Despite being one of gaming’s most defensive publishers of its intellectual properties, Nintendo often still falls victim to having its copyrighted material stolen. The internet is full of bootleg Nintendo consoles, such as the game consoles sold by Soulja Boy, and many flea market and shopping mall patrons have seen off-brand video game consoles and bootleg Nintendo merchandise. It’s quite often that Nintendo sees content from its games stolen, but the latest culprit is somewhat unexpected. Upon inspection of a new EPA flash game, it has become apparent that the US government has stolen from Nintendo.

Fun fact: The United States government stole the underground theme in Yoshi’s Island DS for the Enviornmental Protection Agency’s flash game about recycling. The song can be heard right after pressing the start button. pic.twitter.com/TpMI6l8NSh

— Forest of Illusion (@forestillusion) February 16, 2019

Twitter user Forest of Illusion recently shared the interesting discovery that they made. According to the user, a new recycling-themed flash game released on an US government website steals a Nintendo song. When opening the game, there is a screen that explains the goals of the game, and has a “Let’s Get Started” button that starts the game. When clicking this, the game begins, and a familiar song plays.

Courtesy of @jhynjhiruu, the internal file name for the music track is “yoshidsunderground.mp3”. They weren’t even trying to hide it. Here’s a link to the mp3. https://t.co/xD1O7e8NXL

— Forest of Illusion (@forestillusion) February 16, 2019

Upon further inspection, the song actually appears to be the underground theme Nintendo used in Yoshi’s Island DS. This discovery is further supported by user investigating of sound files in the game.  User Jhynjhiruu discovered that the mp3 file for the song is listed as yoshidsunderground.mp3, so the game’s creator clearly stole the mp3 file and neglected to change the file name before adding it to the game. The EPA has since confirmed that a contractor created this game for them and independent stole the song, but Nintendo has yet to comment on this infringement, or whether they intend to press charges. This is certainly one of the more strange cases of Nintendo having their copyrights stolen, but maybe it was just the US government’s revenge against Yoshi committing tax fraud?

What do you guys think about the US government stealing from Nintendo for this flash game? Let us know in the comments below! Be sure to stay tuned for the latest Nintendo news, such as the possibility of the cancelled Scalebound game seeing a release on Nintendo Switch, here on Don’t Feed the Gamers! Follow us on Twitter to see our updates the minute they go live!