Nintendo fans have reportedly started to “troll” and spam the company’s UK Twitter account after the Japanese branch blocked a bunch of soundtracks on YouTube earlier this week.
It all kicked off on 8th December, when video game soundtrack archivist and YouTube Channel GilvaSunner revealed (via Twitter) how Nintendo Japan had blocked a second lot of music – including soundtracks for Super Mario 64, Super Mario Kart, Super Smash Bros. for Nintendo 3DS, Mario Kart Wii and The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time.
The original copyright claim was issued in August last year, as can be seen in the tweet below:
Hi all, an update to this. As of a few hours ago, the soundtracks for Super Mario 64, Ocarina of Time and Mario Kart Wii have been blocked in its entirety on YouTube by Nintendo JP. I’ll keep you posted if more claims come in. pic.twitter.com/O6LVSxnm9D— GilvaSunner (@GilvaSunner) December 8, 2020
In response to the latest developments, fans dug up a Nintendo UK tweet from around the same time last year and began spamming it (again) with YouTube’s “video unavailable” notice – highlighting the copyright block by Nintendo:
pic.twitter.com/MVB9RKz41f— Lewtwo (@Lewchube) December 8, 2020
Hmmm pic.twitter.com/S4pB3GwWga— ZackTheHoHoHokage (@BasedZack) December 8, 2020
even though you have the legal right to do this, you are willfully making it so timeless collections of music will be harder to find, and in some cases erased from existence.
same for roms, we both know you arent going to relicense back to the future on NES to resell it ever. pic.twitter.com/riuoynAYks
— 🏴☠️Nasdorachi🏴☠️ (@Nasdorachi) December 8, 2020
i’m a big fan of this one – the ocarina solo bops
(please be a better company, i’m boycotting until you address your ridiculous conduct) pic.twitter.com/rQXuKrGB2S
— t (@urb_brawl) December 8, 2020
This one always fills me with the will to keep going no matter what, even at my lowest points in life. It’s so reassuring knowing that I’ll always be able to listen back to it whenever I need it the most pic.twitter.com/UAAB641MdJ— Lyra Phoenix (@LyraPhoenix) December 9, 2020
This one, because it represent that companies can be nice to his fanbase and let them do fan work to show to love for the franchise pic.twitter.com/30yVBPHhgC— Anarchy intensifies (@inetensifies) December 9, 2020
Nintendo is obviously within its legal rights here, but the same group of fans feel it leaves them with little to no way to listen to their favourite video game music. This latest drama follows on from the company’s decision to C&D The Big House Smash competition and stop the sale of Etika’s Joy-Con.
What are your own thoughts about all of this? Do you think Nintendo should perhaps make its video game music more readily available elsewhere if it’s going to takedown fan uploads? Leave a comment down below.
