An enormous The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom artbook leaked in February, and Nintendo hasn’t forgotten. The Change maker is at the moment attempting to subpoena Discord, the place photographs from the artbook first began making the rounds, to power the social media platform to reveal the id of one of many customers alleged to be behind the leak.
The subpoena, first reported by TorrentFreak, was filed within the Northern District Courtroom of California on April 4, and makes an attempt to power Discord to “disclose the id, together with the title(s), handle(es), phone quantity(s), and e-mail addresses(es) of the consumer Julien#2743, who’s chargeable for posting infringing content material,” that appeared in a fan-run Discord server referred to as the “Tears of the Kingdom Official Discord Server.” (Nintendo doesn’t run any “official” Discord servers for Tears of the Kingdom or every other video games.)
Nintendo and Discord didn’t reply to requests for remark.
The posts embrace photographs from the 204-page artbook that can include the collector’s version of the sport. They shortly unfold to different Discord servers, numerous subreddits, and past. Whereas a ton of authentic artwork for the sport was within the leak, it didn’t find yourself revealing a lot about the mysteries surrounding Tears of the Kingdom gamers have spent months speculating about. There was no actual developer commentary within the leak, and barely any spoilers exterior of some minor enemy reveals.
Learn Extra: Evaluating Zelda: Tears Of The Kingdom’s Map To Breath Of The Wild Sparks Juicy Fan Theories
Nonetheless, Nintendo’s attorneys traced the leak to 1 specific server and took swift motion. The subpoena submitting exhibits the corporate’s attorneys first contacted Discord on February 21 demanding the copyrighted materials be eliminated, following up a day later to request that your complete server be taken down. Nintendo even curated an inventory of Discord customers who have been allegedly distributing the copies of the leak who had “PDF Pirate” labels of their bios, and submitted screenshots of their server exercise to Discord in its authentic takedown request.
Right here’s a pattern entry:
Member: ravio – dm for pdf aka @wyrm milk
a. Up to date server username to “ravio-dm for pdf” and instructs members to DM for the hyperlink
b. States they’ve despatched the hyperlink to “like 200 folks lol”
c. Roles embrace “THE PDF PIRATE”
Nintendo’s subpoena particularly targets a Discord consumer named “Julien.” It’s unclear if they’re the identical one who initially shared the leak on Reddit claiming to have obtained the artbook from a buddy. Even on the Tears of the Kingdom subreddit and the subreddit’s corresponding Discord server, nevertheless, some customers dispute that “Julien” was the unique leaker, reasonably than somebody simply taking credit score for serving to to popularize it.
Kotaku reached out to Julien#2743 for remark however didn’t instantly obtain a response.
This isn’t the primary time Nintendo’s despatched its attorneys trying to find random web customers. A Pokémon Sword and Defend leak from 2019 that unfold from 4chan to Discord got here from somebody allegedly concerned within the printing of the sport’s technique information. Nintendo’s lawsuit in that case additionally revealed the unimaginable lengths it goes to to stop leaks, together with maintaining technique guides in safe areas below tarps the place no private recording units have been allowed. It was finally settled two years later for $150,000, a life-altering penalty for the typical individual.