There's no games company quite as litigious as Nintendo. Whether the company is quashing another Metroid 2 remake, shutting down Pokemon Uranium, or even pushing Sony to remove Mario games from Dreams, it seems there's no fan project Nintendo won't kill. The question, put to us by commenter OneBridgeeeBoo, is, why? Why does Nintendo work so hard to take down unauthorised fan works, when other companies such as Sega and Valve actively encourage similar projects? Understandably, the company has been hesitant to give a concrete explanation for this unpopular policy, considering that these takedowns generate bad press for Nintendo, for the most part, they simply prefer to shift attention away from what their lawyers are doing to shut down fan works. The only Nintendo boss willing to speak frankly about fan works and litigation was Satoru Awata, in a shareholder meeting in 2010, he was specifically asked about Nintendo's policy regarding fan works. According to Satoru, Nintendo struggles to know how far to go in attacking fan works. Of course, we cannot say that we give tacit approval to any and all the activities which threaten our intellectual properties, but, on the other hand, it would not be appropriate if we treated people who did something based on affection for Nintendo, as criminals. We cannot say okay to any and all such activities, and, at the same time, it is not feasible for us to immediately respond to each small issue of this nature every time. From Satoru's comment, it seems that there's some debate within Nintendo about what kind of fan works they should allow. They want to encourage a certain amount of fan affection. Only works that threaten Nintendo are deemed worth pursuing. But then, based on the company's lengthy history of litigation, they consider an awful lot of fan projects to be a threat. Sometimes it's not hard to see Nintendo's logic. Another Metroid 2 remake was famously taken down the year before Nintendo announced their own version of the game. Metroid, Samus Returns, Ditto, Fullscreen Mario, a fan game that involved a custom level builder, which was killed just months before Nintendo unveiled Super Mario Maker. It seems as if Nintendo will often allow smaller fan works to fly under the radar, unless they clash with an upcoming project. Nintendo is unwilling to let free games serve as competition, and, as such, will search out and target all similar fan games to help clear the way for their official alternatives. It's also worth noting that American copyright law makes it very easy for Nintendo to do this. The company is not above taking people to court if they think it's worth their time, such as suing Jacob and Christian Matthias over their ROM piracy websites. The casual fans, though, there's an easier solution. Satoruata spoke about not wanting to treat Nintendo fans as criminals. The Digital Millennium Copyright Act, or DMCA, makes it easy for the company to threaten fan creators without having to actually deal with a court case. The DMCA allows companies to issue takedown notices to anyone who uses the internet to share unlicensed copies of their work. It also allows companies to work with hosting sites and internet service providers to remove content if the intended recipient of a DMCA takedown notice is unwilling to comply. DMCA notices don't need to evolve a trial, and most hosting sites will comply with Nintendo. Thus, Nintendo can issue a takedown notice without having to get their hands dirty, whether or not a fan project is transformative enough to be legally in the clear. Plus, do you want to try and defend yourself against Nintendo's full legal team in court? For most fan creators, there's no real way to fight a DMCA. There is one other criteria that Satoruata said that Nintendo considers when deciding how hard to come down on a fan work. He said, It is true that some expressions are detrimental enough to diminish the dignity of our intellectual properties and others destroy our intellectual property's worldviews by connecting them with something not based on fact. This is tricky, something that diminishes the dignity of Nintendo intellectual property could mean a poor quality game or fan work. It could also mean a parody piece, something which should be protected under fair use under American copyright law. Essentially, Satoruata's remarks boil down to, Nintendo takes down fan works if and when Nintendo feels like it. The problem with this is that Nintendo is not a single homogenous entity. One person within the company may have a different idea to someone else about what constitutes a threat to Mario's dignity. And so, Nintendo continues to come down hard on fan works seemingly at random, allowing some projects to flourish for years before eventually serving them a DMCA notice at the least convenient time. Technically, they're allowed to do this, even if they are overstepping their bounds on some aspects of copyright law in various parts of the world. Besides, for all that Nintendo fans complain, it's not like bad press from takedowns are hurting the company's bottom line. The moral of the story, depressingly, is that if you're rich enough and powerful enough, you can do whatever you want. Yay!