cool. I’ll just drop this here.
I suppose we shouldn’t make a bunch of these and share them across all platforms.
This is amazing.
Smosh is apparently more of a significant threat to Nintendo than the entire American government
Is there supposed to be a link to some news site?
- IGN: Pokémon Formally Responds to the Department of Homeland Security’s Use of Ash Ketchum and Pokémon Series Theme Tune
- BBC: Pokémon did not give permission for ICE deportation video
They don’t condone it but will likely not challenge it either.
Thank you for posting the links.
“We are aware of a recent video posted by the Department of Homeland Security that includes imagery and language associated with our brand,” The Pokémon Company International said in a statement shared with IGN. “Our company was not involved in the creation or distribution of this content, and permission was not granted for the use of our intellectual property.”
Idk, this doesn’t seem to me like they are saying they don’t condone it. It’s more like a kid in class is caught writing something on the wall and the teacher asks another student what happened and the other student says they saw him do it but but they didn’t help or tell him to do it.
(Sorry for reposting the reply from the other community)
Ok, but isnt it a bit fucked up that ice is using “gotta catch em all” when they are talking about “catching” actual people? Like jesus christ so dehumanizing.
God the US is so fucked.
But if you call them fucking fascist pigs, you’re the one inciting violence.
If I was doing something wrong and could say “no u” to whoever complained, I would too
its just facade finally falling and revealing the rot
Yes, it’s very fucked up.
Beyond fucked. I hate living here so much. Gotta bend the knee for my Billionare overlords I guess.
Hey the dying child won’t challenge them back. They are happy to punch down but why would they risk their god profit by punching up.
In all fairness, a dying child is likely to have a harder time defending their use of Nintendo property. As a backup plan if court stuff isn’t going their way, Nintendo can always stall for time until it’s a moot point.
It’s also always a winning situation. You might lose the lawsuit, but he is still dead in a week. The kid is clearly losing no matter what.
Not that I love Nintendo or Pokemon buy I think you’re spreading shit here. Seems like ICE and DHS are just stealing everyone’s content to make shitty memes.
Unless Nintendo or the Pokemon Company actually says that the the Fascist Regime in the USA is not allowed to used their IP while making racist slop propaganda, then they are allowing it to be made by omission.
Nintendo is an infamously litigious company. If they do not take action against their IP use, it’s a decision they made on purpose.
Palworld over here like
Politicians infringe on IP laws all the time in campaigns, and there are constantly repercussions for doing so. Nintendo could strike back, if they wanted.
All corpos are fascist
Giving them money is funding your enemy
Capitalistic sure, but every corporation is fascist I feel takes away from the term fascist. So long as a company has a board that are elected by their shareholders, they are more of a republic. Fascists try to strip out and do away with elections. Anyone who tries to strip voting rights away from people… like we see attempting to happen in many states, and to decrease women’s access to voting (hopefully never passing through the other half of Congress), then you know it’s a sure sign that they are a fascist group trying to extinguish the democratic part of a republic (therefore just totalitarian)
So long as a company has a board that are elected by their shareholders, they are more of a republic.
You are not quite far enough on your journey of discovery yet.
You will get there.
You are wise indeed, but if you had gone even further on your journey of discovery, you would find that actually you are also wrong and my opinion is even more right. Unfortunately, the proof is too large to fit in this comment, so you will have to struggle in your idiot’s slumber for some time longer until you discover the vital truth that I cannot be bothered to supply even a passing hint of a justification for
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Personally, I’ve been boycotting Nintendo for a while.
Same, I religiously buy every Pokemon game. But I sold my Switch and quit Nintendo altogether. No more Nintendo for me.
Well, that’s not boycotting. Unless you mean you used to buy all their games and don’t anymore.
Maybe you could get away with pirating their games and just using an unlicensed emulator. Or buy their products second hand so that the company is not receiving money. But some people would even find that not a true boycott.
I meant to say I used to buy all games, but as of a few months ago (their entire attitude with Palworld) made me decide to sell my Switch and accessories. For the first time in my life, I won’t buy a Pokemon game.
Hm, not sure if Nintendo is the right target here. Sure, they are popular with a certain crowd, but the argument is not super convincing. Why would a Japanese company that has a global business unnecessarily get involved in American politics? What would there be for them to win? New tariffs? Try to find an American company and shit on them, that might work better. Like Disney, Amazon, Meta, Apple, for example. Apple in particular might be a good target at the moment. Their new products are shit, people hate the direction everything is taking, but still have a deep attachment to the company (weirdest kink ever, if you ask me).
To me, Nintendo here just acts as a big corp doing big corp things. Make as much money as possible and wherever possible, don’t mess with politics. They would be a better target if this were about Japanese politics, although unfortunately nobody cares about politics here and the fascist lot is also on the rise (“Japan first” lmao).
I think it’s the hypocrisy of going after Palworld while being silent in the face of obvious evil.
At a certain point, when a government is objectively and quantifiably evil, its no longer just politics. Have you seen the video in question? I got the song stuck in my head and all I can think of as i hear it is people being sent to literal concentration camps.
The Fascist Regime in the USA is being allowed to use their IP while making racist slop propaganda to make it seem cool or funny while tossing people into concentration camps. Where is the line? If the Israeli government used the same IP assets in a similar way to show off how they are committing genocide and murdering children trying to get food aid, would that then be a step too far?
This is damaging to Nintendo, and if they allow it to continue unchallenged they are complicit and deserve a boycott.
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Does legality equal morality?
Are corporations self running entities or is it people behind the corporations making decisions?
Should we as consumers hold the ppl running the corporations accountable?
Why do executives get to reap the benefits of shitting on consumers but not the consequences?
Imo:
- No
- It’s people, but colloquially refering to a collection of board members making decisions by the company name they make decisions under is fine
- Yes
- They shouldn’t, but they do for various reasons: it takes effort to find out who the specific people we should blame are, and what other companies they’re associated with. It takes willpower for people to change their buying habits. It’s easier (I’m guilty of this too) to moan and carry on than to make real change in our own lives.
What do you think?
I agree. I want to promote discussion on the Nintendo community so ppl can start thinking and make it easier to change their buying habits. These companies don’t care about us they care about our wallets and they’ll fuck us over from here to the moon just to get an extra couple bucks out of us.
Always has been. JPEG
But corporate PR slop got the normies convinced otherwise
It is a class war, but normie don’t want to fight it
That’s a good goal, but unfortunately it’ll be tough to convince people. You’re fighting an uphill battle against people’s nostalgia, and against the things they find comforting, just to get them to not live in denial and to act on something that deep down they definitely already. It’s hard, the world is hard enough as it is and I’m sure you can understand why people who do already know that Nintendo is just a soulless corporation will bury their hands and buy the newest Mario anyway.
Good luck 🫡
I think on number 2, it is not purely colloquial to use the word corporation, this is a legal definition too. There are different laws and regulations for a corporation than for a person. If a person physically prevents another from taking life saving medicine, and that person dies, they might be tried for manslaughter. But if a corporation does it via a policy decision, it’s perfectly legal and is actually a great business decision worthy of investment.
Oh, that’s true, you’re right! Good point.
I was specifically talking in the context of a “what can we do as consumers” discussion rather than anything legal, although there are deffo legal aspects to the meme.
Just because its permissible doesn’t make it proper. Nor does the fact that it’s legal make it ethical.
I’m not fluent in legalese, but won’t this make a precedent ?
None of that shit matters anymore.
What do you mean? It sounds like you’re talking about trademark stuff where if the trademark holder doesn’t defend it they can lose protections associated with it. If so, that’s about trademarks, not copyright. This is copyright infringement. Disturbing the content (copying) without permission (right).
Yes that’s what I meant.
Thanks for clarifying the difference.
No, only if they had been taken to court and found to not be infringing on copyright
Isn’t there some rule where if a company isn’t defending their trademarks from obvious violations, their claim becomes weaker?
Oooh you know what you just helped me realize idk what I’m talking about so thank you for that
You mean the fact that ICE parodied Pokemon cards? I imagine it would fall under “fair use”. Plus, a lawsuit is only useful if a court enforces it. A judge is not going to be awarding massive damages against a government agency over a joke
Pretty sure it’s in response to them using the theme song. Idk if Nintendo even owns the rights to that song outside of using it as the theme for their show though. Still people aren’t super happy with Nintendo going “we didn’t say they could use it but we are not taking it down like we would if it was a fan project.”
I’m 99% sure it falls under fair use. There are a shit ton of social media videos that use songs and show clips from the anime. Virtually every YT channel uses Nintendo music from their games as background music, too. Searching “Pokemon theme song” on youtube shows dozens of results so they’re obviously not taking those down either.
It’s not comparable to them taking down fan-works.
Genuinely asking, as I’m not that versed on copyright, why would fan works not be under fair use as long as it’s not for profit?
why would fan works not be under fair use as long as it’s not for profit?
That’s something that fan-fiction authors cling to, but it’s not accurate. Even if it doesn’t make money it’s still infringement. It just means there’s nothing to go after, so IP owners tend to leave them alone.
I see, thanks! Transformative work copyright is always confusing to me.
Nintendo has issued strikes over a wide variety of youtube content for use of their music, from dedicated fan creators using Legend of Zelda or Super Smash Bros music over Lets Play style videos, reviews, etc, to an entire channel that hosted just Nintendo music (GilvaSunner). 2022 saw over 2200 strikes in just that year.
They are famously protective of their IP, including in situations of fair use..
Edit: Just to mention, the copyright act still applies to the federal government, as well as the state government. This has been in place since 1990. The joke of a supreme court we have now muddied the waters in 2020, but its more about state sovereign immunity in federal court, not about federal agency & copyright.
Yes, claims can be brought, damages can be required, and not any use can be considered fair use. Notably, damaging the brand by negatively impacting market value through the presentation excludes as fair use.
Literally, thank you. This is not the axe to grind with Nintendo. I don’t disagree with their stance here at all—am a lawyer. It’s absolutely fair use and would be a losing lawsuit.
Also, why the FUCK is ANYONE expecting a corporation to fight fascism? If you think that’s a corporation’s role in society, put down the phone and sprint to your local fucking library.
Literally, thank you. This is not the axe to grind with Nintendo. I don’t disagree with their stance here at all—am a lawyer. It’s absolutely fair use and would be a losing lawsuit.
Sorry to lawyer a lawyer, but this isn’t likely a fair use. I’m not going to credential smash because we’re all just dogs on the internet, but I do this kind of thing a lot for my job.
In short:
- a. It’s promotional, where fair use defenses are weakest under the first and fourth fair use factors;
- b. it’s used at best satirically and not as parody, because the target was not to comment on Pokemon but to comment on immigration or ICE’s actions, which is also inherently not reliable a basis for fair use. So the first purpose/transformative use factor is even less in favor of fair use. But even that is a stretch, since the post plays like a recruitment or promotional clip;
- c. the other elements of the four-factor test are objectively against finding fair use here, since (i) the use of the clips and especially music is excessive and not narrowly tailored to any arguable transformative use, and (ii) under the recent realignment of factors in the Supreme Court’s Warhol case, the transformative prong is less important and the (now greater-importance) market harm prong would be strongly against finding fair use, considering how damaging it is for Nintendo/Pokemon to be associated with this.
That’s not even getting into the trademark/dilution arguments, which play out similarly.
Nintendo can do what they want, but it’s a totally fair criticism that they are selectively enforcing their copyrights, and it’s probably because they are scared of stepping into politics. I get it, but I certainly won’t defend it.
Thank you. This isn’t a fair use case. They aren’t making a statement parodying anyone. They aren’t using it to report news, teach, or research anything. I would also think fair use laws would prohibit uses that harm the value of the copyrighted work.
the (now greater-importance) market harm prong would be strongly against finding fair use, considering how damaging it is for Nintendo/Pokemon to be associated with this.
Would you elaborate on how Nintendo has been damaged by having the deportation of immigrants associated with their franchise that teaches children the joys of enslaving wild animals for blood sport?
I’m glad you asked, Horsecook. Well, my take is this:
Pokemon depicts the fictional Pokemon as friends of the protagonist who submit willingly to their control after “capturing” them. It’s in line with humans keeping pet animals in captivity, since they also have no say in the matter but eventually come to depend on the human. The problem of course is the “blood sport,” which is most analogous to dog or cock fighting. That said, this is Nintendo’s kid-friendly fictionalized world, and the depictions in this show no blood or injury, and only that Pokemon get tired and “faint.”
But in the end, and most importantly, Pokemon aren’t real. Whatever is in the Pokemon game does doesn’t violate any animal or human rights, even if Pokemon were depicted as blood-drinking monsters who derived their power from sacrificing cherubic Christian children to Mammon at a blood moon pentagram altar, clad head-to-paw in white robes weeks after Labor Day. I think that’s a vital distinction.
On the other hand, ICE’s social videos are about treating real humans with equal or less respect than animals. It is meant to normalize removing their human rights including procedural and substantive due process, and parading them to viewers as little more than sub-human vermin (a favorite word of Trump and Stephen Miller for those picked up by ICE), and criminals (usually without any legally reliable basis).
So TLDR: Pokemon anthropomorphizes fictional animals and treats them mostly kindly, with debatable exceptions. ICE dehumanizes real people and treats them as subhuman. I think Nintendo has a pretty good argument that (as this is not intentionally parody of Pokemon, but an ICE recruitment ad) that their brand/market is being damaged.
Now the big question is: can this be used as case law against future attempts by Nintendo to stomp on fair use and other parody works?
There’s no case, so there’s no case law.
Only if Nintendo goes after something that could be defended as parody. But they know to choose their battles carefully, they only threaten legal action when they know they can win, and this won’t change those kinds of cases.
They could file a DMCA claim against use of the theme song. Corps have done it to videos before to get them taken down.
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