In the least surprising move ever, Nintendo is cracking down on websites that decide to use its name alongside videogame porn.
Videogames and porn have gone together since the dawn of the modern age, but the pairing has been making Nintendo uncomfortable lately. A website that used the Nintendo name in a porn shoot was given a stern warning about using the house of Mario’s properties.
The site in question posted a gallery of a nude woman posing with a Nintendo DSi. The text of the photo gallery made the mistake of actually using the words “Nintendo DSi,” which caused a surveillance company called Cyveillance to jump into action, presumably under Nintendo’s orders.
Cyveillance sent a notice to the website that read: “We are an Internet monitoring agency representing Nintendo of America Inc. (“Nintendo”). We are writing to ask you to stop using the Nintendo properties in the hidden text/visible text/meta tags and/or title and/or links of the above-referenced sexually explicit Web site. Nintendo’s customers include many children and their parents. Unauthorized use of Nintendo trademark(s)/work(s) is harmful to those customers and will tarnish Nintendo’s reputation.”
The woman seen in the photos is understandably up in arms about the situation. I think the company is only trying to prevent innocent internet searches from landing on a pornography website, so in all fairness maybe it’s for the best. Nintendo isn’t requesting that the entire gallery be removed, but just the words referring to Nintendo’s handheld.
By law, the photographed woman claims that Nintendo has no right to ask her to stop using the term “Nintendo DSi.” Alas, going up against Nintendo in court is unlikely to be worth the fight, so Nintendo won the day and the terms appear to have been removed. I’m not for corporate bullying or internet censorship, but still feel that Nintendo is doing the right thing here.
Am I wrong? Should it be up to people’s parents to keep their kids away from porn when they’re searching for information about kid-friendly handhelds? Porn has a way of making it to the top of many internet searches, and I think it’s reasonable for Nintendo to want to keep “Nintendo DSi” safe for work.
Source: GoNintendo
