Nintendo/Pokemon Company International sues 4chan and Discord over Pokemon Sword and Shield leak -

[Arm Pit Cream]

Who Leaked ‘Sword And Shield’ Secrets? Pokémon Lawyers Want To Catch ’Em All

Pokémon lawyers blame four Discord users for leaking Sword and Shied game secrets before launch. They now want Discord and 4Chan to help identify them.

www.forbes.com

Pokemon Wants Subpoeanas on 4Chan and Discord

Source document contributed to DocumentCloud by Thomas Fox-Brewster (Forbes).

www.documentcloud.org

Lawyers for the Pokémon game developer are hunting down unidentified individuals in America who leaked Sword and Shield game information before its release, a new lawsuit has revealed.

Pokémon Company International is particularly peeved at people who posted pictures of previously unseen Pokémon from the Sword and Shield strategy guide on Discord and 4Chan earlier this month. The pictures were also shared on mainstream social social media networks like Facebook, Twitter and Imgur as well as on popular video game sites Polygon and Dot Esports. In total, the developer found 300 Web pages on “dozens of platforms that linked to websites containing the leaked Strategy Guide pictures,” according to the suit.

The Pokémon leaks started on November 1, when a picture of a new Pokémon, Gigantamax Machamp, appeared on Discord. (The Gigantamax versions of Pokémon are given extra power before a battle, a new feature in the Pokémon Sword and Pokémon Shield games). Just 17 minutes later, the image was shared on 4Chan. Ten minutes later it was on Reddit. Another 18 pictures appeared on Discord, a site that started out as a gamers forum but has been abused by a number of criminal types, from child abusers to hackers.

Lawyers from Perkins Coie (a firm previously hired by Google and other tech giants) wrote that the leaks had caused “irreparable injury” to Pokémon and that the company “is entitled to damages in an amount to be proven at trial.”

Pokémon Company International isn’t suing any named individuals as yet, simply naming the defendants as “John/Jane Does” in its suit, posted Friday. It has identified four Discord users, though, after it hired outside forensic experts to hunt down the leakers. One is believed to be the person who supplied the images to the other defendants, who posted or helped post the photos online. However, as it hasn”t been able to identify the people behind the monikers, Pokémon wants to serve subpoenas on Discord and 4chan to get their help in tracking down the leakers. It’s awaiting the court’s decision.

It’s the second time in two months that a major gaming company has taken to court to deal with a leak. In October, Fortnite developers sued an individual alleging he spilled secrets about its upcoming Chapter 2 release.

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I'm sure your strategy guide leak really hurt the sales of your games. Ignore that it's the 2nd biggest opening day for any Pokemon game(only behind sun and moon).

 

[MasterDisaster]

I'm pretty sure anyone with access to something like a guide or a copy of the game signed a non-disclosure agreement. I've worked for companies where if you even pull your phone out on the work floor they'll confiscate it. Nintendo is notorious for going after people fucking with their bread and butter so if someone broke the agreement they signed then yeah, it's in their legal right to pursue them.

 

[Frank D'arbo]

Consequences will never be the same.

 

[inexplicable ethos]

The dangerous hacker known only as "/vp/" strikes again. The leaks can never be stopped. No es fake, es hada.

Is it even illegal to leak photos of a strategy guide? At best that sounds like a civil issue resulting from breach of contract (a Nintendo employee breaking non-disclosure clauses, for example). Unless you're posting the scanned guide in its entirety as a PDF or something, I doubt there's a criminal charge to be found here. And if one person was the source of the leak and gave it to three others who then subsequently spread it, only the original source would even be liable in civil court, no? You aren't losing sales (the only reasonable cause of damages here) because it's just a few photos, which could never constitute a market substitute for the entire guidebook.

Referring to Discord as a "gamers forum" is probably the funniest part of this article.

 

[HeyYou]

I'm sure your strategy guide leak really hurt the sales of your games. Ignore that it's the 2nd biggest opening day for any Pokemon game(only behind sun and moon).

Damn, I thought it was below quite a few of them.

 

[Jewthulhu]

How long does 4chan store IP data? Shouldn't the info they're asking for be long gone by now?

It also amuses me how Discord is apparently the new internet hate machine. Can't wait for the Fox 11 coverage.

 

[Arm Pit Cream]

Documents here, Ninth Circuit lol

I'm pretty sure anyone with access to something like a guide or a copy of the game signed a non-disclosure agreement. I've worked for companies where if you even pull your phone out on the work floor they'll confiscate it. Nintendo is notorious for going after people fucking with their bread and butter so if someone broke the agreement they signed then yeah, it's in their legal right to pursue them.

I'm aware Nintendo is very litigious, I recall the AM2R incident. Not saying Nintendo can't do this, but not sure that social media sites should be giving out IPs addresses over minor leaks. This didn't do damage to Nintendo, but how exactly is 4chan or Discord suppose to stop people from posting leaks?
I don't even know why 4chan is named when the leaks originated on Discord. Yes they had a link to the discord server on 4chan, but I fail to see why anybody needs that posters info.

Damn, I thought it was below quite a few of them.

Sword and Shield sold 6m in a weekend, for comparison Pokemon Diamond and Pearl sold 1.7m, Black and White 2.6m and Sun and Moon sold 10m, ORAS sold 1.3m.
Somehow Pokemon keeps selling.

In fact, there's multiple articles falsely claiming Pokemon sword and shield was the biggest launch for a pokemon game.

 

[A Welsh Cake]

Games shit. God bless Leakchad. Maybe Gamefreak will finally have an internal review.

 

[Clorox Cowboy]

The discord leaker deserves it not only was he stupid enough to have his online name attached to the leaks, but he was also being a dick and posting intentionally shitty blurred images. He's nothing more than an attention whore and I'll have no sympathy if GF rapes his ass.
There was another leaker on /vp/ at the same time who was posting screen shots, dex entries, and other game info, I've noticed Nintendo isn't going after him, probably because he wasn't dumb enough to link up his leaks with an actual account.

Do you think that GameFreak and Nintendo are just upset because of how poorly received SS was? There are leaks every year, but I don't remember them going after anyone in the past.

 

[garakfan69]

I'm going to leak everything about the new game:
It's the same fucking game as the previous twenty Pokemon games.

 

[NerdShamer]

I'd say that the leaks helped improved their sales

 

[Remove Goat]

Another 18 pictures appeared on Discord, a site that started out as a gamers forum but has been abused by a number of criminal types, from child abusers to hackers

Based, I hope Discord gets the identity of being just as "horrible" as 4chan and Reddit

 

[Iriya Asagao]

I'm glad they leaked information about how the shitty the game is.
Otherwise, I would've wasted $60 on a N64 tier game on the switch

 

[Love_Machine011]

Dont get why they are even bothering. It literally did not effect the sales in any noticeable way, and the general consenus on the game is that its another middle of the road installment.

 

[Token Weeaboo]

Dont get why they are even bothering. It literally did not effect the sales in any noticeable way, and the general consenus on the game is that its another middle of the road installment.

because why not grab some more money from someone who dare looks at game files!

 

[Love_Machine011]

because why not grab some more money from someone who dare looks at game files!

they arent suing for money, thats very silly for you to think that. they are sueing to see if it was anyone under nda that leaked it, or a broken street date, in order to stop leaks from happening again.

 

[Token Weeaboo]

they arent suing for money, thats very silly for you to think that. they are sueing to see if it was anyone under nda that leaked it, or a broken street date, in order to stop leaks from happening again.

Oh. I was under the impression it was another greed grab by Nintendo.

 

[Love_Machine011]

Oh. I was under the impression it was another greed grab by Nintendo.

the money they are spending on this probably is greater then 10 times the amount they could milk from the original Indonesian leaker even if they had him work as a serf in the nintendo mines.

 

[Arctic Fox]

However, as it hasn”t been able to identify the people behind the monikers,

 

[Catastrophe-TM]

they arent suing for money, thats very silly for you to think that. they are sueing to see if it was anyone under nda that leaked it, or a broken street date, in order to stop leaks from happening again.

It's also to send a message and scare others into thinking twice before leaking their shit. But I think people should continue leaking more Pokemon until GF actually puts some effort into their games and stops bullshitting their fanbase since that's the hill they want to die on.
I heard that 4Chan doesn't save IPs and thus can't subpoena anything on the leakers that posted there unless someone wants to correct me.