Did Nintendo download a Mario ROM and sell it back to us?

Re:Did Nintendo download a Mario ROM and sell it back to us? by mistercow on Friday January 20, 2017 @07:02PM (#13447969)

I generally agree, but then there's the matter of lying about it. Why do that, if they're in the right?

I think the answer is that there are some subtle ways that doing this sends a message they don't want to send. Like, for example, that the illegal emulation community facilitated the existence of Virtual Console. That's a bad message for their point of view, because it legitimizes the idea that ROM sharing serves the archival purpose that some of its proponents claim it serves.

And that's a legitimate point. So what's wrong with what they've done is nuanced, but I think it's definitely there.

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Re:Did Nintendo download a Mario ROM and sell it back to us? by eridius on Friday January 20, 2017 @10:35PM (#13448604)

Maybe they're not lying.

Or, alternatively, maybe a contractor was responsible for this (even the video suggests this explanation), and simply told Nintendo they didn't download the ROM.

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Re:Did Nintendo download a Mario ROM and sell it back to us? by lucideer on Saturday January 21, 2017 @10:43AM (#13450516)

Lying about it makes perfect sense from a reputational perspective. Just because they're right legally, doesn't mean they'll be perceived to be in the right morally by potential customers.

They would profiting from other people's voluntary labour. That fact that labour might have been performed illegally, in violation of Nintendo's intellectual rights, won't detract from that fact for many.

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