SMG4 v. Nintendo Co. Ltd was a trial, with Nintendo Co. Ltd, as plaintiff, accusing of copyright infringement against the defendant, SMG4, who used Mario under fair use by parody. It was first seen being held at Mushroom City, at the near end of The Lawsuit Arc in the SMG4 (series).
The trial started on October 1, 2022, in SMG4: Goodbye, SMG4, and ended in SMG4: War Of The Fat Italians 2022 on October 15, 2022, when Judge Kirby made his final decision.
Background[]
The trial is heard by the Supreme Court of the Mushroom Kingdom by Judge Kirby, concerning of accusations of copyright infringement of Nintendo intellectual property by Nintendo Co. Ltd, the plaintiff, who have filed a copyright violation lawsuit against the defendant, SMG4, whom defending within the grounds of fair use by parody. The case began on October 1, 2022, when Mario submitted a parody contract in front of the judge. The judge, seeing the contract, ruled that the contract contrasted with the DMCA signed prior that ceased all activities of SMG4, and resuscitates the SMG4 characters by striking his gavel. With Lawyer Kong representing on behalf of Nintendo and Meggy Spletzer as SMG4's lawyer-in-training. Kirby commenced the trial between SMG4 and Nintendo into session.
The trial[]
Kirby began summarizing the content of the trial, explaining that Nintendo has filed a DMCA against SMG4 stating that he and all non-Nintendo IP should be banned from the Mushroom Kingdom. On the other hand, the defendant has provided a parody contract stating that SMG4 is not infringing on copyright and should be allowed to stay. However, the trial then escalated with Meggy Spletzer and Lawyer Kong bickering over each other's cases until they began cat fighting over Mario, whom Meggy regards as different to Nintendo's iteration, while Lawyer Kong insisted that he belongs to Nintendo no matter if he is parodied. As Kirby attempts to restore order, SMG4 whispered to Kirby of his plan, Kirby then decides to settle their debates by competing in various challenges to determine if the former will be allowed to stay. As SMG4 turns to the non-Nintendo IP characters and encourages them to help, Mario, and rest of the Nintendo characters, under mind control by Lawyer Kong's IP contract, were forced to fight against the non-Nintendo IPs.
After both groups fought well in the challenges, Kirby still has hard time to decide, and called a rap battle sequence to decide who wins.
During the rap battle, Lawyer Kong comments that the SMG4 cast have done nothing but cause chaos and mayhem. Meggy counters this by recounting how the gang's saved the world, four times, and how much character development the group progressed from these tragedies, as well as pointing out Lawyer Kong's hypocrisy given the violent and underhanded tactics he has used against SMG4's originality with extreme prejudice, Lawyer Kong finally claims that SMG4's channel using Mario as it does constitutes copyright infringement. Meggy counters this with the parody contract, backing it up by showing how dumb Mario is compared to his canon Nintendo counterpart, and Mario himself pointed this out. Meggy and the gang shutting down Lawyer Kong's protests, and won over his case.
Verdict[]
After the rap battle, the signed DMCA contract explodes into dust. And the court ruled in favor on declaring SMG4 not guilty, and his channel is saved. Lawyer Kong quits being a Nintendo lawyer and returning as Funky Kong. It is revealed the trial was Shigeru Miyamoto's way of determining whether or not he could trust SMG4, which the latter fortunately passes, despite their statements being ruled invalid by Nintendo's terms. But Miyamoto has one condition for letting SMG4 go; he can no longer look like Mario. SMG4 accepts, and is given a permanent IP change contract, and his appearance, along with those of SMG3, Bob, and Fishy Boopkins are all changed from Nintendo models to original GMOD models.
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