Nintendo Files Multi-Million Dollar Lawsuit Against Another Large ROM

Nintendo owns some of the most iconic intellectual property in games, and it’s taking a stand against ROM sites. After securing a win against two major ROM distributors, Nintendo has set its sights on another website called RomUniverse. Nintendo has filed a lawsuit against the owner of RomUniverse seeking millions of dollars in damages and demanding that the site shut down.

According to the legal filing, RomUniverse is one of the largest unauthorized distributors of Nintendo games. It also seems to be a particularly brazen enterprise, featuring a Nintendo-themed background and paid memberships (a one-time $30 fee) that allow users to download as much content as they want. Without the membership, you can only download three items per week. RomUniverse also hosts movies and ebooks, and these are direct downloads. At least torrent sites have the advantage of not storing infringing files on their servers.

The company’s lawsuit seeks $2 million in damages for trademark infringement across the site plus $150,000 per infringing file. That’s where the damages would really stack up. There are thousands of Nintendo ROMs on the site. Just the selection of Switch titles would push the damages into the tens of millions. In addition to damages, Nintendo demands that the website operator shut down the site and transfer ownership to Nintendo.

It has been just over a year since Nintendo filed a lawsuit against LoveROMS.com and LoveRETRO.co, both of which were owned Jacob Mathias. By late 2018, Mathias had agreed to a $12 million settlement with Nintendo. The sites temporarily went offline shortly after Nintendo filed suit, and later became apology pages. They are now completely offline. The fact that RomUniverse is still online and serving pirated games suggests the owner won’t be so quick to surrender. We could be looking at a more drawn-out case.

Continue reading

Ryzen 9 5950X and 5900X Review: AMD Unleashes Zen 3 Against Intel’s Last Performance Bastions

AMD continues its onslaught on what was once Intel's undisputed turf.

Qualcomm Revamps Snapdragon 865 Again, Calls It Snapdragon 870

Qualcomm just unveiled a new high-end 800-series ARM processor, and I know what you're thinking. Didn't Qualcomm already announce its 2021 flagship system-on-a-chip (SoC)? It did, but the new Snapdragon 870 will slot in below the flagship Snapdragon 888.

Apple Warns Customers Against Using the iPhone 12 Near a Pacemaker

If you own an Apple iPhone 12 and have a pacemaker or other implanted medical device, you should be careful with how you hold it — but these restrictions apply to more than just the iPhone 12.

IBM Built an AI Capable of Holding Its Own Against Humans in a Debate

IBM's Project Debater isn't sweeping humans off the debate stage just yet, but it's getting better at competing with them.