Garry’s Mod faces deluge of Nintendo-related DMCA takedown notices

Facepunch Studios has introduced on Steam that it is eradicating 20 years’ value of Nintendo-related workshop gadgets for its sandbox recreation Garry’s Mod to adjust to the Japanese firm’s calls for. Earlier this 12 months, an X consumer with the title Brewster T. Koopa posted {that a} group of trolls was submitting false DMCA claims towards the sport to get Nintendo add-ons eliminated and to get add-on makers to close down. The perpetrators allegedly used a faux e mail to impersonate Nintendo’s attorneys to ship DMCA takedown notices. Facepunch Studios stated in its new announcement, that it believes the calls for legitimately got here from Nintendo and that it has to respect the corporate’s resolution and begin taking down gadgets associated to its IPs.

“That is an ongoing course of, as now we have 20 years of uploads to undergo,” the developer wrote. “If you wish to assist us by deleting your Nintendo associated uploads and by no means importing them once more, that might assist us so much.”

[PSA] False flaggers on the Garry’s Mod Workshop.

There may be somebody, or a bunch of trolls going across the Gmod workshop submitting false DMCA claims and shutting down addons, over 10 Gmod addon makers, myself included have been attacked, with over a dozen of our addons gone. pic.twitter.com/ZwVVhQjQlu

— Brewster T. Koopa (@brewsterkoopa) February 11, 2024

Koopa stated in a follow-up tweet that they despatched an e mail to the corporate to let it know that the calls for aren’t really from Nintendo. They beforehand argued that the takedown notices could not be from the Japanese gaming big, as a result of Nintendo add-ons have been round since 2005 and since the corporate would’ve contacted Valve, the writer of Garry’s Mod, itself.

Whereas the announcement remains to be up, Facepunch founder Garry Newman introduced that his workforce has acquired folks’s emails and DMs and that the developer is conducting an investigation. “We have to take this stuff severely (notably from Nintendo), however we can also’t let folks misuse DMCA takedowns,” Newman wrote. We have reached out to Nintendo to ask whether or not the takedowns Facepunch acquired really got here from the corporate, and we’ll replace this submit as soon as they reply.

Sure, now we have bought your emails and dms, now we have seen your theads, we’re doing our personal investigations. We have to take this stuff severely (notably from Nintendo), however we can also’t let folks misuse DMCA takedowns.

— garry (@garrynewman) April 25, 2024

Replace, April 25 2024, 11:x04AM ET: Newman has since taken to X to state that he has “been assured that the takedowns have been verified by Nintendo as legit” and the takedowns “will now proceed as deliberate.”