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Paper Mario suit turns out paper thin

Publisher says it had the rights to use True Romance music in GameCube commercial spot all along.

Earlier this month, film company Morgan Creek Productions filed suit against Nintendo, alleging that the gaming giant had used a Hans Zimmer song from the score to True Romance in an ad for 2004's Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door without permission. The suit was quickly dropped six days later without explanation.

When asked why the sudden change of heart, a Morgan Creek representative simply told GameSpot "No comment." Nintendo was a little more forthcoming today with a statement that explains the suit's dropping, as well as the production company's reluctance to talk about it. Here's Nintendo's side of the story:

"The lawsuit alleged copyright infringement by Nintendo for its use of the song 'You're So Cool' in a Nintendo GameCube television commercial produced by advertising agency Leo Burnett USA, Inc. In response to the lawsuit, Leo Burnett provided Morgan Creek Productions with a copy of a music license entered into between Leo Burnett USA, on behalf of Nintendo of America and Morgan Creek, for licensing of the song. The lawsuit was dismissed by Morgan Creek Productions the following day."

This is not the first time a company has rushed into a lawsuit against Nintendo only to emerge embarrassed. According to Leonard Herman's gaming history tome "Phoenix: The Fall & Rise of Videogames," in 1982, movie studio Universal claimed that Donkey Kong infringed on its rights to classic movie monkey King Kong. Nintendo fought the claim, pointing out that Universal actually didn't even own the rights to the King Kong name. Nintendo prevailed, and Universal was ordered to pay the game maker's legal fees in that case.

166 Comments

  • salvucci91

    Posted Jul 7, 2008 1:54 am GMT

    sauced

  • SomaticDeath

    Posted Jul 1, 2008 10:56 pm GMT

    nintendo payed to keep them quiet..lol jk

  • Neo_Ike

    Posted Jul 1, 2008 3:27 pm GMT

    hehe, owned8)

  • yourbeliefs

    Posted Jul 1, 2008 11:54 am GMT

    Gamespot: "Why did you suddenly drop the lawsuit?"
    Morgan Creek: "We don't want to talk about it"

    Gamespot: "Why do you think they suddenly dropped the lawsuit?"
    Nintendo: "Oh, maybe because we showed the judge the legal document proving we were right and they were wrong."

  • BlueFlameBat

    Posted Jul 1, 2008 9:53 am GMT

    "In response to the lawsuit, Leo Burnett provided Morgan Creek Productions with a copy of a music license entered into between Leo Burnett USA, on behalf of Nintendo of America and Morgan Creek, for licensing of the song."

    And that's where you lost me.

  • Craig410

    Posted Jul 1, 2008 6:33 am GMT

    lmao nintendo wins again.

  • ps3thabest

    Posted Jun 30, 2008 12:55 pm GMT

    nintendo has power so forget about it they paid the judge i bet

  • Nova_Beetle

    Posted Jun 30, 2008 11:00 am GMT

    Oh god, get off of it. As if Nintendo owes PM's sales to that one song.

  • ShockerX01

    Posted Jun 30, 2008 12:45 am GMT

    Hahahaha, damn idiots hungry for cash.

  • Psyfon

    Posted Jun 29, 2008 7:43 pm GMT

    How about this, be honored if Nintendo want to use your music.

  • hobobski

    Posted Jun 29, 2008 4:28 pm GMT

    You can't beat nintendo.
    they probably own a crack team of lawyers (slaves, duh) and people excelling in legal forgery.
    The big N eats lawsuits for breakfast.

  • PhantomPhoot

    Posted Jun 29, 2008 2:56 pm GMT

    No one ever wins a suit against Nintendo.

  • crszn962015

    Posted Jun 28, 2008 3:12 pm GMT

    why a lawsuit?

  • BangBangBoom

    Posted Jun 28, 2008 1:36 pm GMT

    I love that film. Don't give a damn about law suits though.

  • Ash16

    Posted Jun 28, 2008 12:57 pm GMT

    haha, bunch of losers they are. You can't beat nintendo. They're just looking for a quick buck because Nintendo's so rich.

  • naju890_963

    Posted Jun 28, 2008 9:20 am GMT

    paper mario has exeded the limits of a proper game

  • Chico_Azteca

    Posted Jun 28, 2008 12:12 am GMT

    Iwata: *Laughs*

  • mariokart64fan

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 11:15 pm GMT

    these people are a waste of our time , they should have not filed if they knew they were in the wrong for filing in the first place, also how old is paper mario 2 , lol 6 yrs why wait this long if they wanted to sue so bad, it is not nintendos fault

  • Ospov

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 10:34 pm GMT

    pwnd much?

  • Zarroc96

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 8:30 pm GMT

    Go Nintendo! You rock!

  • starf0x999

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 2:04 pm GMT

    morgan creek sux balls

    nintendo rocks the world

  • SteveTwo

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 12:43 pm GMT

    LOL @ Morgan Creek!

  • Nintendo_Ownes7

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 12:29 pm GMT

    I think Nintendo only lost one case and that was when they sued Gamegenie.

  • mrkame16

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 10:14 am GMT

    Morgan Creek you suck!!!

  • martin9098

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 10:01 am GMT

    good job nintendo

  • Nintendoguy325

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 9:58 am GMT

    Wait, they sued for something that happened years ago?
    And Donkey Kong and King Kong can't possibly be related to eachother in any way that is worthy of a suit.

  • necronaux

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 9:48 am GMT

    Nintendo kicks but. Whoo-hoo. Death to frivolous lawsuits!

  • ChickenHounk911

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 9:21 am GMT

    Dude, this wasn't worth going to court for.... I hope the company paid for Nintendo troubles.... Go Big N!

  • black_ice23

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 7:16 am GMT

    and nintendo says "another one bites the dust"

  • Payback7

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 5:06 am GMT

    Lucky they had that spare 1up Mushroom lying around

    LONG LIVE NINTENDO!! Game hard, live harder!

  • psychoscream007

    Posted Jun 27, 2008 2:38 am GMT

    Suck Nintendo power, Morgan Creek! hahaha I love Paper Mario.

  • BewilderedRonin

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 11:50 pm GMT

    @monty_4256

    "lol to twolsm, the only reason microsoft are around is because of a copyrighting error in apple. windows was made by apple, and stolen by bill gates.
    so it definitely does happen

    as for this guy, he was just owned... idiot course they licensed the song"

    Um, you're 100% wrong. Both Gates and Jobs stole the concept of GUI driven OS from the Xerox PARC labs. Apple didn't come up with it first, nor did they invent it. Nor did they invent the mouse, though they sometime like to claim to.

    There's a great quote from Pirates of Silicon Valley that sums it all up. Gates: "Its sorta like we both have this rich neighbor named Xerox, Steve. You stole the TV but you want to gripe at me for stealing the stereo."

  • Saphire_Kitsune

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 8:44 pm GMT

    Aye, another company goes after Nintendo...and fails! XD I love happy endings. =3

  • yas710yaf

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 8:36 pm GMT

    wow, every1 is so jealous of nintendo they jst wanna get em in trouble

  • panteral3

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 6:27 pm GMT

    Haters should recognize....

    Nintendo Wii-ll prevail!

    Though I am not a Wii fan, nothing wrong with a little respect....

  • StillWingless

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 3:53 pm GMT

    ...does anyone else actually remember this ad? I don't. This case seems like it was dead before it even got off the ground.

  • Zeus-Guy

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 3:49 pm GMT

    Nintendo wins again. I hope after this people will start to think twice before they decide to sue any video game company.

  • Grinder86

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 3:41 pm GMT

    why is everyone after nintendo
    what do they have against nintendo

  • cheerios3d

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 2:02 pm GMT

    Its like everyone is trying to make a quick big buck sucks 2 b u Moorgan, congrats 2 Nintendo

  • Erebus

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 1:52 pm GMT

    Imagine being so filthy rich and so careless with money that you or your company could afford to file suit without regard to validity or merit. I say Cash Paper Shredders all around!

  • superdance14

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 1:31 pm GMT

    This is exactly what happened with Universal and King Kong. Nintendo has really good luck in the courtroom.

  • BigSmitts07

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 12:27 pm GMT

    caught with there pants down

  • Greencrash

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 11:29 am GMT

    Good job Nintendo but Film companies should really get their facts straight before doing things like that

  • Redgarl

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 10:53 am GMT

    I love **** Hollywood...

  • audioslave69

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 10:52 am GMT

    Wow where are all those that said that nintendo should pay???

  • bassy26

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 10:44 am GMT

    At least Nintendo was kind enough to say that the production company made a decisioin based on bad information and had nothing bad to say about it.

  • Jshaw71

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 10:35 am GMT

    if your going to take someone to court, you better get all your facts str8, dosen't matter if your taking your next door neighbor to court, or a video game company...

  • twolegsbad posted Jun 26, 2008 10:25 am GMT (does not meet display criteria. sign in to show)

    twolegsbad

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 10:25 am GMT (hide)

    This puke stinks like beer.

  • mspmario

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 10:23 am GMT

    Nice.

  • Vexx88

    Posted Jun 26, 2008 10:13 am GMT

    Nintenowned is in order.

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