Emulator takedowns continue. Not long after its first release, Suyu emulator has been removed from GitLab via a DMCA takedown. Suyu was a Nintendo Switch emulator forked from Yuzu emulator, which was the high-profile subject of a takedown by Nintendo last month. GitLab deleted Suyu's repository, stating that they'd received a takedown notice for the project. The tongue-in-cheek named emulator still has an official website up, though the Discord is not allowing new members, and the GitLab download page is gone. However, it seems a self-hosted download page is still available.

Source
Takedown notice (courtesy of gamingonlinux)

 

[JustSomeGuyOnTheSite]

If Nintendo own the code, they can sue anyone distribute it i think.

I think they can only "reasonably" (or legally within the settlement) sue people distributing it that are in talks with the original Yuzu devs. Again, I'm no lawyer, but this is what I got after reading the settlement and reading about it online and stuff.
Of course, they probably could go after people making the forks, but I don't think they'd go after "HentaiLover69" on Github for forking Yuzu. Suyu obviously is the most popular Yuzu fork atm, so it remains to be seen if Nintendo's gonna do what they Nintendo.

 

[Wolfy]

As long as you have a decently recent version of Yuzu you should be good, although anyone trying to continue forks of it will keep having these issues.

 

[ELY_M]

Fuck gitlab.... I will not trust any servers that will accept DMCA takedowns.

 

[aos10]

AFAIK Nintendo seized EVERYTHING belonging to the yuzu/citra team, which makes the code of the emulator itself Nintendo property.

That what i said.

 

[TomSwitch]

Fuck gitlab.... I will not trust any servers that will accept DMCA takedowns.

Is it DMCA though? Probably more like copywriter case as those source belongs to Nintendo now.

 

[Nincompoopdo]

I think Nintendo's real target is Citra, not Yuzu. Their legal argument has to do with TotK, but why take so long for them to sue? If they want, they could have destroyed Yuzu and Ryujinx a long time ago.

The next Nintendo hardware will play host to DS and 3DS games, just like current Switch is GB and GBA.

 

[ZeroFX]

yeah, of course, no big place is safe for something like this... they'll have to go more underground.

 

[AlexMCS]

This will keep happening as long as they keep using "pop" code hosting.
There are so many DMCA-bully-free hosting options, that are themselves free to host too, that I really don't understand why people working in grey areas insist on using github/lab.

A single google search will give you tons:

• https://notabug.org/
• http://repo.or.cz/
• https://gitgud.io/
• https://about.0xacab.org/
• https://framagit.org

Just pick anyone not mainstream FFS.

 

[Paralel]

Why are people saying it is down? I can access it just fine:

https://gitlab.com/suyu-emu

Anyone that wants the latest Windows release just needs to go here:

https://gitlab.com/suyu-emu/suyu-re...yu-Windows_x64.7z?ref_type=heads&inline=false

Anyone that wants the latest Mac release just needs to go here:

https://gitlab.com/suyu-emu/suyu-re...u-macOS-arm64.dmg?ref_type=heads&inline=false

Anyone that wants the latest Android release just needs to go here:

https://gitlab.com/suyu-emu/suyu-re...nline-release.apk?ref_type=heads&inline=false

Anyone that wants the latest Linux release just needs to go here:

https://gitlab.com/suyu-emu/suyu-re...inline--.AppImage?ref_type=heads&inline=false

Although, anyone that wants the source code needs to go to Archive:

https://web.archive.org/web/2024032.../archive/v0.0.2-master/suyu-v0.0.2-master.zip

https://web.archive.org/web/2024032.../archive/v0.0.2-master/suyu-v0.0.2-master.tar

https://web.archive.org/web/2024032...hive/v0.0.2-master/suyu-v0.0.2-master.tar.bz2

https://web.archive.org/web/2024032...chive/v0.0.2-master/suyu-v0.0.2-master.tar.gz


Edit:

Going by this:

https://gitlab.com/groups/suyu-emu/-/activity

It looks like Git made its move 9 hours ago, so just about 3 PM EDT on March 21st, without telling any of the owners, developers, or maintainers.

Also, everyone that is attached to the project is now blocked on GitLab:

https://gitlab.com/groups/suyu-emu/-/group_members

That is some really slimy behavior by Git.

Edit 2:

For the Mac people that have M type CPUs on MacOS Sonoma 14.4, if Suyu doesn't work, the suggestion is to install qt manually using

brew install qt

 

[Xzi]

If Nintendo own the code, they can sue anyone distribute it i think.

AFAIK Nintendo seized EVERYTHING belonging to the yuzu/citra team, which makes the code of the emulator itself Nintendo property.

Yuzu was fully open source software up until the very moment it was removed from all host sites. Nintendo cannot retroactively change its open source license, so it's completely legal and falls within the terms of that license to create new forks of Yuzu. Only the employees of what was Tropic Haze, LLC are prohibited from continuing development work on Yuzu or any of its forks.

 

[Viri]

Because there's no Nintendo code in it and nothing that violates copyright law. This is just GitLab being cowards and refusing to hold firm against a bogus DMCA. Nintendo should not have the power to bully hosting sites in this manner.

Time to host it on GBAtemp!

 

[ShadowOne333]

This will keep happening as long as they keep using "pop" code hosting.
There are so many DMCA-bully-free hosting options, that are themselves free to host too, that I really don't understand why people working in grey areas insist on using github/lab.

A single google search will give you tons:

• https://notabug.org/
• http://repo.or.cz/
• https://gitgud.io/
• https://about.0xacab.org/
• https://framagit.org

Just pick anyone not mainstream FFS.

Are there any non US based options?
Like one in Russia, China or a place where DMCA is just bs to the government?

 

[tech3475]

Yuzu was fully open source software up until the very moment it was removed from all host sites. Nintendo cannot retroactively change its open source license, so it's completely legal and falls within the terms of that license to create new forks of Yuzu. Only the employees of what was Tropic Haze, LLC are prohibited from continuing development work on Yuzu or any of its forks.

One problem, Nintendo can still sue them, doesn't matter whether they're right or wrong and in the US AFAIK you don't automatically get legal costs back.

It also doesn't help that Yuzu settled leaving everything ambiguous in terms of the actual legality. IIRC Nintendo's argument involved needing to modify a console to use the emulator, so even if someone makes an emulator which requires everything to be decrypted, I wouldn't be surprised if they still send a C&D/DMCA.

 

[The Catboy]

AFAIK Nintendo seized EVERYTHING belonging to the yuzu/citra team, which makes the code of the emulator itself Nintendo property.

When did they “seize everything?” It was settled out of court and they paid a settlement to Nintendo, Nintendo didn’t seize anything.

and Nintendo now OWN Yuzu's code, so anyone using it, it become illegal, they basically made using this emulator illegal.

If Nintendo own the code, they can sue anyone distribute it i think.

Please cite your source to this. I can’t find anything that says Nintendo owns the code for Yuzu

Edit: I honestly think people should stop with trying to work on Yuzu. People should focus on bringing features from Yuzu to ryujinx

 

[ZeroFX]

Why are people saying it is down?

Because the main repo is 404
https://gitlab.com/suyu-emu/suyu

 

[Localhorst86]

they had "latest" patches only available if you paid for patreon.

I genuinely don't see how this particular caveat has any relevance.

We know Nintendo doesn't like emulators in general and we know they have the opinion that emulating their games without their permission is illegal, full stop.

It seems likely that they dislike it when someone makes money emulating their consoles, it just doesn't make any sense that they would particularly object to the developers putting features behind a paywall.

"We didn't like that Yuzu was not making all features free to use" seems not like something Nintendo would say.

 

[HRudyPlayZ]

If it's actually Nintendo, then that's just the illegitimate DMCA claim #307546 by them, as usual with pretty much all Nintendo takedowns.

Yuzu wasn't illegal in any means, they just got bullied out because Nintendo had the money, that's what they actually sought after.

It wasn't partaking in DRM circumvention, as opposed to popular beliefs, even if it was, it easily falls under the DMCA exemptions.
The fact they had a Patreon means nothing legally, it obviously angered Nintendo a bit more, but that was a non-legal issue.
Based on the info we have, Yuzu didn't illegally share ROMs either, in fact TOTK didn't boot on early-access builds released a few days before the game, and required an external mod not linked with Yuzu to be playable.
The fact they had their own private ROM storage means nothing either, as it could very well be a shared Nintendo account for buying and dumping games, which isn't too unheard of and would actually be fully legal. And even then would mean nothing about the project itself and more about the maintainers.

 

[Searinox]

Unless it's possible to host on some obscure git site hosted whoknowswhere that doesn't respond to takedowns, it's time for a dark web git. Preferrably complemented by an Element/Matrix chat and maybe Monero donations.

 

[drasglaf]

I genuinely don't see how this particular caveat has any relevance.

We know Nintendo doesn't like emulators in general and we know they have the opinion that emulating their games without their permission is illegal, full stop.

It seems likely that they dislike it when someone makes money emulating their consoles, it just doesn't make any sense that they would particularly object to the developers putting features behind a paywall.

"We didn't like that Yuzu was not making all features free to use" seems not like something Nintendo would say.

Nintendo has taken down fan-made games that were completely free, so it's not about them just making money. I think they've gone after Yuzu because it's the most popular Switch emulator and they were getting money directly from it. "Support us if you like our work" isn't the same as "support us and you get to try the latest build before anyone else". In the latter case they are getting a direct benefit from the emulator, and that gave Nintendo legal footing to sue Yuzu devs.

 

[Dark_Ansem]

DMCA takedown by who? nintendo or pretenders like last time?