Nintendo says Super Mario in-browser game 'illegal'


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A browser-based re-creation of the popular Super Mario Brothers console game has fallen foul of Nintendo's copyright lawyers,The Washington Post has reported.

 

College student Josh Goldberg created the Full Screen Mario site in HTML 5 so people could play the game in a web browser rather than on a games console.

 

But Nintendo has asked him to remove the content saying it infringes its "intellectual property rights".

 

The game is still operational.

 

Mr Goldberg, who admitted he did not get permission from Nintendo to re-create the game, said he began the project in October 2012 as a computer programming exercise.

 

He "didn't care" about copyright issues because he "didn't think it would be a big project", he told the newspaper.

 

But after little initial interest the game is now receiving 300,000 unique visitors a day, Mr Goldberg claims, after Boing Boing's Cory Doctorowblogged about it.

 

Unfortunately for Mr Goldberg, the site's popularity also brought it to the attention of Nintendo's lawyers.

 

"Nintendo's like Disney - it will not tolerate their characters being used on anything," said Keza MacDonald, UK games editor for IGN.com, the video game and entertainment site.

 

"Earlier this year Nintendo stopped people posting footage of their games on YouTube, so this behaviour sounds entirely consistent."

 

At the bottom of the site's home page the site declares: "Mario, Super Mario Brothers, and all associated games and media are property of Nintendo and/or Nintendo of America Inc., and are protected by United States and international copyright, trademark and other intellectual property laws."

 

Super Mario Brothers was copyrighted by Nintendo in 1985, but under US law, corporate copyright lasts for 95 years.

 

 

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24612069

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Seeing these types of projects just reminds me about the possibilities I can implement at work (I work in the training department of a very large corporation and one of the many buzzwords in the training world is and has been "gamification"), then I remember we have to develop for our lowest common denominator, IE 8, and I get that sad, sad feeling I often get when tasked with bringing the latest and greatest technology to our people, yet having to design to outdated browsers.

 

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I did check it out in Chrome though. Amazing coding indeed.

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if they are smart they buy it from him for a (probably not that high) price and use it to their advantage, clearly there is interest in it. Release it as HTML 5 app that brings people back to their childhood with a big fat nintendo logo plastered all over it. Would probably cost less than paying their lawyers and is good marketing. But yeah, corporate logic isn't always my logic I guess.

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if they are smart they buy it from him for a (probably not that high) price and use it to their advantage, clearly there is interest in it. Release it as HTML 5 app that brings people back to their childhood with a big fat nintendo logo plastered all over it. Would probably cost less than paying their lawyers and is good marketing. But yeah, corporate logic isn't always my logic I guess.

 

yeah, that would be cool.

 

and i would live super mario world to be redone to play in browser too.

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He has a donate button.. so he is trying to make a profit (maybe just trying to pay server costs) but the fact there is a donate button doesn't help his cause. surprised he hasn't taken it down. Gonna get sooooed

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The super-wide aspect is the interesting part.

 

Well, the HTML5 bit too.

I suppose, but they should have based it off a less known NES game then it wouldn't have got removed. :)

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I suppose, but they should have based it off a less known NES game then it wouldn't have got removed. :)

and then no one will even notice. the whole point is to show off coding, using the game EVERYONE knows :)

 

 

i hope it will not shut down, so we can see more html5 remakes of classics.

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and then no one will even notice. the whole point is to show off coding, using the game EVERYONE knows :)

 

 

i hope it will not shut down, so we can see more html5 remakes of classics.

HTML5 NES emulator, I'm sure people would notice.

 

Also it probably won't as there are already Java based versions of the game online. :)

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and then no one will even notice. the whole point is to show off coding, using the game EVERYONE knows :)

 

 

i hope it will not shut down, so we can see more html5 remakes of classics.

 

Eh, Capcom released Street Fighter X Mega Man on the PC that a fan created. There are certainly companies out there that are more lenient about these things than Nintendo, and I'm sure something like Ghouls and Ghosts would have garnered the same attention.

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Meh, its still their property.  And if there is anything Nintendo is good at, its reselling their old games on their new systems.  So you can't really say its so old that Nintendo can't make money off it anymore.

 

I'm secretly hoping for Nintendo's hardware business demise so that they will focus on releasing their franchises on other platforms.

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Meh, its still their property.  And if there is anything Nintendo is good at, its reselling their old games on their new systems.  So you can't really say its so old that Nintendo can't make money off it anymore.

 

I'm secretly hoping for Nintendo's hardware business demise so that they will focus on releasing their franchises on other platforms.

 

Never gonna happen. If if the Wii U tanks completely (it won't over the long term), their handhelds sell like hotcakes.

 

But, honestly, it's so trivial to run an NES or SNES emulator on anything that the market probably isn't there.

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Never gonna happen. If if the Wii U tanks completely (it won't over the long term), their handhelds sell like hotcakes.

 

But, honestly, it's so trivial to run an NES or SNES emulator on anything that the market probably isn't there.

Oh, when the jailbreak for iOS 7 comes + the upcoming smartphone controllers, it will be on like Donkey Kong, literally.

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Oh, when the jailbreak for iOS 7 comes + the upcoming smartphone controllers, it will be on like Donkey Kong, literally.

 

Bluetooth controllers with legit support on iOS and Android would be fantastic. Heck, with my Apple TV I could use my phone as a mobile gaming station projected onto any tv.

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