EPA Accused of Using Nintendo Music in Game Without Permission

"We are looking into whether the contractor received permission to use the music, to the extent permission was necessary in this instance," an EPA spokesperson told THR.

The Environmental Protection Agency has responded to a report that it used music from Nintendo's Yoshi's Island DS title in a flash game developed by the government agency aimed at teaching children about recycling.

"The Recycle City Challenge game was created for EPA by a contractor. We are looking into whether the contractor received permission to use the music, to the extent permission was necessary in this instance," an EPA spokesperson told The Hollywood Reporter.

The issue was first brought to light Saturday in a Twitter post.

The EPA's game is a point-and-click experience that asks players trivia about energy conservation. The music for the game has been taken out as of the time of this report, but an mp3 of the track still exists with the internal file name of "yoshidsunderground.mp3."

Yoshi's Island DS was originally released in 2006 for the Nintendo DS handheld system and was later made available on the Wii U console in 2015. The game's composers were Yutaka Minobe and Masayoshi Ishi.

A request for comment from Nintendo was not immediately returned.