Nintendo sues websites for distributing ROMs

Nintendo has sued the Loveroms and Loveretro websites for allegedly hosting illegal games. The websites face a multimillion-dollar damage claim.

The lawsuit is pending in Arizona federal court as, according to TorrentFreak, both websites are run by Jacob Mathias and his Arizona-based company Mathias Designs LLC. Nintendo is invoking its copyright in the lawsuit.

In the indictment, Nintendo claims that the Loveroms and Loveretro websites are two of the most infamous online hubs for pirated video games and that they make an astonishing number of Nintendo games available without Nintendo’s approval. In addition, according to Nintendo, the websites host proprietary bios software and use Nintendo logos and characters.

Nintendo is demanding that both websites be closed and that they pay $150,000 in damages per game and $2 million in damages for each trademark used. According to TorrentFreak, this can all add up to as much as $100 million.

Loveroms has since indicated on Facebook that it has removed all Nintendo games from its website. Roms for other platforms, such as those from Sega and Sony, can still be found on the website. Loveretro’s website only shows a message that it is closed for the time being.

It is not the first time that Nintendo has taken action against illegal ROMs and emulators. For example, last year the company took action against the Super Mario 64 Online mod and took YouTube videos with emulated games offline. In 2014, the company took a GameBoy emulator for iOS offline.

Part of Nintendo’s indictment