Nintendo is going after the development team of an emulator. A legal case was filed by Nintendo yesterday, alleging that the Nintendo Switch emulator, Yuzu, has caused damages to the company by allowing for its games to be played illegally before release. The suit also claims that the company behind the emulator, Tropic Haze LLC, makes a profit by facilitating piracy, noting that during the leak of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, Yuzu's Patreon saw a large increase in users. Nintendo's legal team makes a case that Tropic Haze profits from and popularizes video game piracy.

NEW: Nintendo is suing the creators of popular Switch emulator Yuzu, saying their tech illegally circumvents Nintendo's software encryption and facilitates piracy.
Seeks damages for alleged violations and a shutdown of the emulator. pic.twitter.com/SGZVI6Cs0x

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) February 27, 2024

In the legal document, Nintendo refers to an emulator as, "a piece of software that allows users to unlawfully play pirated video games". They also assert that the Yuzu team is aware of the emulator's use in the context of piracy, and do not try to hide that aspect. In addition, Nintendo's legal team states that extracting your own keys from a Nintendo Switch console--a requirement to run any Nintendo Switch emulator--is illegal.

Source

 

[Xzi]

Although Nintendo has a reputation of suing anyone who even steps a little out of line, the reality is that Nintendo plays their cards very carefully. They're hoping to set a precedent here, not plug every hole in the Switch modding scene until everyone goes home.
They don't have any incentive (or really, the time) to do something like that anyway.

Assuming they've changed very little from Switch to Switch2, they would have an incentive to go after Ryujinx next to prevent launch window emulation from becoming a reality.

 

[AdenTheThird]

Assuming they've changed very little from Switch to Switch2, they would have an incentive to go after Ryujinx next to prevent launch window emulation from becoming a reality.

That's a possibility, but honestly there are so many variables in this hypothetical that I don't think assumptions should be relied on at all.
There's still so much we don't know about the Switch 2, Nintendo's ultimate goal in this lawsuit, or how the suit will affect modding going forward.
Yes, if this suit succeeds, if it shuts down Yuzu, if the Switch 2 becomes easily emulatable, and if Ryujinx grows to occupy the void left by Yuzu, then it could happen. But there's a lot of ifs between now and then.

 

[Xzi]

That's a possibility, but honestly there are so many variables in this hypothetical that I don't think assumptions should be relied on at all.
There's still so much we don't know about the Switch 2, Nintendo's ultimate goal in this lawsuit, or how the suit will affect modding going forward.
Yes, if this suit succeeds, if it shuts down Yuzu, if the Switch 2 becomes easily emulatable, and if Ryujinx grows to occupy the void left by Yuzu, then it could happen. But there's a lot of ifs between now and then.

The other factor here is that Yuzu is open source, and Nintendo only has a case based on public posts made by the Yuzu devs. They're no doubt hoping this case will have a chilling effect on other developers, but if they fork Yuzu and rename it, I believe that'd be enough to provide them cover regardless of this lawsuit's result.

Japan does not seem to understand the concept/purpose of open source, or they simply don't want to understand it.

 

[ItsAshleyFTW]

all it took was bending a paperclip. Much in the same way that 3DS' security was bypassed with a fridge magnet.

Don't forget the Wii and the pair of tweezers!

Post automatically merged: Mar 1, 2024

I don't think I'd be able to get away with selling 99% complete bombs for educational purposes just because of the "potential" that someone manages to steal a detonator - especially if I also provide information on where to find them.

I never thought anyone in this forum would compare a piece of software to weapons of mass destruction, but here we are.

 

[Deleted member 466238]

Oh boy..

 

[Xzi]

Oh boy..

View attachment 423262

This...doesn't seem to be of any real significance? Just procedural/bureaucratic red tape acknowledging that a lawsuit has been filed against them and that they don't need to be served a letter of summons. Otherwise extra legal fees get tacked on.

 

[SylverReZ]

I really miss Iwata and Reggie being in control of Nintendo it was so much better and cooler.



RIP, Mr. Iwata.

Damn cancer f'in hate ya.

The death of Satoru Iwata was the reason why Nintendo's reputation fell through the cracks. Nintendo's actions are questionable I must add.

 

[Anonymous941]

This is the first time since Bleem...

 

[Kitocco]

You really are an N nerd are you?

There will absolutely be a case if the defendant shows up in the court room with a paper clip. Your average joe will not have the knowledge to use emulators, however, its very easy to use a dongle+paper clip. Heck, they just need to show up with a hard modded switch and the case would be closed instantly because even your granny can play a pirated copy.

Maybe we'll get lucky & the paperclip pins will hit the wrong rail pins in court, frying the system live in court - all because they were too cheap to get a jig

Anyhow, I wanted to say regarding yuzu's day-one blogposts; is the time allotted from release to the posts account for the existence of midnight releases? A thing both brick-and-mortar stores (since the PS2 at the latest) and Nintendo's own eShop have been doing since the 3DS with New Super Mario Bros. 2?

 

[Subtle Demise]

This...doesn't seem to be of any real significance? Just procedural/bureaucratic red tape acknowledging that a lawsuit has been filed against them and that they don't need to be served a letter of summons. Otherwise extra legal fees get tacked on.

The good news is that they got representation and didn't just fold under pressure and settle out of court. Edit: THIS DID NOT AGE WELL

 

[chrisrlink]

The good news is that they got representation and didn't just fold under pressure and settle out of court.

any lawyer who went through law school post 90's knows what nintendo is doing is bullying wouldn't be supprised if nintendo's lawyers got their law degree from a cracker jack box (like some former president's lawyers apparently)

 

[Bladexdsl]

Oh boy..

oh it's on like donkey kong

 

[Kioku]

The good news is that they got representation and didn't just fold under pressure and settle out of court.

I sincerely hope that this blows up in Nintys face... But that's a pipe dream.

 

[Ducolamia]

On one hand, I want Yuzu to win because I don't want another precedent set for companies to go after emulation (despite it being perfectly legal in the US). At the same time, I'm not getting my hopes up because most lawsuits end up in a settlement or one party being drained of all their resources (time and money) until they give in. You can be 100% in the "right" legally and still lose a lot. I'd understand if they devs wouldn't want to go through all that, but good on them for going through with legal proceedings.

That being said, Nintendo's case is extremely weak in my opinion:

• Yuzu does provide guides, BUT they do not provide any copyrighted materials directly to my understanding. You have to "dump" the firmware and keys yourself or find them elsewhere. The project is also open-source. You can see what's in the code. LOL
• To my understanding, the game in question wasn't even up and running from day one. Yuzu didn't even have a bug report out if I remember correctly.
• An Emulator can absolutely be used for piracy, but that in itself does not make emulation piracy. This is a key point that Nintendo is 100% aware they're conflating to confuse people ignorant of what emulation and emulators actually are. Different forms of emulation also exist, which Nintendo and other companies refuse to acknowledge because it doesn't align with their interests.
• Paid emulators have existed for years now. Major companies use emulation and sell their own versions of emulators. NSO is literally emulation hosted via an online server. That being said, Nintendo conflating supporting an Emulator (which is legal) to supporting piracy is rather weak. Sure, on the surface that makes sense. "You support this project that happens to be able to play our games for free, thus piracy!", but that falls flat considering that Yuzu, again, does not provide any copyrighted materials themselves. The Emulator itself can not do anything unless you, by some method, obtain those copyrighted materials. You could also make the argument then, "well it encourages people to search out these tools to pirate!" but that could be applied to anything. Should we get rid of Google search because anyone can type in, "download _ [rom-type]"? Should we get rid of Windows 11 because the built-in software has tools that allow people to compile code needed for piracy? What about DVD readers? Should we toss those because you can burn them for ISO files? I'm not saying you can't make a compelling argument for this, far from it. I'm just asking where the line is drawn? At a certain point, it becomes incredibly frivolous.

The fact is that many normal people are not the ones touching this type of stuff anyways. The propaganda surrounding Emulation is so strong that your average normie thinks Emulation = Piracy. Those people are coughing up the money to buy these games at full price en masse. Meanwhile, despite having numerous studies showing that many pirates do eventually buy the games they emulate (while being a smaller portion of the gaming market), they absolutely are the issue here (sarcasm) lol

 

[The Catboy]

youve clearly not read the user agreements to anything youve bought

I literally don't care what the user agreement says. The second Nintendo got my money, was the second Nintendo lost ownership of that product. The idea that people don't gain ownership over their own property is some seriously dystopian shit.

 

[realtimesave]

I still remember that one time Sony bought a Playstation emulator and then discontinued it lol

 

[Ducolamia]

I still remember that one time Sony bought a Playstation emulator and then discontinued it lol

You see, I don't think people would be AS annoyed with these cases if companies actively sought to preserve their games, but they don't. I agree that it's not financially "viable" to support older goods and services forever, but the lack of ANY resources to play the majority of classic titles consistently is a major problem. If you want to legally support an older game directly, you're stuck with a broken retro-gaming market with absurd prices on third party sites or imperfect emulation stuck to a specific console gen that you need to re-buy over and over again.

 

[ertaboy356b]

I still remember that one time Sony bought a Playstation emulator and then discontinued it lol

Except the PS Emulator you're talking about is in the PSP, the Vita, and on the PSN. They didn't discontinue it but used it internally instead to sell PS1 digital games.

 

[Hassal]

Assumption fallacy. Absolutely not true.
Nintendo's suits are extremely situational and case-by-case. Universal precedents in a field as volatile as gaming/tech development serve no purpose as they're quickly rendered irrelevant due to the ever-changing technology.
Yuzu has demonstrated, allegedly, a clear-cut direct benefit off of piracy. They're also the biggest fish in the emulation scene right now (therefore posing the biggest threat to Nintendo), and they screwed up with the blog posts by basically admitting to piracy.
Although Nintendo has a reputation of suing anyone who even steps a little out of line, the reality is that Nintendo plays their cards very carefully. They're hoping to set a precedent here, not plug every hole in the Switch modding scene until everyone goes home.
They don't have any incentive (or really, the time) to do something like that anyway.

Short memory eh?
Have they not DMCA'ed Lockpick not too long ago?

What makes you so sure they wouldn't come after AMS saying BS like "This is used to circumvent our copy protection allowing users to play unlawful copies". Rest assured their legal department have a complete written documentation for every piece of software out there that touches their systems. This company has grown to be a lunatic suffering the trauma they had when they were kids from the Universal Studios lawsuit.

 

[Xzi]

I literally don't care what the user agreement says. The second Nintendo got my money, was the second Nintendo lost ownership of that product. The idea that people don't gain ownership over their own property is some seriously dystopian shit.

If purchasing isn't owning, piracy isn't stealing. Not my quote, but poignant nonetheless. Continuing to take a hard-line stance against backups does not and will not work in Nintendo's favor, especially when they're also the only holdout against multi-platform releases. Piracy isn't actually losing them any revenue, but their own antiquated business strategies sure are.