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New Super Mario Bros Wii // Nintendo Vs. Burt

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Artwork For New Super Mario Bros.Wii For Nintendo Wii New Super Mario Bros. Wii  is a  2D side-scrolling   platform video game  developed and published by  Nintendo  for the  Wii .    It is a sequel to  New Super Mario Bros.  for the  Nintendo DS  and a part of the  New Super Mario Bros.  series. It was released in 2009. In November 2009, 24-year-old Australian James Burt purchased a copy of  New Super Mario Bros. Wii  several days before its release, as the store had mistakenly put it up for sale early, and ripped and uploaded the game disk online. Nintendo took down the game and sued Burt shortly afterwards, accusing him of violating copyright laws and depriving Nintendo of potential sales. The case was ultimately settled in January 2010, with Burt receiving a fine of AU$1.5 million as compensation for lost sales, as well as an additional fine of AU$100,000 as a part of Nintendo's legal fine.  The file was downloaded more than 50,000 times over the course of five d

Grand Theft Auto // Strickland Vs. Sony

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Box cover art for Grand Theft Auto: Vice City(2002) Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is an action adventure open world game developed by Rockstar North and published by Rockstar Games released in 2002 for Sony PlayStation 2 and in 2003 for PC. It is the sixth entry in the much acclaimed, popular and controversial Grand Theft Auto series. The game is set in the 1980s Miami esque city known as Vice City featuring the protagonist Tommy Vercetti and his underworld driven adventures. Upon release, the game received critical acclaim, with praise particularly directed at its music, gameplay and open world design. However, the game also generated controversy, with criticism directed at the depiction of violence and racial groups. The game sparked lawsuits and protests while being labelled as violent and explicit.  Vice City  became the best-selling video game of 2002 and has sold over 17.5 million copies. In 2005, attorney Jack Thompson filed a lawsuit against Sony Corporation of Amer

Mary-Kate and Ashley in ACTION! // The Olsen Twins Vs. Acclaim

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Mary-Kate and Ashley: Magical Mystery Mall Mary-Kate Olsen and Ashley Olsen,also known as the Olsen Twins collectively, are fashion designers and former child actresses. These fraternal twins made their acting debut as Michelle Tanner on the television series Full House.  At the age of six, Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen began starring together in TV, film, and video projects, which continued to their teenage years.  Through their company Dualstar , the Olsens joined the ranks of the wealthiest women in the entertainment industry at a young age. Facts: In 2004, twin celebrities Mary-Kate sued video game publisher Acclaim over $177,966.32 in bank royalties  after their company Dualstar Entertainment split from Acclaim a year earlier. Acclaim was to pay back royalties plus "maximum interest" and an additional $300,000 over the cancelation of the title  Mary-Kate and Ashley in ACTION!  for the GameCube, Game Boy Advance, PlayStation 2, and PC in 2003. A letter fro

Mortal Kombat // Wilson Vs. Midway Games

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Mortal Kombat Sub-Zero spine ripping fatality Mortal Kombat was an arcade fighting game developed and published by Midway in 1992 as the first title of the famous Mortal Kombat series. It was ported by Acclaim entertainment to every platform at that time. The game is considered to be one of the most popular game in the fighting genre. However, the game sparked huge controversy regarding the depiction of extreme violence and gore using digitized graphics, resulting in the  introduction of age-specific content descriptor ratings for video games known as ESRB (Entertainment Software Ratings Board). One of the major controversy resulted in a law suite.  In 1997, a 13-year-old boy named Noah Wilson passed away after his best friend stabbed him in the chest with a kitchen knife, severing his aorta. Noah’s mother sued Midway Games, makers of  Mortal Kombat , claiming her son’s best friend was addicted and obsessed with the fighting game and that he believed he was the char

Unlicensed Nintendo Games // Nintendo Vs. Tengen

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Some of the major unlicensed tengen games for Nintendo Entertainment System At the height of the Nintendo Entertainment System’s popularity in the late 1980s, Nintendo had very strict license agreements with third-party developers to only release five games per year, and that these titles would be exclusive to Nintendo for two years. Nintendo argued that this ensured high quality for consumers and they would put the “Official Nintendo Seal of Quality” sticker on each game. Tengen was a video game publisher that was created by Atari Games, Its main focus was on computer and console games. When  Nintendo designed the 10NES lock out system to prevent unauthorized games from running on its video game console, the NES,  Atari began their attempts to reverse engineer the 10NES, which included monitoring communications between the console and cartridges chips, chemically peeling layers from the chip, and microscopically examining the code embodied in the chip's silicon. Howeve

Donkey Kong // Universal City Studios Vs. Nintendo

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Gameplay screenshot for the arcade game Donkey Kong (1981) Donkey Kong  is an arcade game  released by N intendo  in 1981. An early example of the platform game  genre, the gameplay  focuses on maneuvering the main character across a series of platforms while dodging and jumping over obstacles. In the game, Mario  (originally named Mr. Video and then Jumpman) must rescue  named Pauline  (originally named Lady), from a giant ape named  Donkey Kong . The hero and ape later became two of Nintendo's most popular and recognizable characters.  Donkey Kong  is one of the most important games from the  golden age of arcade video games  as well as o ne of the most popular arcade games of all time. Universal Studios filed a lawsuit against Nintendo for copyright infringement  in 1982, claiming video game creator Shigeru Miyamoto had based  Donkey Kong ’s story and characters on  King Kong,  the movie studio’s intellectual property. Nintendo fought the lawsuit and claimed that  King K

Pac-Man and K.C. Munchkin // Atari Vs. Philips

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Gameplay screenshot for the arcade game Pac-man(1980) In the early 1980s,  Pac-Man  was the most popular video game in the world, and its manufacturers, Namco and Midway, were developing a home version port of it for the Atari 2600. But a year before Atari’s release, Magnavox and Philips Electronics debuted the video game  K.C. Munchkin , which resembled Pac-Man’s gameplay, for the Philips Videopac home console. While  K.C. Munchkin  was not a direct clone of  Pac-Man , its winding levels and its ghost-like monsters bore an uncanny resemblance to the Atari game. In 1982, Atari sued Philips for copyright infringement and an appellate court found that Philips had copied  Pac-Man . The Court’s ruling was the first to recognize how copyright law would apply to the look and feel of computer software. Facts: The court noted many differences and similarities between PAC-MAN and K.C. Munchkin, which are reproduced in their entireties below. However, what is interesting in this ca