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August 8th, 2016 
Carl Williams 
It was just recently that I reported that Nintendo Power was available on Archive.org for free. Now, I am reporting that Nintendo has followed through on a second, unforeseen, cease and desist threat (the first was the AM2R removal). Apparently Nintendo has ordered the first 13 years of Nintendo Power Magazine to be removed from Archive.org servers. This really sucks but well, they are kind of right in doing this.
The way United States copyright is setup, if you don’t defend your copyrights then you can potentially lose them. That is probably why Nintendo is going after people for distributing things such as AM2R and Nintendo Power. This sucks for fans because Nintendo probably sees no value in releasing Nintendo Power in digital format for fans to enjoy (surely there would be a cost involved on a per issue basis). This also sucks for fans because Nintendo has no apparent interest in keeping a 2D Metroid alive and well on modern platforms they own.
While Nintendo is in their legal rights to demand Nintendo Power be removed from Archive.org it remains to be seen if they will, or will not, pursue sites such as Retromags.com which the scans came from in the first place. I just learned that Nintendo Power has been removed from RM too. Apparently Nintendo is being thorough this time. It is also their legal right to demand the removal of a fan game that is clearly based on a game property they own (AM2R). Doesn’t mean it is the popular thing to do, nor the cool thing or even best for fans in the long run. It has happened and it sucks.
What are your thoughts on the removal of Nintendo Power from Archive.org? Were you able to download issues you were interested in or did you miss that opportunity? While I understand why Nintendo is doing this it doesn’t make it suck any less. There has to be a happy median available between protecting copyrights and fans being able to celebrate long dead properties.
Want physical copies of Nintendo Power? Hit Ebay and enjoy.
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I just read an article about Nintendo Power on Archive.org and was super excited only to have my hope and nostalgic dreams dashed on the rocks of corporate reality. Unless there is a huge enough outcry from fans, I doubt that they will release an archive themselves.
I am right there with you. I was excite, wrote up the initial article that Nintendo Power was available on Archive.org and naively thought Nintendo was cool with it. Then not even a day or two later, I am writing an article about how Nintendo probably had a HEAVY hand in taking down those archived issues.
Sad.