Illegal usage of your software by a french company, NESPi ?

ghost commented 6 years ago

According to that website, this French company sells Raspberry PI cases with Retropie software included with emulators from you and RetroPie ( and SD cards that have games included too ?! )

So this company violates the licences of RetroPie and Libretro by selling their products. My twin brother has warned me of this. Having an account on Github we wish to warn you.

Here is informations about the French company if you want to contact them about that violation of the licences :

-> Official page of the product : https://boutique-retrogaming.com/

-> Products : https://boutique-retrogaming.com/categorie-produit/console-de-jeu-retro-nespi-case/

products

-> Facebook Page : https://www.facebook.com/Boutique-Retrogaming-1860673187510896/ Conversation in French language saved on PDF file between the company and my twin brother : the company "Boutique Retrogaming" refuses to stop the sale of the products concerned. Conversation.pdf

-> Company : Name : Boutique Retrogaming Address : 15 rue des pêcheurs, 59240 Dunkerque - France Phone number ( France ) : 06 34 67 76 04 Email address : contact@boutique-retrogaming.com

The Website https://www.boutique-retrogaming.com is edited by DK BADGES, an auto-company registered with the RCS of Dunkerque under the number 477 777 858, whose head office is located in 15 rue des pêcheurs, 59240 Dunkerque - France.

The legal representative of the company DK BADGES is Julien Naëls. The Director of the publication of the Site is Julien Naëls.

company-legal-notice

You can download on the ticket the PDF documents from the company that we found about their products : NESPi_Liste_Jeux_128GB.pdf NESPi_Notice_Utilisateur.pdf NESPi_Liste_Jeux_32GB.pdf NESPi_Liste_Jeux_16GB.pdf

Note : This ticket will be written for RetroArch and RetroPie, both are concerned by this issue.

RobLoach commented 6 years ago

Likely could be taken up with the RetroPie peeps too? https://retropie.org.uk/about/legal/

... selling a pre-installed RetroPie image is not legal

Made an issue about having a LibreLakka, without the non-commercial software: https://github.com/libretro/Lakka-LibreELEC/issues/179

ghost commented 6 years ago

Already done in the same time for RetroPie Team : https://github.com/RetroPie/RetroPie-Setup/issues/2269

ghost commented 6 years ago

Updated informations about the company if needed

inactive123 commented 6 years ago

Does it come out of the box with all those games on it that are listed in the PDF? If so, report it to the ESA or a similar body, that would be highly illegal, and it could get taken down without us even having to get involved.

If that isn't the case, a few remaining options remain:

He is using either RetroPie or Lakka, both are non-commercial
Snes9x and other non-commercially licensed cores are being used, if he is selling them, that is a violation of their license.

Anyway, the problem is enforcing this. With other examples we have gone to Amazon and let them deal with it.

Also, this isn't really a code issue. Perhaps we need a separate section for this in one way or another.

ghost commented 6 years ago

I don't find sections to publish this. So I prefer to inform about that here. Apparently yes about the games : my twin brother has contacted already the publishers of the games (SEGA, Nintendo, Capcom, ... ) and the FSF about this issue. But because there is too a licence issue about the software, I prefer to publish that issue to the devs.

inactive123 commented 6 years ago

@JackoboLeChocobo So, just to confirm, are they shipping games on this as well as part of the purchase? That is highly illegal yeah, and we do not wish to have our software be associated to infringers like this. Our software deserves better than to be tainted by this Illegitimacy.

If he is indeed selling these games on this device as part of the purchase (and he obviously can't have obtained any of the licenses to them), and he is living in France, an EU country, then it isn't long before any videogame publisher starts taking action against him. Apparently his full name and address details are out there, so he would just be making a mark out of himself.

ghost commented 6 years ago

Apparently yes about the games. My brother has contacted SEGA, Nintendo, Sony, Capcom and Square Enix. SEGA, Nintendo, Sony and Capcom have answered about that and my twin brother has sended to them a copy of the documents

inactive123 commented 6 years ago

OK, that should be enough to kill off his 'product' there. Keep me updated on the situation, best case scenario is they take care of it and he ceases his activities.

ghost commented 6 years ago

Agree with you twinaphex, works of all people on the emulators deservers better than to be tainted by this Illegitimacy.

ghost commented 6 years ago

Even with proofs, nothing in France want help to stop the sell of these products. Solution in France : paid between 1000 and 2000 $ a lawyer. I suggest you to see solutions in your side about the illegal use of your software.

inactive123 commented 6 years ago

This seller is selling the copyrighted works of plenty of videogame companies by including all these ROms. If they [game companies] want to protect their trademarks and copyright, they will see to it that the seller gets dealt with. This should be very easy for them to do since there are multiple afflicted parties.

They definitely have my nod of approval if they manage to take this seller down at the very least, and they have the resources to be able to enforce it.

MikaXII commented 6 years ago

I speak as a team member of Recalbox and we already try to speak with this guy in the past, and now he completly doesn't care about copyright : 20180204_004332 Quick translation :

Boutique Retro : 'For people who want, a game list is available on our website on direct download'
Thomas PSZ : 'But it was illegal, did you paid the licenses ?'
Boutique Retro : 'File a complain and we will see it in a court, "asshole"' The last message Thomas just say he will report us this thead.

And the second picture, Thomas was threaten him and is daughter by the seller of boutique retrogaming : 20180204_053258 20180204_053323

I think we are all agree to say this guy is a fucking joke... And sorry I know my english sucks ^^. If you want a translation for the 2nd picture I'll do it later :)

ghost commented 6 years ago

Agree with you. I think it's time to do something, really. Can the competent authorities do something with that now?

MikaXII commented 6 years ago

I don't know if the french autority are really efficient, or aware about this kind of problem... The best solution (according to me) its to report this at the juridic team of Nintendo fr, they doesn't really joking about reselling their old product ^^. But currently I didn't find where I can download games on their website

libretro / RetroArch

Illegal usage of your software by a french company, NESPi ? #6182