Some fallout from the early leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appears to be taking place. As players are loading the game into emulators and playing them unofficially on their computers, prior to the launch date, Nintendo is taking action to prevent that from happening. Lockpick and Lockpick_RCM are homebrew tools that allow users to dump unique keys from their Nintendo Switch console, which are required for numerous Switch hacking-related programs, including the Ryujinx and Yuzu Switch emulators. While Lockpick has been around for years, Nintendo has reportedly decided to go after it, by issuing a DMCA takedown to the GitHub project page, igniting concern and discussion within the community.

At the time of writing, Lockpick_RCM's repository is still active, it could be due to GitHub providing a grace period following a DMCA notice. Twitter user Simon Aarons was made aware of the takedown, after forking Lockpick, and allegedly receiving an email from GitHub, on behalf of Nintendo of America's legal team, who asserts that Lockpick is "circumvention software that infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. Specifically, the reported repository provides Lockpick to users. The use of Lockpick with a modified Nintendo Switch console allows users to bypass Nintendo’s Technological Measures for video games; specifically, Lockpick bypasses the Console TPMs to permit unauthorized access to, extraction of, and decryption of all the cryptographic keys, including product keys, contained in the Nintendo Switch. The decrypted keys facilitate copyright infringement by permitting users to play pirated versions of Nintendo’s copyright-protected game software on systems without Nintendo’s Console TPMs or systems on which Nintendo’s Console TPMs have been disabled. Trafficking in circumvention software, such as Lockpick, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States (specifically, 17 U.S.C. §1201), and infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo."

Shortly after this, Skyline Emulator, a Switch emulator for Android devices, made the decision to shut down development, via a post on their Discord Server. Since you need the keys dumped from Lockpick in order to run Skyline, the team behind the emulator is concerned that it means Nintendo will target them for also violating their copyright.

It is with great sadness that we bring you this news. Recently, Nintendo has issued a DMCA takedown notice against Lockpick RCM which will likely come into effect on Monday, Lockpick is a core part of legally dumping keys from the Switch. They claim that it circumvents their copy protection (TPMs) and therefore violates their copyright. We find ourselves in a position where we are potentially violating their copyright by continuing to develop our project, Skyline, by dumping keys from our own Switches.

The Skyline team will be making their incomplete source code public, at the very least, and will keep the emulator's GitHub page active. Other homebrew projects are rumored to have been hit with DMCA notices as well. Ryujinx's emulator team stated that they will not be shutting down, following worries after Skyline.

 

[l7777]

Nintendo's view is, If Lockpick was not there, Switch emulation would not exist. IT does crack Nintendo's security on the Switch and that alone could be why they are going after them.

The Switch console is weak today, any game that is stuck at 30fps on the Switch could be played 60+fps on a 3 year old PC....

Oh yes, this is Nintendo's view but I doubt it's enough to win a suit. Unfortunately the expense of litigation usually ends these things before it even gets near a court.

The Switch hardware age and performance are irrelevant to the discussion.

 

[WhileTrueBreak]

_

 

[Kioku]

I don't buy this argument. People who pirate things do so because they don't want to pay, not because it's inconvenient. I mean, maybe for some people that's true, but you could make the most convenient service in the world and people would still pirate instead unless said convenient service was 100% free, no strings attached.

Highly subjective. This depends on what you consider “convenient”. For instance, retro gaming. The secondhand market is highly inconvenient. You can’t tell me that spending upwards of a thousand dollars to play a game from my childhood is anything short of ridiculous. Oh, but wait…. Ninty offers the title through their subscription (read: RENTAL) service. Still, not convenient.

I’m more easily swayed into a one time payment for a game than effectively renting it and losing access if I can’t front the asking fee.

I’m not trying to justify piracy, but there’s a stout lack of “convenience” these days…

 

[WhileTrueBreak]

_

 

[smf]

Let's just say you made a data loader that can backup your games... but you lend it to your friend and he copied games that he didn't own and he post them online. Now Nintendo is sending you a nice DMCA for something you didn't do. Your friend used your data loader in mal intent.

Fast forward Nintendo takes you to court and now you owe 1 million in damages for something you didn't do. Do you see what I'm saying now?

Tears of the kingdom have to busine

Like if you make a bomb and give it to a friend who blows up a school, of course you're completely innocent.

 

[DavidinCT]

It is always morally justifiable to pirate Nintendo software.

TOS is not law. I’m not interested in using their service, so I don’t - I’m interested in the device, so I bought it. If I go to Best Buy right now and buy a laptop, it will likely come with Windows pre-installed. I can extract a key for that installation if I so please, and Microsoft has nothing to say about that - I own a license, what I do with it is up to me. The purchase was already made, Microsoft de facto does not stand to lose money from my activity. The same applies to Nintendo. A unique key is a unique key. Now, admittedly, one’s an installation key and one’s an encryption key, but ultimately they’re unique *because* they’re specifically from one unique copy of software that came pre-installed on the hardware, so for all intents and purposes they demonstrate the same point in the example.

Not exactly with Microsoft. Windows has different type of licenses. OEM and Retail. OEM would come on that laptop you get from BestBuy, that Windows license is ONLY to legally be used on that computer. Once you dispose of the laptop, the license goes with it.

If you buy a RETAIL copy of Windows, that license can be moved machine to machine...

 

[Pickle_Rick]

Lol nobody cares about being called a pirate, especially when trying to access content they've paid for, and it's at best legally dubious to try to claim a violation of copyright law by retrieving strings of random letters and numbers.

As ever, piracy remains a service issue. Nobody in the gaming industry seems to hate their own customers more than Nintendo, and the piracy scene surrounding their consoles in particular is a direct reflection of that. Of course people are going to want to play their games on a more modern-feeling device when Ninty stuck 2002's online infrastructure into 2012's tablet hardware, and then made the eShop more painful to navigate than 1992's AOL as the cherry on top.

Don't forget that their games literally never go on sale. Lol. I think a few games hit $40 for a few days and that's about it.

 

[Goku1992A]

Are you saying Nintendo DMCA'd lockpick specifically because the tears got leaked? Or just leaks in general, which have been happening for a long time and probably won't stop even if lockpick goes away?

I'm not 100% sure but Nintendo is trying to stop future ways of people accessing their system keys. But I mean it's already done CFW users only take up less than 10% of the market if even that much.

The average user wouldn't even touch lockpick rcm but it is good to have your system keys.

 

[Foxi4]

The Windows license that comes preinstalled on a laptop is OEM and intended for that device only. You didn't buy the license, you bought the device. If you want a Windows license that you can transfer from one machine to another, that has to be bought separately (and for more money than an OEM license, which can also be bought). Otherwise your actions are illegitimate.

You are absolutely a licensee as soon as you purchase the device. The fact that it’s an OEM license only limits you in your ability to transfer the installation to another machine - at that point, you’re in breach of the terms of your license. You own a license for any software that is pre-installed on your machine.

Not exactly with Microsoft. Windows has different type of licenses. OEM and Retail. OEM would come on that laptop you get from BestBuy, that Windows license is ONLY to legally be used on that computer. Once you dispose of the laptop, the license goes with it.

If you buy a RETAIL copy of Windows, that license can be moved machine to machine...

See above. You’re confusing terms of the license with ownership. You still own a license for a copy of Windows, just under specific terms.

Actually...Microsoft potentially does have a say in the matter as part of the Microsoft License Terms (i.e. the license agreement), which you agree to the moment you boot up the laptop and begin the setup process. Now, if you extracted the installation key and such solely for making a personal backup copy (as permitted), that would usually be acceptable (unless the license agreement were to change to void that). But attempting to distribute said key and such to other people, or making multiple copies beyond what is permitted for backup / making copies for reasons that aren't backup-related, would be a direct violation of the Microsoft License Terms, at which point Microsoft could very easily revoke your access to the license you own if they felt the violation warrants them to take that action.

I’m not a licensed distributor, so I don’t see why I’d want to distribute it - not exactly the point of the post. The point is that in the event of catastrophic failure I am in fact entitled to reinstall Windows as I have a legitimate key for my machine. If there are any software or hardware measures preventing me from doing so, it’s on the OEM and/or Microsoft to provide me with a solution.

...Er, no, it's not. You don't get the moral right to steal content from a company just because you don't like them. By that logic, you can take your neighbor's stuff guilt free if they annoy you.

It is morally justifiable to pirate Nintendo content, always. So sayeth the council of hyperbole.

Doesn’t all that straw itch? The strawmanning is going strong in this thread. Yeah, you have to follow the terms of the license, I didn’t say you should break them, I said that you’re not a slave to TOS if you don’t intend to use services. The terms of your software license and terms of service are two separate agreements.

 

[Dungeonseeker]

Post automatically merged: May 8, 2023

I’m not a licensed distributor, so I don’t see why I’d want to distribute it - not exactly the point of the post. The point is that in the event of catastrophic failure I am in fact entitled to reinstall Windows as I have a legitimate key for my machine. If there are any software or hardware measures preventing me from doing so, it’s on the OEM and/or Microsoft to provide me with a solution.

Your comparing an Apple to the color red....

Your product key is not a core part of Windows, is not an encrypted security key and is not subject to Microsoft's very valid copyright over Windows.

Go try asking MS to give you a Windows kernel encryption key, see what they say.....

Post automatically merged: May 8, 2023

Doesn’t all that straw itch? The strawmanning is going strong in this thread. Yeah, you have to follow the terms of the license, I didn’t say you should break them, I said that you’re not a slave to TOS if you don’t intend to use services. The terms of your software license and terms of service are two separate agreements.

^ This is a sentiment I fully agree with however. A ToS is not a legal document.

 

[Xzi]

It just so happens that users opt for convenience

Exactly, convenience is king. While Sony, Xbox, and Valve are all moving toward a "play all your games on any device, anywhere and any time" model for the sake of increased convenience, you can only "legally" play $70 Nintendo exclusives at 720p and an unstable 30 FPS. As long as Ninty keeps creating new inconveniences and/or problems for their own user base, it'll be the pirates who keep offering solutions.

...What? Basically any digital data can be represented as a string of random letters and numbers if it's encoded that way. Are you suggesting that copyright law cannot protect digital data?

You can't copyright the concept of cd or software keys, because every developer needs to be able to generate their own. Furthermore you can't copyright specific keys, because they might be randomly generated again in the future and thus re-used for different software. Instead it's Nintendo's assertion that copyright law was violated when people bypassed their shitty protection to access the keys, but again, that's legally dubious until it sees a challenge in court.

I don't buy this argument. People who pirate things do so because they don't want to pay, not because it's inconvenient. I mean, maybe for some people that's true, but you could make the most convenient service in the world and people would still pirate instead unless said convenient service was 100% free, no strings attached.

Piracy is never going to be eliminated entirely, but you can shrink its footprint to the point of being nearly irrelevant by offering a superior alternative. Indie games that end up selling tens of millions of copies on Steam are proof of that. In contrast, I very much doubt the devs are crying about the few thousand pirated copies on the way to the bank.

 

[aoikurayami]

Insert obligatory *the Switch hombrew scene was trash anyways* comment

 

[CaliousKai]

View attachment 369443​

Some fallout from the early leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom appears to be taking place. As players are loading the game into emulators and playing them unofficially on their computers, prior to the launch date, Nintendo is taking action to prevent that from happening. Lockpick and Lockpick_RCM are homebrew tools that allow users to dump unique keys from their Nintendo Switch console, which are required for numerous Switch hacking-related programs, including the Ryujinx and Yuzu Switch emulators. While Lockpick has been around for years, Nintendo has reportedly decided to go after it, by issuing a DMCA takedown to the GitHub project page, igniting concern and discussion within the community.

At the time of writing, Lockpick_RCM's repository is still active, it could be due to GitHub providing a grace period following a DMCA notice. Twitter user Simon Aarons was made aware of the takedown, after forking Lockpick, and allegedly receiving an email from GitHub, on behalf of Nintendo of America's legal team, who asserts that Lockpick is "circumvention software that infringes Nintendo’s intellectual property rights. Specifically, the reported repository provides Lockpick to users. The use of Lockpick with a modified Nintendo Switch console allows users to bypass Nintendo’s Technological Measures for video games; specifically, Lockpick bypasses the Console TPMs to permit unauthorized access to, extraction of, and decryption of all the cryptographic keys, including product keys, contained in the Nintendo Switch. The decrypted keys facilitate copyright infringement by permitting users to play pirated versions of Nintendo’s copyright-protected game software on systems without Nintendo’s Console TPMs or systems on which Nintendo’s Console TPMs have been disabled. Trafficking in circumvention software, such as Lockpick, violates the Digital Millennium Copyright Act of the United States (specifically, 17 U.S.C. §1201), and infringes copyrights owned by Nintendo."

Shortly after this, Skyline Emulator, a Switch emulator for Android devices, made the decision to shut down development, via a post on their Discord Server. Since you need the keys dumped from Lockpick in order to run Skyline, the team behind the emulator is concerned that it means Nintendo will target them for also violating their copyright.



The Skyline team will be making their incomplete source code public, at the very least, and will keep the emulator's GitHub page active. Other homebrew projects are rumored to have been hit with DMCA notices as well. Ryujinx's emulator team stated that they will not be shutting down, following worries after Skyline.

Sorry to say this but nintendo have full right to do this with their ips i understand times are tough and some cant afford it but that doesnt condone to piracy of copyrighted material i fully support fan translations for japanese only games or applications to enhance gameplay but upright emulating games /software you dont own even im against i know saying this on a forum that supports this like the second coming of a bible with actual facts that the whole thing is bullshit but that will never happen but you get my point.

 

[OrGoN3]

I'm still waiting to see these repos actually be affected. I was told they don't DMCA on the weekend so they should've done it today. Unless they wait X amount of days after receiving a DMCA, which doesn't make sense. Repos are still up.

 

[urbanracer34]

I'm wondering how this will affect other Switch emulators such as Ryujinx and Yuzu long term.

 

[WhileTrueBreak]

_

 

[stanleyopar2000]

Hmm…. It’s still up…..interesting…

 

[Xzi]

Hmm…. It’s still up…..interesting…

GitHub grants a set grace period before takedown, we just don't know exactly how long that is. Could be 48 hours, 72 hours, or a whole week.

 

[Mthodmn101]

Hmm…. It’s still up…..interesting…

down

 

[Zajumino]

Like if you make a bomb and give it to a friend who blows up a school, of course you're completely innocent.

But if you drive your friend to school, and otherwise have nothing to do with the bomb, you would definitely be guilty.