Nintendo Goes After Leaker of The Legend of Zelda Artbook with Legal Action

Nintendo has lawyers on call at all times who are determined to punish any infringement of intellectual property rights and punish any leaks. The latest case is the leak of images from the artbook The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.

Images and information from the artbook were supposed to have been shared by one Discord user on a server called Tears of the Kingdom Official Discord Server. Because of that, Nintendo is trying to subpoena Discord to force the platform to reveal this user’s identity.

The summons was filed on 4/4 of this year in the District Court of California. According to him, Discord is to reveal the identity, including the name(s), address(es), phone number(s), and email address(es) of Julien#2743, who is responsible for posting the infringing content.

It is currently unclear whether Julien is actually the one who uploaded the artbook to the internet. Whoever shared the artbook on Reddit claimed to have received it from a friend.

This isn’t the first time Nintendo has sent its lawyers to internet users. The most famous case of late is the 2019 Pokemon Sword and Shield leak, when a strategy guide for the game was circulated on 4chan and Discord. The dispute was settled two years later for $150,000. 3.2 million crowns is not exactly a small amount for an ordinary person.

Nintendo is trying to prevent leaks, including keeping artbooks and other such material about the games in secure, tarpaulined areas where no personal recording devices are allowed. Even that sometimes doesn’t stop some from spreading information.