... God, you gotta love confirmation bias.
"I don't like Nintendo, this article says they're crappy for no reason, APPROVED/LINKED/EVIDENCE"
So, I'ma play Devil's Advocate and go through why Nintendo might not be so evil.
Nintendo isn't obliged to protect their copyright
So, I decided to do some cursory research on this: https://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=super+mario+world+let%27s+play
It doesn't seem like they're defending it THAT militantly. Maybe this is about that Nintendo affiliate program that I only heard of in this thread, but it looks like they aren't in fact cracking down on Let's Players.
So... maybe... maybe that isn't the issue here? That seems like a reasonable conclusion.
The videos weren't infringing on the copyrights
This is a bit of a false equivalence, the paper air-planes made of books aren't a good comparison. Nintendo's copyright will be on elements of the code as well as the literal images involved and this is why they don't crack down on sprite movies or artwork or the fact
literally everyone covers the theme-tune. The equivalent here in Harry Potter terms would be writing the entire book and replacing wand with 'penis'. Funny, it'd have merits,
IS infringing on IP. Of course, you aren't obliged to ENFORCE the copyright, but it clearly is infringing given it's a cobbled together edit of their own game.
These videos aren't even proof piracy took place
Is this... are we switching focus? I mean, yeah, this might not be proof but unless he made the hack himself (I haven't tried checking the videos so can't rule that out, but I'd imagine they came from a separate site, again, can't check that) it's still downloading a ROM which is in a legal grey area. And this means either it IS Nintendo's property (in which case it's piracy) or it isn't and it's a mangled collection of their assets sculpted into a game but using their framework which one could argue is infringing.
No proof of wrongdoing
Well... the ROM is already illegal, the hack is done on a ROM so... they kinda do. It might not be the Youtubers wrongdoing but wrongdoing HAS occurred and is being advertised. This is only further backed up by the sheer amount of videos NOT taken down. How many Mario Maker videos are there right now? https://www.youtube.com/results?q=mario+maker+let%27s+play looks like quite a lot from quite a few different accounts. This is going to lead into the next point...
Nintendo's position is morally reprehensible
Alright, THIS is the big problem child for me. Because I don't know enough about the channel. Was it monetised? I doubt I can check right now but if so then it was making a profit which is one of those copyright issues which really needs working out. Like, doing a youtube video reading out a book and getting say $28 on ad revenue per chapter. Where does that sit in the legal area? Because linking back to the Mario Maker thing, a buncha these guys have Patreon.
So for example... if I read out this column on youtube, in it's entirety, and got money from ad revenue? Even if I sourced Shamus, is it fair to get money of that?
Of course, this situation is more complicated but I'm going for a hyperbolic response (much like Shamus is), because this account wasn't taking down just because it used a bunch of ROM hacks (and it's frankly disingenuous to pretend so)
These videos don't affect Nintendo's Bottom Line
Really though? You don't think a bunch of ROM hacked Mario Levels won't affect their bottom line when
THIS just got launched?
Because if we're being honest, this is why they started raising flags. Except there are still a bunch of videos that are also ROM hacks. So... Nintendo did something against a youtuber, they don't appear to be cracking down as hard on others.
... and we're assuming there was no motivation.
This is the one thing I'm not getting from Shamus' article, he doesn't go into the WHY but asserts that their behaviour and what it might affect aren't factors. It's just Nintendo being 'a bully'. But as with real world bullies, they have a motivation. It might be a shitty one, it might not even be what I speculate it IS, it could just be one particularly overzealous staff member with a Youtube account (or a rival youtuber with a fake one for all I know, I'm not in a position to speculate).
But without knowing the motivation, it's a little impossible to decry them.
I mean, I could accuse Shamus of shame-LESSly pandering to a rising anti-Nintendo crowd for hits like a dirty, dirty sell out (I don't actually think that's true, but I need a hyperbolic point to compare to 'Nintendo are morally worse than EA'). Because I don't know the motivation behind this article (I mean, I'm pretty sure I can GUESS but that's neither here nor there.)
TL;DR The motivation does not appear to be as simple as 'muh copyrit' given Pangea was singled out, Mario Maker is a thing and could very feasibly be affected by prominent advertising for ROM hacks.
Even Activision and EA don't behave this way
I kinda wore myself out with the earlier rant but I can sum up the case here
Morally- The youtuber was advertising an illegally made version of something Nintendo are now selling, much like if they did a translation for Mother 3 they might suddenly have a problem with the fan version floating around as a ROM hack (which they've never taken down, to my knowledge). Morally, they aren't in the wrong here, and we also don't know the exact reason why this channel was taken down (as I showed quite a few different ones are still up.)
Legally- I'm not a lawyer but I think given the above events they'd have a leg to stand on.
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ADDENDUM: This is Devil's Advocate, I have no idea if Nintendo really did just take it down because they're 'Evil' but it seemed fair and balanced to actually... y'know. Examine it.
