian bear after a coordinate transform.
"To beg the question" can be used as a transitive or intransitive verb.
Transitively, it's raising the question (that follows as the direct object).
Intransitively, it's committing the logical falacy.
Great-grandparent was transitive.
FP.
Also FatPhil on SoylentNews, id 863
Can a fellow /.'er lend me their password?
... if they've seen the girl posing with the NES control pads?
I believe it's a "alternative to worldwide media beauty" erotic site. Many girls there are exhibitionists who do the pictures for their own pleasure - and, wow, can earn some bucks also! - and the site members are men and women who like this alternative-beauty fetish. There's a bunch of sites like Suicide Girls around, like Nakkid Nerds and RaverPorn/EroticBPM. Also, it looks like geek guys tend to like these alternative beauties rather than the default ones. And, as a geek-non-default-girl who likes geek guys, I've never had any problems to find men who like me - and, no, I'm not goth, although I always wear black and have my hair dyed in bright red and do like some goth rock and... wait, this topic was supposed to be about Nintendo... Well, so, my IMHO, Nintendo is crazy and I'll not buy a Gamecube anymore. :P
or the Microsoft. That one drives me crazy.
I have 3656.9 Bogomips. How many Bogomips do you have?
If they keep hitting speed bumps, they may slow down.
Fight Spammers!
Yes, I often take direction from anonymous cowards.
Then from the referenced articles:
Update (5/28/03): The information in this journal is outdated and no longer reflects the state of Slashcode; this journal remains as a historical record but is no longer accurate.
Apparently you don't either.
hey, as I read this post, I am actually listening to the Tool album Lateralus. I must be so connected to that girl!
trying to read the topic for the eleventh time,
but i get stuck at girl number 52.
Yummie!
"Watch Zelda get Fsck'd by Metroid!" Eek. I hope you're talking about Samus too. Now I have scary images of Princess Zelda having sex with metroids (the icky blob things). I hope you're happy.
"What is Internet Explorer 7? Are you saying we can't access the normal internet?" - I love tech support. Really.
Sorry, but I'm actually considering signing up for this site. In fact, even my gf was thinking of signing up (she's straight, BTW).
Why, not because of the pictures, but because it looks like a really cool community. The girls are confident and expressive. The journals are - for many of them - quite interesting. They even have some interviews with various famous personalities (Danny Glover recently).
I've seen lots of porn sites with similar picture content and greater volumel, but for me - while I might browse the pics from time to time - I'd probably spend more time actually getting to know the members and chatting on the boards.
It is incredible that among the expected literati that might be expected to visit Slashdot, such opinions on sex can exist!
Research tantra and learn about the cleansing and revitalizing power of sex. And no, it's not about the positions in which you can manage to fsck but about the mental presence you maintain during fscking.
Dedicate yourself to your partner(s) during physical loving. Maintain an awareness of the pleasure and emotions being shared within the moment. Be conscious during the act!
On a more materialistic level and to repeat a common phrase, "It's all good." Discussions about the value of pornography, positions, sexual acts, etc. are pointless unless your consiousness and awareness are increased.
Tantra, It's not just a breakfast cereal anymore!
This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
Consider this following bit of logic.
Now consider the current state of our country in which sex is treated as a taboo subject. One to be joked about at the water cooler and snickered at by children. "Hahahaah...she said 'sex'!"
Pornography? Harvesting porn of the 'net is a hobby of mine, so I feel qualified to comment on the subject.
Quality adult movies are rare. The majority consisting of low-budget scenes recorded in cheap studios with mechanical actors.
What I treasure are the jewels, the "diamonds in the rough", that occasionally appear piles of slag which I collect. I do not even watch most of what I download (but I do save it, "just in case") and instead burn it directly to DVD.
Sex is good and if you don't like porn -- Don't watch it. But do not prevent another citizen of this country from enjoying their goatse.cx.
This post encoded with ROT26. If you can read it, you've violated the DMCA. Handcuffs please, sergeant.
uh, hello?...
......>>>1984 ......>>>1985
R
H
C......>>>1987
P......>>>1989
Go to chuch, my brotha!
"Creativity is allowing ones self to make mistakes. Art is knowing which ones to keep" - Scott Adams
The whole "intellectual property" concept, as it is understood and practiced nowadays in the western world is bogus.
Had to be said.
I am sure I'll get yelled at for repeating the explanation again, but both (unrelated) meanings of 'aiteisthai' - 'beg' and 'assume' would be transitive in this case, it's just that the more confusing one was chosen when translating the phrase.
sic transit gloria mundi
I called "bullshit" on it for about 9 months for the same reason you do now. There are boobs, they charge money - you can't get a more simplistic definition of porn than "Boobs For Profit".
My girlfriend is still a member - not a model, mind you, but a paying member, and has been for over a year now. I finally gave in and tried to see her point of view on what I considered a run-of-the-mill women-objectifying porn site. This girl considers herself a feminist, and swears that she feels like SG is a site which allows women to be open and artistic and just be themselves without holding back. There is a new generation of feminists out there right now that aren't the bra-burners of the 60's. These women believe they shouldn't have to dress like a man to get equal respect - they want to be sexy and respected.
That's kind of the premise behind SG I think. These women basically say, "Hey, I'm going to show you my tits, not because you are paying for it and you are telling me to, but because I'm strong and I love myself and I love my body".
So my GF is a member, and I don't get on her case about it any more. It's a place where she can talk to other women, and sure there are jackasses on there, but there are always going to be jackasses. It's the internet. And SG has a lot of other aspects to it that I personally like - most of all their interviews - they interview some really interesting people (http://suicidegirls.com/words/).
Anyway, I thought Nintendo was ready to break out of their strictly younger market and try to appeal to a mature crowd once in a while? Why spend all kinds of time and money in advertising trying to get Metroid and Zelda to be household names, and then try to restrict what people can actually write those words?
Well, for one, someone at Nintendo has been looking up hot chicks on the internet and going through their homepages. Two, I don't see how its going to tarnish Nintendo's image if the comment is on a site like this. The only people that are going to read the comments from this person are people who go to these kinds of sites (read: PEOPLE WHO LIKE THIS STUFF), so I find it hard to believe that they are going to get upset at a mention of a video game.
You create your own reality - Leave mine to me.
A post with an attempt to fix the mistake. (Read Seans post at the bottom of the page.)
what would you suggest I use to mean 'begs the question'?
"is begging the question". You wouldn't use the perfect in the popular phrase, but in the logical sense, it becomes a predicate nominative (this argument = begging the question).
Or simply "is a circular argument"/"is circular reasoning". Solves the problem of people not knowing the correct meaning, and since "beg" means "ask"/"request" in normal usage, "beg the question" gives a mental image more like the popular than the logical usage. Even "is a fallacy: it begs the question" is fine, since it clarifies the context.
why on earth would you want to substitute a cool and useful phrase [for] the boring pedestrian one?
Are you being sarcastic? If you're not, then I'll point out that your sentence (in my opinion) makes more sense as sarcasm.
Either way, I see nothing wrong with "beg the question" having its meaning determined from context. Gramatically, the popular usage needs an appositive to clarify what question is being begged; the logical usage simply refers to a general "the question". And the actual meaning of the sentence should make it clear.
Imagine that, the website is also a whore.
In Soviet America the banks rob you!
Just trying to make a joke. Young women exposing their bodies to the world is the moral and right thing to do, unlike pushing drugs on children.
i'd say it doesn't take too long on google to find porn *regardless of the search topic*
"Evil will always triumph because good is dumb." -- Dark Helmet
Again according to BoingBoing, Nintendo has apologized to both suicidegirls.com and the member whose profile had the text in question, and has offered both the site and the member a free system and game.
So I suppose the only thing left to add is... how can I start one of these internet ruckuses, so I can get free stuff?
The issue has made the Friday Penny Arcade strip. See http://www.penny-arcade.com/view.php3?date=2004-10 -29.
ACs are modded -6. I don't read you, I don't mod you, I don't see you. Don't like it? Don't be a coward.
Uhh... isn't this not a troll because slashdot clearly shows that each link points to a site with "hentai" in the name? I mean, click on those, I've got a feeling you know what you are getting.
http://www.boingboing.net/2004/10/28/nintendo_apol ogizes_.html
Guess somebody was a bit too quick on the "Threaten Lawsuit" button at the firm.
Too bad 70-80% of the people on this site are cheapskates who really only use linux because it's free.
Actually, they wouldn't have a case for either. I'm at work so I can't visit that site (not even going to try). But if the usage is "I like Metroid" then it's a form of review. Nintendo can't send a cease and desist for a commercial magazine that reviews their released game (pre-release contracts are different). Well, they can, but they'll be laughed out of court.
That's why Nintendo is "settling" and bribing the site, because the higher lawyers looked at the situation and publicity and say "we're in trouble".
I don't read AC A human right
How does the saying go? "Even bad publicity is good publicity" If I read the article correctly, Nintendo was pissed because a user had posted those on their private user page, as their favorite videogames. What I want to know is how Nintendo found out? Was the CEO doing his regular cruise of the SG website when he stumbled across the users page? Or did the user have links to those games posted in the profile? Regardless of how they found out, how many games were sold as a result of that? How many hits does the SG site recieve that is pushing those games FREE OF CHARGE for Nintendo?
Grow up people. A quote saying my fave games are: "blah" and "blah", is not grounds for a lawsuit. Had they posted sourcecode yeah I could see, had they been pushing pirated copies ok I can get with that, but a user profile, grow up. I just lost respect for Nintendo. Don't forget who is your target group guys. It isn't children. It's the pockets of the these kids parents you are looking to get into.
I am Bennett Haselton! I am Bennett Haselton!
did you make from this ad in /.??
anyways it was good change from all the geekiness!!
Geeks come in many stripes. Check out Dragon*Con in Atlanta and their new Gothic Journeys programming track for confirmation.
At D*C 2004 acoustic Goth musician, artist, writer and filmmaker Voltaire mistakenly claimed that Goth was NOT really a 'geek thing'. The other members of the panel, and most of the audience immediately disagreed and Voltaire (who has an EP of Star Trek parody songs, btw) immediately conceded the point.
-------- In Soviet Russia, "Soviet Russia" sigs hate Slashdot.
It should be poitned out that some clear-thinking individuals at NOA caught wind of what their legal zealots were up to, and issued an apology to the folks at SG. After the Rare fiasco, NOA knows better than anyone the ins and outs of what REALLY counts as IP.
Someone should update the original story.
-- There are two kinds of motorcycles. 1: German. 2: Crap.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
They're trying to protect children from finding about this explicit (and therefore crappy) Web site via a search engine.
1-Crawl 2-Cnfg 3-ATF 4-Exit ?
They apologised.
Just coz of the bad press though?
Well, since everyone appears to be more concerned with the girls than the actual story, let me give my attempt at explaining the logic behind that nastigramm.
:)
It often happens that porn sites, especially the dirtier and spammier ones use popular keywords in an attempt to boost their popularity in search engines. You probably saw one or two examples. Sometimes they would go as far as to use words like "Nintendo" or "Zelda" in a semi-futile attempt to attract the gaming fan via an accidental link on Google. Obviously, Nintendo is pissed off when it happens (you would be pissed off too if a search for your full name would bring irrelevant porn search results), so they devised a clever strategy.
They used a robot or a database that located sites belonging to two sets simultaneously - the set of pornographic sites (possibly from some filtering database) and the set of sites with Nintendo brandnames (accessed via Google API, own web-crawling, or something). The software then sends a nastygram to the site admin, informing about the problem. Since most pornographic sites have no reason to mention Nintendo and its products, this strategy doesn't produce many false positives (especially, when there is a certain threshold, such as at least 2 brands or something) and so it was decided to automate the process.
Then of course, it went wrong. But please understand, first, that there was no malicious intent, second, that Nintendo lawyers were quick to fix it by apologizing and offering a free Gamecube to Suicide Girls and the poster who mentioned the brands, and third, that lawyers are not paid to harass the innocent people, it is being done automatically by computers we all know and love.
Thanks for tuning in.
Future Wiki -- If you don't think about the future, you cannot have one.