Companies protecting their IP’s from people trying to profit over it is an expected action that companies will take against individuals and companies. Nintendo is one of those companies that aggressively issues takedowns when they see their IP used in unauthorized ways. Recently there was this person who had almost twenty years worth of game items on something called the “Steam Workshop” which definitely looks like it uses Nintendo character likenesses and such while charging a fee for it. So after all these years it would appear they are now being requested legally to take it down.
This generated mixed reactions with one of the interesting thoughts being people feel the company is evil as they are going after some small guy. The rationale It seems is this doesn’t really affect the company overall and actually helps to promote their games even more. So with that people feel they should just leave them alone. This issue was more common in the past I remembered where even people showing simple videos of their games being played were requested for takedown as well on the grounds of copyright.
I always found this topic interesting. How small is too small for a company to take legal action against someone in these cases? Or at the same time, is the value of people constantly spreading your brand in these small ways more beneficial? I still remember that other story where a fan of a singer decided to make some small items with his likeness in which she sold for a few dollars. She then got the wrath of the company’s legal team causing her thousands. When the signer heard about it on the news he quickly tried to fix this saying the firm was meant to only go after people doing these kinds of things on a large scale. Like there, clearly going after a small person is way too much despite the fact that people technically shouldn’t do that.