Princess Peach’s fight against porn

Nintendo has a formidable reputation for going after infringers of various types. It does not have a reputation for pursuing pornography studios or developers, but that is exactly what it is doing at the moment.

Nintendo has sent a ‘DMCA’ takedown notice to a South American developer, Ivan Aedler, who has, since 2012, been developing the game ‘Peach’s Untold Tales’. The game is a pornographic parody of Marios Bros., in which Peach has to defend her castle from an invading Bowser – the twist? Everyone is incredibly aroused, and the defence of the castle involves some X-rated game manoeuvres.

Peach’s Untold Tales is hosted on the Github platform, which has now received the complaint concerning copyright in various Marios Bros. characters, as well elements of earlier Mario games.

Parody is usually, and to the annoyance of film and TV studios worldwide, a pretty wide exception to copyright protection. As a result, pornographic parodies of well-known TV shows and films are widely available. On this occasion, however, Nintendo says that fair use exemptions do not apply. We will have to wait and see if the takedown is effective, or if Nintendo will have to take further action to have Aedler’s game removed.

If you have any questions about this or any other IP matter, please get in touch with the team at McDaniels Law on 0191 281 4000, or by email at legal@mcdanielslaw.com.