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Comment by londons_explore | Hacker News Reader

Couldn't the real copyright owner just sue the US government and get a payout?

The fact this doesn't seem to be happening suggests that perhaps the copyright owner doesn't care?

This is a very Western-centric way of thinking. The Japanese are culturally oriented toward "saving face" rather than directly confronting things like this. It's very likely that Nintendo approached their own government with private complaints, and the government is handling it diplomatically, rather than Nintendo causing more drama for their company (and country) by immediately suing the US government.

Nintendo specifically is known to sue first, ask questions later. They just like to shake down the little guys, like their own fans.

Nintendo's model relies on the target not fighting back. Suing the US government is unwise for that reason.

That's a very Orientalistic interpretation of what we have, where a Japanese company is understandably afraid of a batshit crazy leader of the world's most powerful nation with a history of exceptionalism and ignoring international laws, so like any other good capitalist organization, they want to solve it through a "gentlemen's agreement" rather than attacking the emperor and risk hurting shareholder values.

And this is its own stereotyped vision coming from, well i don't even know what you're allowed to call it these days but i guess it controls the progressive left now?

1. Trump doesn't care if he costs U.S. taxpayers money. He'd only care if he was personally sued.

2. A foreign party using U.S. courts to sue the U.S. government has always been a dicey proposition. Some parties are more "equal" than others under U.S. law.

3. The current U.S. regime is petty enough to slap retaliatory tariff's on all of Japan (thereby making Americans pay extra for Japanese goods).

Really, there are no carrots or sticks that work on Trump right now. Americans have not yet had their Magna Carta moment.

Or the copyright owner recognises that suing the current administration in court is going to risk other negative consequences and those are not worth the risk. Or perhaps it's just that taking the US government to court is going to cost a lot of money and take years, so "just asking" is the first step.

Or the copyright owner understands that Donald Trump is a crazed dictator who will try to ruin their company if they publicly oppose him.

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