Technology 2 min read

Nintendo Fights Game Piracy With DMCA Complaints at Google

Wachiwit / Shutterstock.com

Wachiwit / Shutterstock.com

Nintendo is well known for its notorious fight against game piracy.

Last 2018, the Japan-based game developer won a $12 million case against pirate ROM site operators. Then in September 2019, Nintendo also won a blocking injunction case against four piracy-enabling websites.

Now, aside from using encrypted client certificates on its Switch consoles to stop gamers from playing pirated games, the gaming giant is also using DMCA to eliminate suspicious listings on Google Search.

The Digital Millenium Copyright Act or DMCA is a copyrights law in the United States that implements two treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO). DMCA criminalizes all forms of copyright infringement, including gaming piracy.

According to reports, Nintendo has been sending DMCA takedown notices to Google, demanding the search giant to remove URLs believed to contain pirated gaming products and services.

Nintendo’s Fight Against Game Piracy

Since November last year, Nintendo’s allegedly been sending Google rare DMCA anti-circumvention notices that contain detailed URLs of websites where piracy-enabling products could be found. The list included the popular software and hardware developer Team Xecuter — Nintendo’s alleged arch-nemesis.

DMCA anti-circumvention notices are difficult to counter, leading Google to remove many of the URLs provided by Nintendo from its indexes. Meaning, if you’re looking for Team Xecuter SX OS and SX Pro products, it will be harder to find related pages or links to them.

A DMCA takedown notice Nintendo sent to Google last December reportedly targeted 91 pages of Team Xecuter’s website. A part of the takedown notice read:

“The SX OS and SX Pro is designed to bypass technological protection measures in the Nintendo Switch video game system and allows users to play unauthorized copies of Nintendo’s video game files that are offered unlawfully via the Internet.”

Aside from the initial 91 pages, Nintendo filed a separate takedown notice for another 65 pages from the Team Xecuter website days after. The game developer is also targeting sites that sell Team Xecuter products.

Nintendo’s action to stop game piracy also benefits other gaming developers like Microsoft, who owns X-Box. Like Switch, X-Box is also a target of Team Xecuter’s products and services.

Read More: What Is Duping And Why Gamers Do It

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Chelle Fuertes

Chelle is the Product Management Lead at INK. She's an experienced SEO professional as well as UX researcher and designer. She enjoys traveling and spending time anywhere near the sea with her family and friends.

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    Steven Johnson February 01 at 1:48 pm GMT

    Nice article, thx https://edgy.app/ !

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