Why Nintendo Is Feuding With Minecraft

Is everybody enjoying that new Super Mario Bros. content on the Wii U version of Minecraft? I bet you want to capture footage of some of your best creations and post them on Youtube, huh? Well, you might want to pump the brakes on that one, as it looks like Nintendo is dishing out some cease and desists tied to that particular game, even though the developers were told it would not be an issue.

The folks at 4J studios are the ones behind getting Minecraft up and running on the Wii U. If you aren't familiar with Nintendo's Youtube practices, we'll give a brief history lesson in just a moment but, for now, all you need to understand is that they've made it very frustrating for people to post videos of games running on Nintendo platforms on sites like Youtube.

As you may remember from last week, a bunch of Mario-themed content dropped on the Wii U version of Minecraft lately, including skins, music and even a pre-made world inspired by many-a Mario game. Naturally, gamers got to building all sorts of neat stuff with all of those new toys and, as is common practice with modern gamers, they've started posting videos of those creations on Youtube.

Now it seems as though some users are receiving orders from Nintendo to take their videos down. That wouldn't be such a surprise if it wasn't for the fact that 4J Studios worked this out with Nintendo beforehand. In short, Minecraft was supposed to be exempt from the Nintendo ban hammer, even when it comes to the Mario content within the game.

4J took to Twitter yesterday to let everyone know that has not been the case, and assured everybody it is being looked into.
 

We're hearing reports of copyright strikes on Super Mario Mash-Up videos. We were assured this wouldn't happen. Following up with Nintendo.

— 4J Studios (@4JStudios) May 19, 2016

So, there you have it. If you've been posting Mario-related Minecraft videos online, it might be a good idea to hold off until 4J Studios works things out with Nintendo.

Way back in 2013, Nintendo ruffled more than a few feathers by becoming a YouTube partner that was not afraid to take advantage of the site's ContentID system. In short, they can track down folks posting videos of Nintendo games and keep them from doing so. Nintendo came up with what it considered a solution: preventing folks from receiving ad revenue from their videos unless they join a Creators program wherein they claim 30 percent of your earnings. Copyright laws and how they pertain to Youtube are a tricky business, and would warrant a whole article's worth of ranting, so we'll just leave it at that and let you folks hash it out in the comments if you feels so inclined.

The point of all of this is that Nintendo apparently told 4J studios that they would not be utilizing these practices when it came to the Mario content in Minecraft, and it looks like someone forgot to tell the guy in charge of sending out the official warnings. Hopefully this will all get worked out soon.