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Nokia N900: Nintendo investigate emulator copyright

Nokia N900: Nintendo investigate emulator copyright

By: Alan Ng | November 27, 2009 | 4 Comments

It has been reported that Nintendo are looking into the possibility of copyright infringement over the use of emulators running Nintendo games on recent mobile phones.

Of course, the phone we’re talking about is the new Nokia N900, which is linux based and can run games from the likes of the GameBoy Advance, SNES and MegaDrive.

As reported from Tech Radar, Nokia even bigged up the capability of emulators on the N900 in a recent video which you can check out below if you are yet to see it.

Tricky issue this emulator business, this could be the start of something nasty between Nokia and Nintendo. Let us know your thoughts on this.

Video is below.

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  • JEL

    Nokia management are totally retarded!

    They completely botched the launch of the N900 (I’ve ranted on this site previously).

    THEN they decide to show the N900 running software within a grey legal area!

    You can usually write emulator software legally – which is fine.
    However, the firmware is intellectual property you cannot include this without express permission from the copyright holder. An emulator is pretty useless with it!

    As far as I am aware Nintendo have NOT given ANY permission to use thier copyright firmware to ANYONE.

    THEN Nokia show the emulator running a computer game – again intellectual property – for christ’s sake how stupid.

    Nintendo can now start a lengthy legal battle and possibly a “cease and desist” order and stop sale of the N900 (if they really pushed for it?) or request some kind of safeguard installed in the N900 that would prevent the emulator to run – not to mention the demand for financial compensation (a more likely option).

    Well done Nokia “Management” you have just increased the cost of developing your product and reduced the profits you eill make from it’s sale.

    Depending how this develops over time, sales could be lost to business(big) users – they may use an alternative because the N900 has “questionable” liability.

    Stupid, stupid, stupid!

  • Rick

    Valid points were made by the last comment but I think they’re looking into damage control right now. Their best bet will be for them to collaborate with Nintendo and present to them a percentage or point-system of compensation for every emulator sold/downloaded. This will open up many doors for Nokia in the States and globally. If Nokia re-calibrate their marketing efforts then this ugly situation may turn into something beneficial but acting quickly is the key.

  • natas

    Really this depends on just what Nokia have done. if its a shameless rip of the coding used to make the emulator then yes Nintendo have a valid case BUT (couldn’t get to see video would not play) regards firmware that’s impossible for Nokia to use as the chip-set and cpu the firmware was written for (Nintendo platforms)do not match the N900′s hardware so even if they did steal the firmware it just wouldn’t work on the n900. Again if they have stolen algorithms from the firmware and written code to match the same results then maybe they could end-up in trouble but that’s so hard to prove.
    In essence providing its not just a simple rewrite of the original Nintendo code phrased to work with the new chip-set Nokia are more than entitled to produce an emulator after all its an emulator not a clone
    regarding the game unless the game has been licensed exclusively to Nintendo again Nokia are free to seek a lic for use on there platform and sell the ‘new’ version.

  • http://thestuffiread.blogspot.com Jourdan Cameron

    Nokia has done nothing wrong, emulators are perfectly legal. Unless they’re selling/bundling the phone with a pirated BIOS/ROMs, they’re in the clear.
    And Nintendo has always been extremely anti-emulation, and attempts to put it in the worse possible light.