What do you do if you are unsuccessful at launching your own gaming platform? If you're Nokia, you apparently do the next best (worst?) thing: infringe on the copyrights of those who have been successful.
Such appears to be the case with Nokia and their new N900 smartphone, as a recent Nokia blog post about the device included a video that showed the phone running both Super Mario World and Super Mario Bros. 3, as well as on-screen buttons that appear to launch emulators for various platforms, including the Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Game Boy, and Game Boy Advance. Nokia has since removed the video (wonder why?), but you can view a shot from the video below, clearly showing the N900 running Super Mario World.
The myriad issues here speak for themselves, but even better is the fact that the video tells viewers that "some emulators require separate ROM images to play games," and continues by saying that "most publishers allow individual title usage provided that the user is in possession of the original title."
Nokia is failing in a big way here, going beyond simple copyright infringement (which is bad enough) to being coy with consumers about what is a very gray area in terms of legality and speaking for a whole lot of video game publishers about how they would like their games and intellectual properties to be used.
Copyright infringement, misleading consumers, and speaking for video game publishers, all in one video? Nokia really likes to set that bar high.
Nintendo UK PR Manager Robert Sanders says that the company was previously unaware of this situation, but that their legal team will "examine this [issue] to determine if any infringement has taken place." In other words, Nokia is in some hot water, so stay tuned for some developments in what will likely be in the near future.
Source: Edge
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