What is the Entertainment Software Association and why do they have the right to request the removal of ROMs of games they had seemingly nothing to do with (eg. Super Smash Bros. Melee) from the internet?
In: Technology
They’re a lobbyist/marketing group that represents the political, legal, and economic interests of video game developers and publishers.
Nintendo specifically is hyper-sensitive about anything they consider piracy-adjacent so it would be very on-brand for them to issue copyright takedowns of their properties either directly or through the ESA as a proxy.
More generally, part of US trademark/copyright law puts a burden on the company to seek out and enforce it. The government itself doesn’t spend any effort hunting down copyright violations, so the publishers themselves form organizations like the ESA to do that.
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