Nintendo goes after Discord to find out who leaked the Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom art book

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom screenshot

(Image credit: Nintendo)

Back in February, someone leaked more than 200 pages of an art book from the upcoming Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and Nintendo wants to know who: A TorrentFreak report says the company has filed a DMCA subpoena with Discord, seeking the identity of a user who shared the images.

The images were only up briefly before Nintendo sent its initial DMCA takedown request, which Discord responded to very promptly—in just eight minutes, according to the report—with a promise to take down the art book content. Several hours later, Nintendo asked that the channel named "Tears of the Kingdom Official Discord Server" also be taken offline because some of its members were still sharing the leaked content.

Naturally, that was not the end of it. On April 7, lawyers for Nintendo filed a subpoena seeking the real identity of Discord user Julien#2743, "including the name(s), address(es), telephone number(s), and e-mail addresses(es)," for posting the content on the Discord channel. The filing says the information will be used "for the purposes of protecting the rights granted to NOA [Nintendo of America] under the Copyright Act." Since the infringing content is already gone, that can only mean that Nintendo is looking to set an example.

This isn't the first time that a game company has called in the lawyers to go after a Discord user: Genshin Impact publisher Cognosphere did the same thing in December 2022 to find out the identity of well-known leaker known as Ubatcha. And unfortunately for Julien#2743, as we noted in that story, Discord isn't likely to fight the request: Flings like this one are largely a formality to ensure that the companies involved are meeting their legal obligations.

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Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.